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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC is investigating claims of improper conduct related to its business in Iraq, less than a year after China accused Glaxo of engaging in a bribery scheme aimed at increasing drug sales there, the New York Times reports. The Wall Street Journal quoted a person familiar with the matter saying that Glaxo was violating US and UK antibribery laws by hiring government-paid physicians to promote its products in Iraq and paying for them to attend international conferences.
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Mike Ashley, the founder and deputy chairman of Sports Direct International PLC has bought an 11% stake in House of Fraser, injecting himself into the agreed takeover of the British high street retail chain by Chinese conglomerate Sanpower Group Co Ltd, The Telegraph wrote on Sunday. The 165-year old department store chain recently finalised a takeover deal with Sanpower, giving House of Fraser an enterprise valuation of GBP450 million. The Nanjing-based conglomerate led by founder Yuan Yafei holds an 89% stake. Ashley bought an 11% stake in House of Fraser from Scottish business man Sir Tom Hunter, according to The Telegraph.
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Kentz Corporation Ltd said it has been awarded a USD570 million services contract for the Ichthys Project Onshore LNG Facilities in Darwin, Australia. The major oil and gas engineering company said its Australian subsidiary for the electrical and instrumentation construction packages at the Darwin site was awarded the contract by JKC Australia LNG Pty Ltd, a joint venture between JGC Corp, KBR and Chiyoda Corp.
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Tullow Oil PLC said it has refinanced its revolving credit facility, increasing it by 50% to USD750.0 million. In a statement, Tullow said the refinanced facility has been extended to April 2017. The arrangement is a fully committed, secured and revolving credit facility and replaces the previous USD500.0 million facility which was due to expire in November 2014.
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BG Group PLC said it has moved the centre of its global liquefied natural gas and oil marketing business to Singapore from its head office in the UK. The major oil and gas company said it is moving to Singapore in order to take advantage of the development of Asian energy markets in the long term.
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Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd. and its French peer Lafarge SA announced their intention to combine through an all-share merger of equals to create LafargeHolcim, with nearly EUR32 billion in sales. The proposed combination would be structured as a public exchange offer initiated by Holcim for all outstanding shares of Lafarge on the basis of a 1-for-1 exchange ratio. The companies also would agree to have equal dividends on a per-share basis between announcement and completion. The offer would be subject to Holcim holding at least two-thirds of the share capital and voting rights of Lafarge.
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Punch Taverns PLC said it will ask noteholders for covenant waivers, as it seeks yet more time to get a deal with its creditors for a broad restructuring of its debt pile. In a statement, the pub operator said it will convene a noteholder meeting for April 19 so that the holders of its Punch A and Punch B securitisations can vote on whether to allow the covenants to be waived. It needs the waiver to ensure it doesn't default on the covenants while it continues talks about the debt restructuring.
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Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Ltd, the investment firm listed on the London Stock Exchange by former Barclays PLC Chief Executive Bob Diamond, has announced its second acquisition of an African bank in as many weeks, the Financial Times reported. The FT said Atlas Mara announced on Sunday an agreement to buy a controlling stake in the Development Bank of Rwanda for USD265 million. The newspaper said the firm will buy the 77% stake from the government of Rwanda, splitting the bank into a government-owned development bank and a commercial bank controlled by Atlas Mara, after a privisation later this year. Last Monday, Atlas Mara said it had agreed to acquire a majority stake in Botswana-based ABC Holdings Ltd and ADC African Development Corporation AG for up to USD265 million in cash and shares.
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MARKETS
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European stocks markets are lower, with the technology sector leading the sell-off, in a similar pattern to the adjustment seen in US markets late on Friday, while worries of a further encroachment into Ukraine by Russia also are hampering investor sentiment.
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FTSE 100: down 0.5% at 6,662.52
FTSE 250: down 0.6% at 16,336.74
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 851.56
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Currency majors remain fairly stable amid a dearth of top-tier macro data. Oil prices have eased following a weekend agreement between the Libyan government and rebels to open up previously restricted oil terminals "step-by-step", says Commerzbank.
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GBP-USD: down slightly at USD1.6575
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3717

GOLD: down at USD1,299.60 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD105.78 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Ukraine's Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the Kremlin was behind pro-Russian protesters who occupied key government buildings in the east at the weekend, adding that the tactic could be a preamble for a Russian military incursion. "Everybody understands that this is the realisation of an anti-Ukrainian plan...to destabilize the situation so that foreign troops cross the border and occupy territory," Yatsenyuk told parliament, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency. Russia's takeover of Crimea started with similar protests by ethnic Russians on the Black Sea peninsula, which last month voted for secession from Ukraine.
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Germany's industrial production grew at a slower pace in February, data from Destatis showed. Industrial production advanced 0.4% month-on-month, following a 0.7% rise in January. Economists had forecast production growth to ease to 0.3%.
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Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban late Sunday declared victory for himself and his Fidesz party, telling thousands of supporters: "All doubts, all worries are vanquished - we have won." With 90.2% of the votes counted, Orban's conservative Fidesz party had received 44.5% of the votes, the national election commission reported. Projections indicated this would give Fidesz 132 of the 199 seats in parliament - or a two-thirds majority, similar to the results four years ago.
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Voters in India's remote north-eastern states of Assam and Tripura were casting their ballots Monday in the first phase of the country's mammoth general elections. Polls were taking place in five of Assam's 14 constituencies and one of two constituencies in Tripura, in the first of nine phases of voting. About 815 million Indians are eligible to vote in the five-week elections to choose lawmakers to the 543-member Lok Sabha or lower house of parliament. The drawn-out exercise is scheduled to end May 12. Votes for all phases are to be counted on May 16, and results expected to be known the same day.
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East Asia will remain the world's fastest-growing region in 2014, with a collective expansion of 7.1%, the World Bank said. Myanmar's fast-reforming economy is expected to grow 7.8%, the fastest in the region, with China achieving 7.6% growth, down slightly from 7.7% in 2013, according to the bank's East Asia Pacific Economic Update.
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An Australian ship picked up the electronic pulse matching that of a plane's black-box flight recorder for over two hours, search officials looking for a missing Malaysian airliner said. The acoustic signals picked up by the Ocean Shield are in a different part of the Indian Ocean from those reportedly monitored by a Chinese ship last week.
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Defence authorities in Pyongyang hit back at the test firing of a ballistic missile by South Korea last month, calling it a "grave provocation," media reports said. South Korea on March 23 held several tests of a new rocket with a range of 500 kilometres. North Korea threatened to "wipe out the enemy's strongholds" if any missiles landed on its territory, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, citing Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA.
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Eight-month-old Prince George watched from a window as his parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were welcomed to New Zealand with a traditional Maori war dance at Government House in Wellington on Monday. The family will be in New Zealand from April 7 to April 16 and then in Australia until April 25.
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