9th Apr 2014 10:22
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC said it has won a USD100 million contract from the US Department of Defense to provide continued support for the F405 engines that power the US Navy's T-45 training aircraft. In a statement, the company said the deal is a follow-on, one year contract. The company has been supporting the engines for the past 10 years, it said.
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UK bookmaker Ladbrokes PLC is set to acquire Australian online betting company Betstar, in a deal worth between AUD20 million and AUD25 million, according to The Telegraph late Tuesday. The deal would be its second acquisition in Australia, having bought the operator of Australian gambling website Bookmaker.com.au last September for an initial AUD22.5 million. The Melbourne-based firm Betstar was founded in 2007 by entrepreneur Alan Eskander and his father, Michael. The company is reported to have a yearly betting revenue of AUD300 million, The Telegraph wrote.
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Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC announced the appointment of Philip Yea as its new chairman, while saying revenues in the first quarter were up on the previous quarter but down when compared with a year earlier. The Gibraltar-based online gaming company said the quarter to March 31 had been hit by a number of factors, including its shift in focus from 'volume to value'. Bwin.party said that average daily net revenue was up 4% in the first quarter, versus the previous quarter, but was down 9% versus the prior year, hit by the shift in strategy, as well as internet-service-provider blocking in Greece, migration losses, and a challenging poker market in Europe.
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Russian steel maker Evraz PLC reported a wider net loss for 2013, as cost cutting failed to offset a drop in revenues caused by a drop in steel prices. The company, which has been selling assets in an effort to streamline its portfolio to focus on more profitable assets, was hit hard by the drop in steel prices last year. The company reported a net loss of USD522 million for the year, compared with a loss of USD398 million in 2012, as revenue fell to USD14.41 billion, from USD14.73 billion. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 10% to USD1.82 billion.
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Engineering and consulting firm WS Atkins PLC said it traded well through the fourth quarter with strong cash flow generation and expects to report results for the full year to end March to be in line with expectations. Epsom-based WS Atkins said its UK business performed well during the year. Revenue is expected to be broadly flat, despite the impact of selling its UK highways services businesses during the period. February 2013 the firm agreed to sell the business to Skanska UK in a deal worth GBP18 million.
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Centamin PLC saw total gold production from its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt declined in the first quarter of 2014 from the previous quarter, hit by a temporary reduction in underground average grade. However, the FTSE 250 miner maintained its production guidance for 2014 at 420,000 ounces of gold. Centamin reported total gold production for the quarter to end-March of 74,241 ounces, down 14% compared to the previous year and down 19% from the fourth quarter of 2013.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices are firmly higher with the FTSE 100 reversing all of Tuesday's losses and the FTSE 250 significantly higher after falling heavily on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100: up 0.8% at 6640.1
FTSE 250: up 0.9% at 16161.0
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.5% at 854.47
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The pound remains strong against the dollar having dipped slightly after data showed a narrowing of the UK trade deficit.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6740
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3798
GOLD: down at USD1309.14 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD107.72 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The UK visible trade deficit narrowed in February, while the surplus on services declined from the prior month, data from Office for National Statistics showed. The deficit on trade in goods fell to GBP 9.1 billion in February from GBP 9.5 billion in January. The shortfall was expected to decline to GBP 9.2 billion. Exports of goods slipped 1.6% from January to GBP 23.5 billion. Similarly, imports dropped 2.2% to GBP 32.6 billion.
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Shop prices in the UK tumbled 1.7% on year in March, the British Retail Consortium said - posting the sharpest decline in seven years. The headline figure was shy of forecasts for a contraction of 1.5% following the 1.4% fall in February. Among the individual components, clothing prices were a key drag - plummeting 12.8%. Electrical goods prices also fell 4.4%.
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British Culture Secretary Maria Miller resigned, following a row over expenses she had claimed for her second home. "It has become clear to me that the present situation has become a distraction from the vital work this government is doing to turn our country around," she wrote in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron. Miller had been told to repay GBP5,800 she had claimed to fund her second home, a figure reduced by a parliamentary committee from a previous recommendation of GBP45,000.
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Russia rejected accusations that it was massing troops for an invasion of Ukraine and accused the West of making "baseless" claims and waging an anti-Russian campaign. "The US and Ukraine have no reason for concern," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that international military inspections had shown no troop increases. The ministry defended Moscow's decision to boycott a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), called by Washington and Kiev. It said that the US and Ukraine were waging a campaign against Russia inside the OSCE. "We call upon the US and other members states to stop using the OSCE to incite tensions over Ukraine," the ministry said.
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Toyota Motor Corp is recalling about 6.39 million vehicles worldwide over a possible defect of its steering, spiral cable and other components. Toyota announced five recalls involving 27 models, including Carolla, Yaris and Tacoma, and also the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia, for 6.76 vehicles, the carmaker said in a statement. Since a few models are involved in more than one recall, the total number of vehicles affected by the five recalls is 6.39 million units.It is the second largest recall for Toyota after the carmaker recalled 7.43 million vehicles in October 2012.
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An Australian ship picked up again signals heard at the weekend that could come from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said. The Ocean Shield re-acquired the signal late Tuesday for five minutes and 32 seconds and again for about seven minutes, search leader Angus Houston said. Recapturing a pulse first detected on Saturday has raised hopes of finding the Boeing 777 that went missing a month ago one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
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Polls opened in Indonesia's parliamentary elections amid expectations of an opposition victory. Twelve national political parties and three local parties in Aceh province are contesting the elections, the fourth since Indonesia embraced democracy following the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998. Recent surveys suggested the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), led by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, would win the most votes - at around 25%.
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A Cairo appeals court rejected requests to change the judges trying ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi on conspiracy and jailbreak charges, paving the way for the two trials to resume, state television reported.
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A potential drought caused by rainfall at only half its normal level might further disrupt Syria's food supplies, the UN World Food Programme said Tuesday. While the World Food Programme successfully delivered food aid to a record 4 million Syrians in March, the agency warned in a report that the lack of rain since September will have a dramatic effect on Syria's already strained agriculture.
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