9th Oct 2014 11:24
LONDON (Alliance News) - Old Mutual Thursday said the initial public offering of its US institutional asset management business has been priced below the range it guided in September when the sale process was launched.
The financial services group said the 22 million shares in OM Asset Management Ltd it is offering have been priced at USD14.00 per share. Old Mutual had intended to sell the 18.3% stake at a range between USD15.00 and USD17.00.
The sale will results in a USD308 million realisation for Old Mutual, with the proceeds after offering costs to be used for general corporate purposes.
Royal Mail shares are higher after it set aside a provision of GBP18 million in its half-year accounts to cover a possible fine for an alleged breach of antitrust laws in France, a lower provision than analysts had expected after the company reached a settlement agreement with the French regulator.
In a statement, the British postal operator said the settlement agreement covers alleged breaches of antitrust laws by its GLS France subsidiary before the end of 2010. It doesn't expect the fine to be determined until the second half of its 2015/2016 financial year, as the French regulator's probe is ongoing, but has booked the provision now.
Parcel companies including La Poste, Deutsche Post's DHL, Federal Express, and TNT Express are also under investigation by the French authorities. TNT Express has made a provision of EUR50 million for a possible fine.
Mining stocks are amongst the best performers in the London market, after the minutes of the latest Federal reserve meeting late Wednesday struck a more dovish tone than expected, pressuring the dollar, effectively boosting the price of gold, and lifting equities.
The Bank of England has left its key interest rate unchanged at at a record low of 0.50%, as expected. It again maintained the asset purchase programme at GBP 375 billion.
---------
Markets: UK shares shot out of the blocks in response to a fairly doveish set of US Federal Reserve minutes, issued after the London close Wednesday, while the dollar has come under pressure against the pound and euro. The UK indices have since pared the gains, and the FTSE 100 is now down.
US stock futures are pointing to a mixed start on Wall Street, with the DJIA set to open down 0.2%, the S&P 500 flat and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%.
FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,477.02
FTSE 250: up 0.2% at 14,956.44
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 727.71
GBP-USD: up at 1.6213
EUR-USD: up at 1.2767
GOLD: up at USD1,229.66 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD90.92 a barrel
---------
Other Top UK Corporate News
----------
Aircraft and marine engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings has won a deal to fit Trent 1000 engines to nine Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft that airline Norwegian is leasing, a contract that comes with an order for USD440 million of aftercare servicing. Rolls-Royce said the latest order means Norwegian now has 17 Trent 1000-powered Dreamliners in operation. All the engine sales are already accounted for in the Rolls-Royce order book.
----------
Shares in British home shopping retailer N Brown Group dropped 10% after it reduced its full-year profit guidance, saying that trading in the second half so far has been hit by weaker September sales, following on from a drop in both revenue and profit for the first half of the year. The company's shares were the worst-performing stock on the FTSE 250 Thursday morning. It said that a lower first-half profit due to its planned later phasing of products and marketing activities, will not flow through into a better second half as previously expected.
----------
Shire said the US Food & Drug Administration has requested more pediatric data before a new drug application for its adult attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder treatment SHP 465 can be re-submitted, a request that will impact its plans for making the re-submission this year.In a statement, the specialty biopharmaceutical company which is in the process of being acquired by Abbvie Inc in a deal valuing it at GBP32 billion, said it had received further guidance from the FDA on the regulatory path for SHP465, an investigational oral stimulant medication being evaluated as a potential one daily treatment for ADHD in adults.
----------
Centamin said it has increased production from its Sukari gold mine in Egypt in the third quarter as its plant reached its capacity target following its expansion. Production from Sukari in the third quarter ended September 30, totalled 93,624 ounces, a 15% increase on the second-quarter and 10% higher than the same quarter in 2013. The average grade from underground and open pit mining increased over the third quarter and is expected to improve further during the fourth quarter, increasing gold production levels, the miner said. Centamin has maintained its full-year forecast of 420,000 ounces of gold, it said.
----------
Victrex reported strong growth in sales volumes for its last financial year, but kept its profit expectations unchanged. In a statement, the high-performance polymer company said growth momentum has remained positive in the first weeks of its current financial year, although it is still facing a significant hit from unfavourable currency exchange rates.
----------
Malaysia's Sime Darby said it intends to make a GBP1.07 billion cash takeover offer for New Britain Palm Oil, sending the palm oil producer's shares sharply higher as it said its independent directors intend to unanimously recommend the deal. In a statement, Sime Darby Berhad, which is pursuing the deal through its Malaysian palm oil producing subsidiary Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd, said it wants to acquire New Britain Palm Oil at 715 per share.
----------
AIM Movers
----------
Sable Mining Africa shares have risen strongly after it said it has finished drilling at its Nimba iron ore project in Guinea, and it is fully funded to complete its bankable feasibility study, which is due in the first half of 2015. It also said it isn't being affected by the Ebola outbreak because there's no current activity on site. Beacon Hill Resources is also doing well after it sub-let its five locomotives and 90 rail wagons on the Sena Line in Mozambique, a move that will support its efforts to improve the economics of its Minas Moatize coking coal project as it expands it. Zoltav Resources is another gainer after it said work had progressed ahead of schedule on bringing its Zhdanovskoye field into production through the Western Gas Plant, largely because it got a temporary permit from the Russian safety regulator. Enegi Oil is up after it said license partner Azinor Petroleum Ltd has isolated oil bearing sands at its Phoenix Discovery project in the UK central North Sea, increasing the potential resource at the site. Greka Drilling is also up after announcing that its first well of the drilling campaign on the Raniganj East Block in West Bengal, India, has been started.
----------
Top Economics And General
----------
UK manufacturing and exports growth slowed in the third quarter, sounding the first "alarm bell" for the economy, the British Chambers of Commerce warned. According to the Quarterly Economic Survey, whilst the UK economy is still growing, the growth slowed in the third quarter. The balance of opinion on manufacturing sales and domestic orders recorded steep falls in the third quarter. However, the balance of opinion on domestic service sector sales were largely unchanged.
----------
House prices in the UK were down in September, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said on Thursday with a seasonally adjusted index score of 30%. That was shy of forecasts for 36% following the downwardly revised reading of 39% in August (originally 40%). The biggest drops were seen in the London area, which had surged in recent months. "The growing sense of caution seems to have taken a particular toll on the London market," RICS said.
----------
UK house purchase lending declined in August, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported. First-time buyer lending declined by 28,900 or 4% in August from July. But it increased by 9% from August 2013. By value, there was GBP 4.4 billion of lending to first-time buyers, down 4% on July but 22% higher than August last year.
----------
Polls have opened in two by-elections that the eurosceptic UK Independence Party hope will deliver its first seat in the British parliament. Douglas Carswell, whose defection in August from the Conservatives triggered the vote in the southern coastal town of Clacton, is confident of retaining his seat as a UKIP politician. This would deliver a crucial blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservatives ahead of a general election in May.
----------
German exports saw their biggest fall in more than five years in August amid a sharp contraction in demand from the nation's major trading partners in the eurozone and a series of global crises. Exports from Europe's biggest economy plunged 5.8% from July, when they rose 4.8%, the Federal Statistics Office said. The August fall represented the sharpest drop since January 2009, when the global financial crisis hit Germany's industrial sector and paved the way for a recession in the country.
----------
Members of the US Federal Reserve are worried about global economic weakness and the impact of a stronger dollar, according to the minutes of the September 16-17 meeting released Wednesday. At that meeting, the Fed said it will end its bond-buying program after October and discussed plans for how to eventually raise interest rates. There was disagreement over the Fed's promise to keep interest rates at zero for a "considerable time," with several voting members expressing concerns that the phrase will give markets an inaccurate outlook for when the central bank will tighten. "The concern was raised that the reference to 'considerable time' in the current forward guidance could be misunderstood as a commitment rather than as data dependent," the minutes said. "It was emphasized that the current forward guidance for the federal funds rate was data dependent and did not indicate that the first increase in the target range for the federal funds rate would occur mechanically after some fixed calendar interval following the completion of the current asset purchase program," the statement added.
----------
The Bank of Japan has many policy easing measures available and it will not hesitate to adopt any actions if required to achieve the 2% inflation target, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said. Overcoming deflation is an important prerequisite for raising growth potential, Kuroda told the Economic Club of New York. The bank will make adjustments without hesitations if the risks appear and if necessary to achieve its 2% inflation target, the central banker said. The bank's commitment is result oriented, Kuroda added.
----------
Islamic State fighters have gained control of more than a third of the Kurdish town of Kobane on Syria's border with Turkey, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the jihadists made "slow advances" overnight in fierce clashes with the Kurdish People's Protection Units. Islamic State fighters took control of the Asayesh (Kurdish police) headquarters in north-east Kobane, which they had targeted with a huge truck bomb Wednesday, the observatory said.
----------
The US will screen passengers arriving at five airports from three West African countries for symptoms of the Ebola virus, officials said Wednesday as the first patient to be diagnosed with the illness outside Africa died at a US hospital. Passengers who come from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will have their temperatures taken and be checked for signs of illness, complete a health questionnaire and provide authorities with contact information, US officials said.
----------
Italy's government won a confidence vote in the Senate early on Thursday after a bitter parliamentary fight against labour reforms criticized by trade unions and opposition parties. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says deregulating the labour market - which includes such policies as making it easier to fire people - will encourage new hirings. His reform package also foresees an expansion of welfare schemes for the unemployed.
----------
EU parliamentarians blocked Wednesday a bid by former Slovenian prime minister Alenka Bratusek to hold a powerful energy post in the next European Commission - the only commissioner nominee not allowed to proceed. Bratusek had come under fire for facing a corruption probe back home, refusing to apologize for singing along to a song that had "long live communism" in its chorus and providing vague answers when quizzed by the European Parliament.
----------
French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday gave up on plans to boost EU funding for a jobless youths scheme amid opposition from paymasters Germany. As he arrived in Milan for a one-day EU summit focussed on jobs, Hollande said the EU's Youth Guarantee, which offers job or training opportunities to young people, should be financed to the tune of EUR20 billion right up to 2020. However, he was forced to backtrack after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others in Italy's industrial capital.
----------
Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 EU ECB President Draghi's Speech
18:00 US 30-Year Bond Auction
---------
Friday's Key UK Corporate Events
Vedanta Resources - Q2 Production Report
XP Power - Interim Management Statement
Jupiter Fund Management - Interim Management Statement
---------
Friday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)
All Day G20 Meeting
All Day IMF Meeting
00:50 Japan Bank lending
00:50 Japan BoJ Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes
06:00 Japan Consumer Confidence Index
07:45 France Industrial Output
09:00 Italy Industrial Output
09:30 UK Total Trade Balance
13:30 US Import Price Index
13:30 US Export Price Index
14:00 US Philadelphia Fed's Plosser speech
19:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
---------
Contact: +44 203 668 7440; [email protected]; @AllNewsTeam
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.