Barclays Share News (BARC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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GlaxoSmithKline PLC said it has signed a three-part inter-conditional transaction with Novartis AG which will see it sell off its Oncology portfolio, acquire Novartis' global Vaccines business, and create a dually-offered Consumer Healthcare business. The transaction is designed to drive sustainable sales growth, improve long-term earnings and deliver increasing returns to shareholders, it said. Glaxo shareholders will receive GBP4 billion capital return funded by net cash transaction proceeds and expected to be delivered via a B share scheme.
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US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. offered to acquire rival UK drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC for USD101 billion, according to media reports. The Sunday Times reported the takeover approach, citing senior investment bankers and industry sources. However, no talks are currently under way after AstraZeneca resisted the approach, the report said. Nonetheless, Pfizer could return with a better offer for AstraZeneca as it sits on a huge cash hoard in overseas subsidiaries that it could utilize for a major acquisition. Pfizer, the maker of erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, would be heavily taxed if it repatriates the USD70 billion to the US.
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Vedanta Resources PLC said the Supreme Court in India has partially lifted the ban on mining in the state of Goa, where its subsidiary Sesa Sterlite Ltd has operations. The FTSE 250 mining company said the court has imposed an interim restriction on the maximum annual excavation from the mining leases in Goa of 20 million tonnes, subject to determination of final capacity by an expert committee. The company said the order stated that all mining leases in the state, including those of Sesa Sterlite, expired in 2007, and no mining operations can be carried out until renewal or execution of mining lease deeds by the Goa state government takes place. As such, Vedanta said it is working towards securing the necessary permissions for commencement of operations at the earliest date possible.
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Anglo American PLC is preparing the way to exit part of its South African platinum business, after three months of labour strikes in the region, according to the Financial Times. The FTSE 100 miner is in talks with the South African government to try to eventually withdraw from its deep platinum mines at Rustenburg, said the FT.
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Real estate investment trust Shaftesbury PLC said it has signed a new GBP134.8 million 15-year loan with Canada Life Investments, cancelling its existing GBP100 million revolving credit facility with Bank of Scotland PLC, which was due to expire in two years. Following the cancellation of the Bank of Scotland facility, the company's revolving credit facility with Lloyds, which matures in November 2018, will be increased to GBP150 million from GBP125 million. In addition, a GBP30 million short-term credit facility entered into with Lloyds earlier this year has now been cancelled, it said.
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Barclays PLC is set to become the next big bank to wind down its commodities trading activities, according to a weekend report from the Financial Times. The FT reports that Barclays is set to move away from "exposure areas that do not generate returns above their cost of capital".
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Polymetal International PLC said revenue fell in its first quarter despite an increase in gold and silver production, as seasonal factors and lower copper production hit the company. The gold, silver and copper-mining exploration and production company, with operations in Russia and Kazakhstan, said its revenues fell 2% during the three months ended March 31 to USD336 million from USD341 million in the same period the previous year. The company said sales lagged behind improvements in production of gold equivalent by 46,000 ounces as a result of New Year holidays at its refineries, and it expects a reversal of this gap during the year ahead.
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MARKETS
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Pharmaceutical companies are leading UK stocks higher, with the sector buoyed by merger and acquisition activity and speculation.
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FTSE 100: up 1.0% at 6688.51
FTSE 250: up 1.1% at 16077.59
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.7% at 834.98
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The pound continues to trade at a near multi-year high against the dollar.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6825
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3805

GOLD: up at USD1290.82 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD109.39 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Eurozone construction output growth eased sharply in February, data from Eurostat showed. Construction output grew only 0.1% from January, when it was up by 1.6%. The decline was driven by a 0.4% fall in building construction, while civil engineering advanced 1.1%. On a yearly basis, construction output advanced 6.7% in February, but slower than the 8% increase seen in January.
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US Vice President Joe Biden promised economic and political support to Ukraine, and warned during a visit that the country needs to fight corruption. Biden said during meetings with lawmakers in parliament that Ukraine needed to address the "cancer of corruption", the Russian Itar-Tass news agency reported. Biden also said that the early presidential elections set for May 25 would be the most important in the country's history. A revolt by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine has raised doubts over the ability of the government to organize the vote.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday accused Ukrainian authorities of violating the recent accord reached in Geneva for ending the ongoing crisis in the former Soviet Republic. Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that the government in Kiev, which incidentally is not recognized by Moscow, has not acted to disarm illegal militants, especially the ones belonging to ultra-nationalist Right Sector. Lavrov's remarks came a day after at least three people were killed in a shooting incident at a checkpoint manned by pro-Russian separatists near Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. While the separatist blamed ultra right wing militants for the shooting, the government in Kiev said it was "provocation" staged by Russian special forces.
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US President Barack Obama is slated to depart Tuesday on an Asia trip, with a stopover on the US West Coast to visit a community hit hard by a deadly mud slide. Air Force One will land in Everett, Washington, for Obama to visit the buried village of Oso, hit by a March 22 mudslide with a death toll now at 39. From there, Obama will continue flying west to Japan, where he is to arrive Wednesday for the first stop on his seven-day journey to four countries, including South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
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The death toll in the sinking last week of a South Korean ferry has climbed to 104, the broadcaster KBS reported Tuesday. The bodies recovered so far have been found in the sea or were retrieved from the wreck of the Sewol. Almost 200 of the 476 people on board the ferry are listed as missing. Divers are to search through the ship's cabins where it is presumed that most of the bodies are trapped, the report said. The ferry capsized and sank on Wednesday off the south-west coast.
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China is planning to permit local governments to directly issue bonds to fund essential projects, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. The Standing Committee of National People's Congress is reviewing the draft revisions on the budget law. According to the draft law, local governments will be able to issue bonds within a quota set by the State Council.
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The People's Bank of China said it will lower the share of deposits that rural lenders need to set aside as cash with central bank. The bank said the reserve requirement ratio for rural commercial banks will be reduced by two percentage points, effective Friday. The RRR for rural cooperative banks was reduced by 0.5 percentage point. The PBoC said the action will not affect overall liquidity in the banking system as there is no change in RRR of urban banks. The bank said it will continue to maintain reasonable growth in credit and social financing.
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Japan's leading index fell less than estimated in February, but it remained at a six-month low, final survey data from the Cabinet Office showed. The leading index fell to 108.9 in February from 113.5 in the prior month. However, the score was above the preliminary estimate of 108.5. At the same time, the coincident index that measures current economic situation, fell more-than-estimated to 113 in February from 114.9 a month ago. The preliminary estimate for February was 113.4.
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The international watchdog charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons said that 80% of the country's stockpile has now been shipped out or destroyed. "This development will contribute to meeting the 30 June 2014 target set by the OPCW Executive Council for the completion of Syria's entire chemical weapon programme," a statement from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said. Syria destroyed its chemical weapons equipment on schedule within weeks of acceding to the UN Chemical Weapons convention last October, but has previously missed several deadlines for shipping its most lethal chemicals out of the country.
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