4th Apr 2016 10:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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Mondi said Russian authorities have started an investigation into its Russian business, sending shares in the Anglo-South African paper and packaging company lower. Mondi said the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation said last week it had initiated an investigation into Mondi Syktyvkar for violating anti-monopoly laws in regards to pricing of offset paper. On Friday, the Federal Anti-monopoly Service said it had opened a case against Mondi's unit in the country. It said it had established the cost of offset paper for domestic customers had increased around 50%, which did not match the change in the cost of producing and selling the goods.
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Anglo American said it has agreed to sell its 70% stake in the Foxleigh metallurgical coal mine in Queensland, Australia. No financial details on the sale were disclosed, but Anglo said it has sold the stake to a consortium led by Taurus Fund Management. Foxleigh is an open-cut coal mine which produces high-quality pulverised coal injection coal, Anglo said. It is located in the Bowen Basin in Queensland and delivered 1.86 million tonnes of production attributable to Anglo in 2015.
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Centrica is in early talks over a tie-up with the oil and gas production arm of Engie, the French state-backed energy giant, the Sunday Times reported without saying where it got the information. The report said that Centrica is "understood" to have hired investment bank JP Morgan for advice. Engie and Centrica co-own Cygnus, one of the largest gas fields in the North Sea. "A combination with Engie’s oil and gas arm, perhaps under a new joint venture vehicle, would allow both companies to reduce costs by cutting overlap and extracting better terms from suppliers. It is unclear whether a deal will be struck," the report said.
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Polymetal International said it has reached a binding agreement with a subsidiary of multi-commodities miner and trading house Glencore to acquire Orion Minerals, the holding company for the Komarovskoye gold deposit in Kazakhstan. FTSE 250-listed Polymetal will pay USD100.0 million in cash to Kazzinc, a Glencore-owned business, to buy the site. Kazzinc also will receive a deferred consideration linked to future production from the deposit. Komarovskoye is located in north-western Kazakhstan, around 187 kilometres from Polymetal's Varvarinskoye mine. The site comprises and open pit mine and heap leach facility with grid power available on the site.
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Oil services company John Wood Group said it has won a two-year extension to its service contract with TAQA, the Abu Dhabi state-owned oil company, in the North Sea. Under the contract, which has three one-year extension options in place beyond the initial two-year term, John Wood's Wood Group PSN unit will continue to provide engineering, construction and maintenance services to five offshore assets for TAQA. These comprise the Cormorant Alpha, North Cormorant, Eider, Tern and Harding projects.
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The merger between Just Retirement Group and Partnership Assurance Group was completed, paving the way for the newly combined JRP Group to begin its first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange on Monday. The combined company, valued at GBP1.4 billion by market capitalisation and with GBP15 billion in assets under management, offers defined benefit pensions de-risking to corporate clients, individually underwritten retirement income products, care plans for people moving into residential care, and lifetime mortgages.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices started the week higher on a light day in the global economic calendar. The pound was up against the dollar after stable UK construction PMI data. Wall Street was pointed to a higher open.
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FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6,184.78
FTSE 250: up 0.2% at 16,869.67
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 712.37
GBP: up at USD1.4236 (USD1.4173)
EUR: flat at USD1.1362 (USD1.1365)
GOLD: up at USD1,216.00 per ounce (USD1,211.90)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD38.83 a barrel (USD38.59)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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British construction growth held steady in March, defying economists' expectations for an ease, survey data from Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply showed. The Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 54.2 in March, the same reading as February's 10-month low. Economists had expected the index to fall slightly to 54.1. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector. Moreover, the latest data indicated the joint-slowest rate of output growth since June 2013.
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The UK private sector growth slowed to a near halt in three months to March, the latest growth indicator from the Confederation of British Industry showed Sunday. A balance of 2% of firms reported a rise in output, the lowest since May 2013, from 8% in February. However, firms' expectations point to a recovery in growth for the next three months, at +19%, higher than the long-run average.
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Union leaders will meet to discuss the crisis gripping the steel industry as efforts continue to save thousands of jobs. The meeting comes amid reports that Marc and Nathaniel Meyohas, the brothers behind the Greybull investment firm, are putting the finishing touches to a buy-out of Tata's Scunthorpe steelworks. The Daily Telegraph reported that they are ready to pour GBP400 million into the struggling Lincolnshire plant, saving about 9,000 jobs. UK Business Secretary Sajid Javid has signalled ministers are working on plans to reduce energy costs and take on some of the pension liabilities in an effort to attract a buyer for Tata's loss-making UK assets.
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Britain's anti-doping agency UKAD faces a government investigation and also pledged Sunday to conduct its own review into wide-ranging doping allegations over a doctor and high-level sport. Culture, Media and Sport Secretary John Whittingdale wants to probe why UKAD did not take action against Mark Bonar after an athlete said he was given doping substances by the medic. "I have asked for there to be an urgent independent investigation into what action was taken when these allegations were first received," The Sunday Times quoted Whittingdale as saying. The Sunday Times and German broadcasters WDR, in a documentary to be aired later in the day, also said that Bonar has prescribed performance-enhancing drugs to some 150 elite athletes including Premier League footballers and Tour de France cyclists.
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The first migrants being returned to Turkey under a European migration deal have disembarked in the western Turkish port of Dikili. Each migrant, carrying one or two bags, was accompanied by Turkish officials to registration tents. Turkish health, security and immigration officials were present. The situation was calm. Earlier Turkish authorities and the EU's Frontex border force boarded the two boats, on which people wearing face masks could also be seen.
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A passenger flight headed to Faro, Portugal, took off from Brussels Airport on Sunday, the first passenger flight to depart from the airport after suicide bombings killed more than 30 people there and at a Brussels metro station last month. According to the airport's website, flights to Turin and Athens were also due to take off on Sunday, with a longer list of departing flights scheduled for Monday. Passenger air traffic has been at a standstill at the airport since March 22, when two men blew themselves up in the facility's departure hall and a third man set off an explosion at the Maelbeek metro station near the EU headquarters in Brussels.
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Greek authorities were bracing for a backlash on Sunday from migrants who will be forced to return to Turkey next week under a migration deal between the EU and Ankara. Under a deal struck between the EU and Turkey last month, migrants who arrived in Greece after March 20 who do not apply for asylum or fail to qualify will be returned to Turkey starting Monday. For every migrant sent back to Turkey, one Syrian refugee will be directly taken from Turkey and resettled in Europe. Migrants likely to be sent back to Turkey rallied in protest on the islands of Lesbos and Chios on Saturday, denouncing the returns as "deportations."
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The International Monetary Fund sees agreement on a "coherent" rescue programme for Greece as still far away, according to a letter from IMF chief Christine Lagarde published Sunday. "My view of the ongoing negotiations is that we are still a good distance away from having a coherent programme that I can present to our executive board," Lagarde wrote in her letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. She reiterated that the IMF could only support a programme "that is credible and based on realistic assumptions." Lagarde's letter came in reaction to a letter from Tsipras in which he demanded a clarification of the IMF position.
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A huge leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm reveals how top politicians, sports stars and criminals hide their money using offshore tax havens, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Sunday. The leaked data link at least 12 current and former heads of state and 128 other politicians to illicit financial transactions. Those implicated include Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Egyptian autocrat Hosny Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The leak comes from Mossack Fonseca, one of the world's biggest and most secretive offshore law firms. The firm said it had never faced charges for criminal wrongdoing in its efforts to help clients launder money, dodge tax and circumvent financial sanctions.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]; @ArvindBhunjun
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