20th Oct 2014 11:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish drugmaker Shire Monday said it had started an immediate search for a new chief financial officer, after James Bowling, who was interim CFO, decided to leave to become CFO Of Severn Trent.
Shire said Bowling will leave at the end of the first quarter of 2015. Water company Severn Trent confirmed that Bowling will be joining, after current CFO Mike McKeon gave notice that he has decided to retire with effect from spring 2015. McKeon will be staying in post to ensure an orderly handover, it added.
Spirit Pub Company said it is open to recommending a higher takeover proposal from rival Greene King that values the company at about GBP723 million.
Under the revised proposals, Spirit Pub shareholders would receive 0.1322 Greene King shares per Spirit share they own and a cash payment of 8 pence, including any 2014 final dividend, representing an indicative value of about 109.5 pence per share, based on the closing price of Greene King shares on Friday.
Spirit last month rejected a GBP661 million takeover approach from Greene King for undervaluing it and its prospects.
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Markets: Shares are trading lower in London, with equity indices in Europe also down, as investors remain nervy after last week's volatile trading that saw indices across the world plunge and then make a dramatic recovery of almost all the losses. The gold price is higher, reflecting investor nerves, as safe-haven assets remain popular. Oil prices are down again, and oil stocks are among the worst performing on the London equity indices. US stock futures are pointing to a flat or higher start of Wall Street, with the DJIA and Nasdaq Composite indicated up 0.1%, and the S&P 500 flat.
FTSE 100: down 1.0% at 6,248.22
FTSE 250: down 0.4% at 14,696.72
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.4% at 691.92
GBP-USD: up at 1.6125
EUR-USD: up at 1.2774
GOLD: up at USD1,242.57 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD85.76 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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The investigation into Tesco's GBP250 million profit overstatement has found evidence of a cover-up as the commercial team at the company struggled to meet targets in the final months of the tenure of former chief executive Philip Clarke, The Sunday Times reported. The company is expected to say when it posts half-year results on Thursday that the review found patterns of "inappropriate" behaviour by staff, but that it will not have to restate its results for previous years, the paper said.
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Prudential said it has been named the cornerstone investor in the GBP1 billion Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay Project, an infrastructure development designed to generate electricity by using the power of the sea. The project will generate over 495 gigawatt hours of electricity every year for 120 years, enough to provide nearly all of the domestic electricity for the Swansea Bay region. It will also help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets by saving more than 236,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. In a statement, Prudential said the power station will become the world's largest tidal energy provider when it opens in 2018.
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Close Brothers Group has sold its securities business in Germany to investment banking and capital management company Oddo & Cie for EUR46 million, with the proceeds to be reinvested into the FTSE 250 merchant bank's core businesses of lending, wealth management and securities trading in the UK. Close Brothers said it expects to record a one-off profit on disposal of Close Brothers Seydler Bank AG of about GBP10 million.
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BBA Aviation said it has bought the fixed base operator assets of Wiggins Airways Inc from Ameriflight of the US for USD16.2 million in cash, on a cash- and debt-free basis, a deal it expects to add to earnings in the first full year of ownership. BBA said its Signature Flight Support business did the deal, which it expects to complete by the end of 2014 subject to customary approvals. "The addition of this sole source location extends Signature's existing network in the New England area serving both the Boston market and the nearby resort locations. The (fixed base operator) has a 19 year residual lease term and consists of a passenger terminal and three hangars totaling 87,000 square feet as well as its own fuel farms," BBA said in a statement.
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Daisy Group said it has recommended the lower cash offer made by a consortium led by its chief executive, in a deal that values the company at around GBP494 million. Daisy on Friday said the bidding consortium, which comprises its Chief Executive Officer Matthew Riley, Toscafund Asset Management LLP and Penta Capital LLP, was considering lowering its bid for the company to 185 pence per share, from 190 pence per share. The preliminary offer of 190 pence per share was made by the consortium in July and the two parties have been in talks since.
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AIM Movers
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President Energy shares are up 75% after it made its first oil discovery at the Lapacho well in Paraguay, finding conventional light oil and condensate which it expects to be commercial following further planned tests and drilling. TXO is also doing well after investee company Oil Tech Royalties Inc has signed a deal in Kuwait to commercialise its technology in the country. TomCo Energy is another gainer after it got tentative approval from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining to start large mining operations to bring its Holliday Project into production. TomCo said a 30-day public consultation has begun, before the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining can grant final approval. AfriAg is also up after its AfriAg Marketing Pty Ltd division secured its first import order of more than 18 tonnes of frozen prawns from India to South Africa. The company said the order book for its agri-marketing arm is at USD350,000 on the back of recently-secured orders for 18 tonnes of South African-sourced Angel fish for China and another nine tonnes of Mozambiquan Langoustines to be airfreighted to the Chinese and Swiss markets. Daisy Group is up after it recommended the lower cash offer made by a consortium led by its chief executive, in a deal that values the company at around GBP494 million. Mwana Africa is up after gold production increased in the second quarter to the end of September, along with a rise in nickel production and progress on its wider nickel operations. ScotGold Resources is a big faller after it said it is expecting its costs to increase during the fourth quarter, as it continues to try and lower the capital expenditure needed to bring its Cononish gold and silver project in Scotland into production. ScotGold said it is reviewing a number of options to try and reduce costs, including how to mine and construct the project. It is also reviewing the processing rates of its proposed processing plant at the project. Acta SpA is down after its appeal against an arbitration award made to a minority shareholder of a group subsidiary company was rejected.
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Top Economics And General
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The average asking price of a house in the UK was up 2.6% on month in October, property tracking website Rightmove said on Monday, to GBP271,669. That follows the 0.9% increase in September. On a yearly basis, house prices rose 7.6% - slowing from the 7.9% jump in the previous month. By region, house prices jumped 10% in the south-east and 9.6% in London.
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Germany's producer prices decreased at a faster rate as expected in September, data from Destatis showed Monday. Producer prices fell 1% year-over-year in September following the 0.8% decrease in August. This was in line with the consensus estimate. Energy prices fell the most, by 3.8%. Prices of intermediate goods decreased by 0.3% in September.
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The Eurozone current account surplus declined in August as the surplus on trade in services decreased notably, data from the European Central Bank showed. The current account surplus fell to a seasonally adjusted EUR 18.9 billion in August from EUR 21.6 billion in July. The surplus on trade in goods rose to EUR 15.3 billion from EUR 13.5 billion, while the surplus on services declined to EUR 7.8 billion from EUR 13.3 billion in July.
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The US military dropped weapons for the first time to Kurdish fighters resisting attack by Islamic State militants in northern Syria, an official said late Sunday. Several US Air Force C-130 transport planes dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies - provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq - close to the besieged city of Kobane, which has been under attack by Islamic State fighters since mid September. The move was to contribute to the defence of the city, the US military central command said in Tampa, Florida.
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The Iraqi military said Sunday it had retaken several areas from the Islamic State militants in a northern enclave as part of a major counter-attack against the jihadists. Iraqi security forces secured a key route between the northern towns of Tikrit and Biji and killed "tens of terrorists," government-run al-Iraqiya TV reported, citing a military official. "The military operations, which began on Friday, have succeeded in their first phase in liberating some areas," said Khaled al-Khazraji, a senior army commander in the northern province of Salah al-Din. "The operations will continue to liberate other areas and cut the supply routes for the terrorist Daesh gangs," he told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
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A key protest site for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong was calm Monday, after a weekend which saw numerous clashes with police and over two dozen arrests. Tensions rose over the weekend in the Mong Kok commercial and residential district in Kowloon - across the bay from Hong Kong island - as police used pepper spray against protesters, and arrested about 26 people. Five police officers were reported to have been injured. In a television interview over the weekend, the island's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, accused "external forces" of being involved in the unrest, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported Monday.
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Belgium was to begin screening arriving passengers from Ebola-hit countries Monday, Prime Minister Charles Michel said, after workers at the country's main airport threatened labour action. Belgium and France are the only countries in Europe with direct flights to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the West African countries hit hardest by the epidemic of the deadly hemorrhagic fever. With EU members including Britain, the Netherlands and Germany calling for greater support for international efforts to halt the disease at the source in West Africa, the bloc's foreign ministers are slated to discuss Ebola at talks Monday in Luxembourg. EU leaders are expected to take up the issue at a summit Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he has reached a deal with Russia to ensure supplies of natural gas to his country this winter. The two sides agreed that Ukraine would pay USD385 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas between now and March 31, Poroshenko said in a nationally televised interview on Saturday night. That is a much lower figure than the USD485 that Russian energy giant Gazprom had so far been demanding.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)
No events scheduled
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Tuesday's Key UK Corporate Events
ASOS - Full Year Results
William Hill - Interim Management Statement
GKN - Interim Management Statement
Polymetal International - Q3 Production Results
Informa - Interim Management Statement
ARM Holdings - Interim Management Statement
Reckitt Benckiser - Interim Management Statement
Go-Ahead Group - Interim Management Statement
InterContinental Hotels Group - Interim Management Statement
Devro - Interim Management Statement
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)
03:00 China Gross Domestic Product
03:00 China Industrial Production
03:00 China NBS Press Conference
03:00 China Retail Sales
03:00 China Urban investment
05:30 Japan All Industry Activity Index
09:30 UK Public Sector Net Borrowing
13:55 US Redbook index
15:00 US Existing Home Sales
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