23rd Mar 2015 11:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group is planning a new sale of Citizens Financial Group Inc shares that could reduce the banking group's holding in the North American lender to 46.1% from its current stake of 70.3%. Citizens, which is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, said that RBS is planning to sell 115 million shares in the US retail bank it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, a move which would reduce its stake to 49.3%. If the underwriters of the sale take up their rights to buy the maximum of up to an additional 17.3 million shares, RBS will see its stake in Citizens shrink to 46.1%, equivalent to 252.5 million shares.
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Centamin reported a sharp drop in pretax profit for 2014 as the falling gold price offset a rise in production, but the Egypt-focused miner still declared a dividend for the year. Centamin said its pretax profit for the year was USD81.6 million, less than half the USD184 million it posted a year earlier. Revenue dropped to USD472.6 million from USD503.8 million. The company said its gold production increased in the year to 377,261 ounces, up from 356,943 ounces a year earlier. Its gold production guidance for 2015 is 420,000 ounces. Centamin proposed a final dividend of 1.99 US cents per share, giving it a total payout of 2.86 cents per share for the year. Centamin paid no dividend in 2013.
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FirstGroup said it had retained the First Great Western rail franchise in the UK until at least April 2019, and pledged to add new and updated trains, faster services, more direct trains to Devon and Cornwall and improvements to infrastructure. The transport operator said it will continue the franchise until April 1, 2019, and the deal could be extended for a further year at the UK government's discretion. It has already been running the franchise since 2006.
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Interserve said it and joint venture partner Kajima Corp, a Japanese construction company, have reached financial close on a project to design and build seven secondary schools across Hertfordshire and in Luton and Reading. The scheme, procured under the UK government's Priority Schools Building Programme, has a capital value in excess of GBP135 million, Interserve said.
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Halfords Group said that McDonald's Corp's current head of UK and Northwest European operations, Jill McDonald, will become the car parts and bicycle retailer's chief executive from May 11, after its current CEO previously resigned after being poached by Tesco PLC.
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SVG Capital, the private equity investor, said the economic recovery around the world is uneven and could result in volatility that may prompt investment opportunities. "While this volatility may impact the exit and financing markets, a period of dislocation could translate subsequently into an attractive investment environment," Chairman Andrew Sykes said in a statement. "We expect to make at least one, if not two further fund commitments and to make further co-investments this year." SVG said its net asset value, or book value, rose by 14% to 588 pence per share in the 13 months ended January 31, citing strong investment returns and realisations in its investment portfolio.
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High-performance polymers company Victrex said it has appointed Martin Court as an executive director, effective from April 1. Court joined the company in February 2013 and is the managing director of Invibio, the FTSE 250-listed company's medical division.
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Pennon Group said trading remains in line with expectations for its financial year to the end of March, with its South West Water business performing well and its Viridor waste management division making progress, leading the company to reiterate its dividend growth plans. Pennon said it is well placed to generate increasing operating cashflows over the 2015-2020 regulatory period and, as a result, intends to continue with its current dividend policy of year-on-year growth of 4% above UK retail prices index inflation over that period.
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US cable group Liberty Global wants to distribute ITV’s best programmes across Europe, but sees the British broadcaster as too “pricey” to acquire outright, its chief financial officer has suggested in an interview with the Financial Times. “ITV looks awfully pricey,” CFO Charlie Bracken told the newspaper. “We’re not going to invest billions of dollars in content — that’s not our game.” Bracken also told the FT that Sky “is in trouble” over the next five to 10 years due to its reliance on satellite technology.
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CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings has complained to the UK antitrust regulator about the potential impact of BT Group's acquisition of EE, the Financial Times reported. In response to a call for comments on the merger from the Competition and Markets Authority, CityFibre has claimed BT buying EE could be harmful to competition, citing its concerns over the future of its deal to supply fibre connections to EE.
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MARKETS
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London share prices are lower, with the FTSE 100 hovering just above the 7,000 point level that it exceeded on Friday. Standard Chartered leads FTSE 100 gainers, up 5.8%, on an analyst upgrade, as markets focus on the outcome of a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. US futures point to a lower open, with the DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 all called down 0.2%.
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FTSE 100: down 0.3% at 7,003.30
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 17,512.50
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 715.81
GBP-USD: down at USD1.4902
EUR-USD: up at USD1.0862
GOLD: down at USD1,180.93 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD54.77 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will on Monday present German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a list of reforms, hoping to unlock bailout out funds to prevent Greece from running out of cash next month, Greek government sources said. The leftist leader's first visit to Berlin as Greek prime minister comes at a time of concern that Greece could run out of cash and be forced to exit the eurozone. The reform list includes raising the retirement age to 67 and limiting retirement at 62 to those who worked at least 40 years, the sources said. The measures also include a crackdown on money laundering and tax evasion, as well as raising a tourism tax and value added tax for the hospitality industry.
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The conservative party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to win Sunday's first round of French regional elections, according to the first projections. The Union for a Popular Movement is taking 29 to 32% of the votes, according to the projections by the CSA polling agency. The far-right National Front followed with an expected 25% of the ballots, it said. President Francois Hollande's Socialists could expect a hammering with about 20% support, the institute said.
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Singapore began seven days of national mourning after the death of its first premier and dominant statesman, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee died in hospital early Monday aged 91, the government said. "The prime minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore," said a statement from the office of Premier Lee Hsien Loong, Lee's son. Lee was hospitalized in early February with severe pneumonia, and had been on mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit since then.
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Influential US Senator John McCain threatened to block a potential nuclear deal with Iran. "We will do everything in our power to make sure we do play a role," McCain, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN. McCain was one of 47 Republican senators who sent a letter to the Iranian leadership saying the Senate must approve any nuclear deal. "We will insist on approval," McCain said. "I don't think that they will reach a deal that we can live with."
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Israeli President Reuven Rivlin criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for having warned on election day that Israel's Arab citizens were being bused "in droves" to polling stations to strengthen Israel's left. Analysts said the statement helped turn out the vote for Netanyahu's nationalist Likud party and played a major role in its victory in Tuesday's parliamentary elections. But Rivlin, who opened consultations with the 10 factions elected to the Knesset, called the statement "hurtful."
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US Senator Ted Cruz will run for president in 2016. "I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!" the Republican wrote on Twitter. The Texas senator and champion of the Tea Party small government movement became the first major candidate to formally declare a run for the White House. Others Republicans expected to seek the nomination are former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, among others. Hillary Rodham Clinton is widely expected to run for the Democratic Party nomination.
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Related Shares:
InterserveSkyCentamin PLCVictrexStandard CharteredRBS.LHalfordsPennonBTFirstgroupITVCFHL.L