2nd Jul 2014 10:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
Mothercare has rejected two takeover offers from US-based maternity apparel retailer Destination Maternity Corp, the last worth about GBP266 million, because it felt they undervalued the company. Mothercare said that it is confident of growing the company independently, and said the proposals were of "insufficient value". Destination Maternity's latest proposal was for a combination of the two companies under a new UK holding company, which would be listed in the US. Under the offer, Mothercare shareholders would receive 300 pence for each Mothercare share, which would comprise 230 pence in cash and shares in the new holding company.
-----------
Sports Direct International shareholders have voted in favour of its 2015 Bonus Plan for executives, meaning that founder and Deputy Chairman Mike Ashley will potentially get his first remuneration since the company listed in 2007. Ashley holds 57.71% of Sports Direct shares, after selling a 4% interest in the company for GBP204 million in April. The company's shareholders have previously voted against paying Ashley any pay or bonus on three separate occasions, most recently in early April when they rejected a GBP72.5 million share bonus package. Sports Direct in early June proposed including Ashley in the company's overall executive bonus plan for 2015. However, just under 40% of shareholders still voted against the latest proposal at Wednesday's meeting.
----------
HSBC Holdings has agreed to pay USD10 million to the US to settle allegations of fraud over foreclosure fees. The claims were related to HSBC's failure to oversee the "reasonableness of foreclosure-related charges" it submitted to the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal National Mortgage Association for reimbursement, contrary to program requirements and HSBC's certifications that it had done so.
----------
Tullow Oil said that its revenue and gross profit for the first half of 2014 are expected to be in line with expectations, but it will book a USD415 million exploration write-off charge after poor drill results in Mauritania, Ethiopia and Norway. The FTSE 100 oil and gas exploration company said it expects to post roughly USD1.3 billion in revenue for the six months ended June 30, flat on the previous year, and USD650 million in gross profit, down 15% from USD764 million in the first half 2013.
----------
Housebuilder Persimmon is continuing to benefit from the recovery in the UK housing market, with revenues in the first half of 2014 up 33% and total forward sales revenue up 28% on the previous year. Persimmon said total revenues increased to GBP1.2 billion in the six months to June 30, from GBP900 million a year earlier, as it completed 6,408 new homes, up from 5,022 a year earlier, and the average selling price increased to GBP186,000, from GBP179,199.
----------
Kier Group shares rose after it said its underlying trading performance for the full year remains on track to meet expectations, and it has good visibility of earnings in 2015. The company said its construction division experienced a good second half with an encouraging level of opportunities. Operating margins remain stable at around 2% and the order book of secured or probable work stood at GBP2.6 billion, which represents around 90% of anticipated revenue for the year to June 2015.
----------
Carillion said its performance in the first half was in line with expectations, and it remains on track to resume revenue growth in the full year, despite an expected dip in first-half revenue due to the rescaling of its UK construction activities. It has also been selected as the preferred bider to expand Liverpool Football Club's Main Stand, an upgrade expected to take around 20 months to complete with construction costs worth in the region of GBP75 million.
----------
Shallow water offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling Ltd became the third company in recent weeks to blame challenging conditions for new listings for pulling its plans for an initial public offering in London. Some London IPOs are still getting off to a strong start, but others are being scaled back to ensure they get off the ground, or performing poorly in the weeks after the initial offering. Shelf Drilling's decision to pull its IPO due to challenging markets comes after student accommodation provider Liberty Living PLC last week cited the same cause for pulling its planned IPO. And in May, fashion retailer Fat Face Group Ltd pulled out of its UK stock market debut, also citing weak conditions in the UK equity market as the main reason for backing out.
----------
Premier Oil said that first gas under its Domestic Swap Agreement in Indonesia began to flow on Tuesday, allowing the company to provide gas into both Indonesia and Singapore from the Natuna Sea Block A, offshore Indonesia. The FTSE 250-listed oil and gas company said that under the swap deal it will supply up to an additional 40 billion British thermal units of gas per day to Singapore from the Natuna block. The additional supplies will replace Premier Oil's current flow of gas from Natuna to Singapore, freeing up the previous supply volumes to be re-directed into the Indonesian domestic gas market.
----------
Spirent Communications has agreed to acquire Radvision Ltd's technology business unit for USD25.0 million in cash, funded from existing resources. Israel-based Radvision, which is owned by the US's Avaya Inc, provides voice and video communications services over the internet and mobile networks, including high-speed 4G Long-Term Evolution networks.
----------
MARKETS
----------
UK blue-chip and mid-cap stocks are continuing to push higher, with mining stocks again leading the way.
----------
FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 6823.84
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 15903.89
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 784.96
----------
The pound currently trades near to its fresh recent high against the dollar, the highest level since October 2008 as data showed that UK construction activity climbed to a 4-month high in June.
----------
GBP-USD: up at USD1.7160
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3660
GOLD: up at USD1326.89 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD111.56 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
UK construction sector activity rose to a four-month high in June, helped by faster expansions in housing and commercial building activity, leading to record employment growth, results of a survey by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply and Markit Economics showed. The Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, climbed to 62.6 in June from May's seven-month low of 60. The headline index remained above the boom-or-bust line of 50 for the fourteenth month in a row and marked the fastest rate of increase since February. "The latest survey suggests that the UK construction sector has expanded by more than 1% over the second quarter of 2014, driven by improvements in the underlying health of the UK economy, favorable funding conditions and robust increases in new housing starts," Tim Moore, Senior Economist at Markit said.
----------
UK house prices expanded at the fastest pace since 2005 in June with sharp annual growth in London, even as measures taken by the government helped to bring down overall mortgage approvals. House price growth accelerated further to 11.8% in June, the strongest since January 2005, from 11.1% in May, mortgage lender Nationwide said Wednesday. The annual growth also exceeded the 11.2% rise forecast by economists. The average price of a UK house was GBP 188,903, with the average house prices in London topping the GBP 400,000 mark for the first time. House prices have now surpassed their 2007-peak. In order to cool the housing market, the Financial Policy Committee of Bank of England last week limited proportion of lending as well as recommended lenders to conduct stress test to ensure borrowers' repayment ability.
----------
Japanese firms expect inflation to stay below the central bank's 2% target in a year from now, survey data from the Bank of Japan showed. Firms forecast inflation of 1.5% in a year, unchanged from the projections made three months ago. The survey signals difficulties in achieving 2% inflation target. Companies expect inflation to rise to 1.6% in three years and 1.7% in five years. In March, they estimated 1.7% inflation for both three years and five years. According to official figures, core inflation, excluding the effect of the higher tax, slowed marginally to 1.4% in May from 1.5% in April.
----------
Germany's Foreign Minister was hoping to host Ukrainian, Russian and French diplomats Wednesday in Berlin to establish a new ceasefire between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had been invited to the afternoon meeting. Lavrov welcomed Steinmeier's initiative.
----------
Iraqi government troops clashed overnight with followers of prominent Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi in the holy southern province of Karbala, medical officials said, as the country is roiled by a Sunni-led insurgency. The clashes erupted after security forces barred al-Sarkhi's loyalists from praying in a holy shrine in Karbala, witnesses said. The violence, which continued until early Wednesday, resulted in an unspecified number of casualties on both sides, according to medics.
----------
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Tullow OilSpirentHSBC HoldingsMothercareCarillion PlcKierPMO.LPersimmonSports Direct