18th Jul 2016 10:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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ARM Holdings confirmed it has reached an agreement to be acquired by Japan's SoftBank Group for GBP24.3 billion in cash. The FTSE 100 tech firm, which makes chips used in smartphones and other connected devices, said SoftBank will pay 1,700.00 pence per share in cash, a 43% premium to ARM's closing price on Friday of 1,188.73p and a 42% premium to the all-time high that ARM shares hit in March 2015. ARM's board said it unanimously recommends the offer, which will be the largest ever acquisition of a European technology company. The Financial Times, which first reported the deal, quoted Philip Hammond, the UK's newly-appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, saying the deal will turn "great British company" ARM "into a global phenomenon".
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British Land Co echoed the sentiments of other commercial property developers as it said it remains too early to assess the impact the vote to leave the European Union will have on the UK market, but said it does anticipate more caution amongst occupiers and investors. Shares in property companies have been sold off in the wake of the Brexit vote, amid concerns particularly about demand for retail and office space. "It is too early to properly assess the impact of the referendum result on the markets in which we operate, but we do expect some occupiers and investors to take a more cautious approach," said Chris Grigg, British Land's chief executive. "British Land has entered this period of post-referendum uncertainty in a robust position. We have a strong, resilient business with a clear strategy," Grigg added.
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Santander UK is considering a restructured deal to take on millions of customers from Royal Bank of Scotland Group through an asset transfer deal, Sky News reported. The UK arm of Spain's Banco Santander is understood to be looking at taking on the Williams & Glyn spin-out from RBS via an asset transfer, by which Santander would take on the GBP24.0 billion in customer deposits housed in the Williams & Glyn arm. Through doing the deal via an asset transfer, Santander would take on the deposits of around 2.0 million customers without RBS having to complete an IT programme to create a separate banking platform for the Williams & Glyn unit.
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Drugmaker AstraZeneca said its Tagrisso lung cancer treatment met its primary endpoint in phase 3 trials. AstraZeneca said the drug demonstrated superior progression-free survival rates in comparison to standard platinum-based doublet chemotherapy. The group added the objective response rate, disease control rate and duration of response also achieved clinically-meaningful improvement against standard chemotherapy.
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Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline said China's Food & Drug Administration has approved its Cervarix vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer. The treatment is the first vaccine against human papilloma virus to have been approved in China and a commercial launch of the drug is anticipated in early 2017. Glaxo said the drug was tested over the course of six years in China and has been registered for use in the country on girls and women between 9 and 25 years old.
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MARKETS
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London shares were starting the week in the green led by a 42% surge by ARM shares to match SoftBank's offer price. With a light day in the global economic events calendar, the pound and euro were both flat against the dollar. Wall Street was pointed to a higher open.
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FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 6,686.31
FTSE 250: up 1.0% at 16,890.21
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.4% at 726.97
GBP: flat at USD1.3230 (USD1.3232)
EUR: flat at USD1.1046 (USD1.067)
GOLD: down at USD1,327.50 per ounce (USD1,329.24)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD47.62 a barrel (USD47.59)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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EU foreign ministers warned Turkey to show restraint in its response to a failed military coup, expressing concern over retaliation against judicial officials and calls for a reintroduction of the death penalty. "Today we will say together with the ministers that this [coup] obviously doesn't mean that the rule of law and the system of checks and balances in the country does not count," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said before their meeting in Brussels. Punishment against the coup plotters must not include "measures that could lead to an authoritarian state," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault noted. "It's very important ... that we see restraint and moderation on all sides," added Britain's new foreign secretary, Boris Johnson. Thousands of people have been arrested since the coup attempt on Friday night by a group within the armed forces.
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UK Prime Minister Theresa May will tell members of Parliament not to gamble with the safety of British families ahead of a Commons vote on whether to renew the Trident nuclear deterrent. MPs are set to vote later Monday on renewal, which is estimated to cost around GBP40 billion, and May will tell them it would be "grossly irresponsible" not to back Trident. She will accuse anti-nuclear Jeremy Corbyn of "misplaced idealism" as his Labour Party looks set to split on the issue, with the shadow cabinet calling for MPs to abstain but senior figures such as deputy leader Tom Watson and leadership candidate Owen Smith backing renewal. Despite the opposition of the Scottish National Party and reportedly less than half of Labour MPs, the government will expect to win the vote and proceed with renewing the submarine deterrent.
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The UK shadow chancellor is expected to announce Labour plans to create a "bank of the North" and other national and regional lenders in an effort to "unlock" GBP500 billion of investment for small businesses. The move is aimed at "left behind" communities which voted to leave the European Union and who feel they have been forgotten by successive governments, according to Labour.
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The average asking price of a house in the UK was down 0.9% i July on the month before, property tracking website Rightmove said - coming in at GBP307,824. That followed the 0.8% increase in June. On a yearly basis, prices advanced 4.5% - slowing from 5.5% in the previous month.
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British retailers logged the steepest decline in footfall since early 2014, data published by the British Retail Consortium and Springboard showed. Footfall dropped 2.8% in June from from the year before, compared to a 0.3% increase in May. This was the sharpest fall since February 2014.
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House prices in majority of the Chinese cities increased in June, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. On a monthly basis, home prices climbed 55 cities out of 70 surveyed by the government. It dropped in 10 cities and remained flat in 5 cities.
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The Asian Development Bank has trimmed growth projection for the region's developing economies in 2016, amid disappointing growth in the US and short-term impact from the Brexit vote. Gross domestic product in Asia and the Pacific is now projected to expand 5.6% for the year, down from an initial forecast of 5.7% in March, the Manila-based bank said. For 2017, the growth projection is unchanged at 5.7%, it said.
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Three police officers were killed and three wounded in a shootout Sunday in the Louisiana capital of Baton Rouge with a gunman who died at the scene, authorities said. Police responding about 8:40 am (1240 GMT) to a report of a man carrying a rifle came under heavy fire in a gun battle that lasted several minutes, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Mike Edmonson said.
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A man and a woman were arrested Sunday in connection with last week's terrorist attack in Nice in which 84 people were killed, French news agency AFP reported citing sources from the French Justice Ministry. The two arrests come in addition to the four men and the attacker's wife, all of whom remain in custody. The attacker was identified as 31-year-old Tunisian national Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. Bouhlel on Thursday was killed by police after driving a delivery truck for 2 kilometres through crowds of people along Nice's main promenade as a fireworks display to celebrate Bastille Day was coming to an end.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]; @ArvindBhunjun
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