6th Apr 2016 10:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
Glencore said it has entered a deal to offload a substantial stake in its agricultural business to a Canadian pension fund, the latest step in the group's push to divest assets as it looks to reduce its debt pile. Glencore said it had agreed to sell a 40% stake in its Agricultural Products business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for USD2.5 billion, a deal which had been flagged by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The sale of the stake in the business values the agricultural arm, which handles wheat, corn, biofuels, cotton and sugar, at USD6.25 billion in total. Barclays, Citigroup and Credit Suisse advised Glencore on the sale.
----------
easyJet said while the number of passengers carried rose in March year-on-year, its load factor declined following cancellations due to strikes in France. EasyJet said the number of passengers carried grew by 4.3% in March to 5.7 million from 5.5 million in the same month a year before. Load factor, however, declined by 1.3 percentage points to 91.3% from 92.6%. The low-cost carrier said it had 611 flight cancellations in March, with the majority due to air traffic control strikes in France.
----------
Tullow Oil said it has received successful results from drilling the Wisting exploratory appraisal well in offshore Norway. Tullow said the well encountered an oil column of 22 metres in a 1,402 metres horizontal section with 1,250 metres of net light oil pay. The main reservoir in the well was thicker than originally anticipated, Tullow said. Tullow expects the results from the well to provide an increase to in-place volumes in the Central South and Central West segments of the Wisting project, improving overall certainty over reserves at the site.
----------
Auto Trader Group said a group of current and former directors and managers of the company have agreed to sell 1.2 million shares in the company, or a 1.6% stake, at a price of 370 pence. Shares in Auto Trader closed at 390.71p Tuesday. The sale follows the expiry of the lock-up undertakings given by the individuals at the time of the company's initial public offering, and following the sale the current managers and directors will continue to have an interest in 39.8 million shares in the company, or a 4.0% stake.
----------
UK Mail Group said it expects revenue to decline slightly in its financial year that ended March 31, but with pretax profit set to be in line with its expectations. UK Mail said its anticipates revenue for the financial year will fall by around 1.0%, hit by a continued mix effect in its Mail business which will result in revenue for that arm falling 3.0%, despite volumes rising 5.0%.
----------
MARKETS
----------
UK indices were in the green with pharmaceutical stocks leading the gainers. Oil was higher following comments from an OPEC official suggesting the possibility of an output freeze deal soon. Wall Street was pointed to a higher open.
----------
FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6,121.58
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 16,795.11
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 712.63
GBP: flat at USD1.4112 (USD1.4133)
EUR: flat at USD1.1354 (USD1.1370)
GOLD: down at USD1,225.22 per ounce (USD1,228.82)
OIL (Brent): up at USD38.67 a barrel (USD37.66)
(changes since previous London equities close)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
Prime Minister David Cameron has been forced to defend his family's tax affairs, as the Panama Papers data leak claimed its first political casualty. Facing calls to explain his family's finances, the Prime Minister declared he has "no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds". But Cameron declined to say if his family had reaped the rewards of an offshore arrangement in the past or were likely to in the future. He came under scrutiny after his late father Ian's tax affairs were highlighted in the document disclosure. Meanwhile, Iceland's prime minister quit on Tuesday over reported offshore financial dealings by him and his wife. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson had faced growing protests since the major data leak.
----------
The UK Business Secretary has arrived in Mumbai to hold talks with steel giant Tata as efforts continue to save thousands of jobs. Sajid Javid will meet Cyrus Mistry, chairman of the Indian conglomerate, which is selling its loss-making UK business. Javid was involved in a series of meetings on Tuesday with other ministers, industry officials and union leaders. The head of a group which could rescue steel plants and save thousands of jobs said he is aiming to avoid any redundancies if a deal is agreed. Sanjeev Gupta, the head of the Liberty Group, held talks with the government and has raised hopes that jobs could be saved, especially at the huge plant in Port Talbot, South Wales.
----------
The two US presidential candidates who emerged on top Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary claimed their campaigns are unifying their respective parties and gathering steam. Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Bernie Sanders were the projected winners. Each won with wide margins, and each said the wins showed their campaigns have the momentum needed to steal the nomination from their party's current front-runners. The two US senators had been favoured to finish on top ahead of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in the north-central US state.
----------
The EU's executive is due Wednesday to lay out options which it says will ensure a fairer distribution of refugees across the bloc, after its asylum system broke down last year amid a migration surge into Europe. Under the EU's so-called Dublin rules, asylum seekers must register their claim in the first member state they set foot in, and that country decides whether to accept or reject the request. For most of the more than 1 million people reaching the bloc last year, this would have been Greece. But the country was overwhelmed by the arrivals, letting many of them continue their journey unchecked towards wealthy northern European states such as Germany and Sweden. The European Commission is expected to outline two options to reform the Dublin system, according to a draft communication
----------
China's private sector activity expanded at the fastest pace in eleven months in March, driven by slightly stronger growth of services activity and a renewed expansion of manufacturing output, survey data published by Markit showed. The Caixin composite output index climbed to 51.3 in March from 49.4 in the previous month. Any score above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 suggests contraction in the sector. The General Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.2 in March from 51.2 in February. Manufacturing output returned to growth after an 11-month sequence of stagnant or reduced production.
----------
By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]; @ArvindBhunjun
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
----------
Related Shares:
Glencore