Barclays Share News (BARC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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In its first set of results since the board sacked Antony Jenkins as chief executive earlier this month, Barclays reported an increase in second-quarter net profit, and revealed plans to intensify the scaling down of its non-core assets. Net profit increased to GBP1.15 billion in the quarter ended June 30, compared with GBP161 million in the corresponding period the prior year. Adjusted pretax profit, a closely watched measure of the bank's performance, increased to GBP1.85 billion in the quarter, up from GBP1.66 billion year-on-year, ahead of the GBP1.75 billion forecast by analysts. Barclays' interim dividend remains at 2.0 pence per share. Barclays said it is keeping its dividend flat at 6.5p for this year but targeting a progressive dividend policy over time.
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Sky brightened its full-year dividend as it posted a rise in pretax profit, a year after it agreed to acquire Sky Italia and a majority stake in Sky Deutschland and change its name from British Sky Broadcasting. Sky posted a pretax profit of GBP1.52 billion for the year to end-June, up from GBP1.03 billion a year before, as revenue rose to GBP9.99 billion from GBP7.45 billion. The company proposed a final dividend of 20.5 pence, which takes its total dividend for the year to 32.8 pence, up from 32.0 pence a year before.
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British American Tobacco reported growth in profit in the first half of 2015, although revenue was hit by adverse exchange rate movements, but it said it remains confident it will deliver an improved performance in the second half. Thecompany reported a rise in pretax profit in the six months to June 30 to GBP3.5 billion from GBP2.6 billion, as revenue grew 2.4% at constant rates to GBP7 billion from GBP6.8 billion, but declined 5.9% to GBP6.4 billion at current rates. BAT will pay an interim dividend of 49.4 pence, up from 47.5p.
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St James's Place said it has agreed to acquire Bristol-based Rowan Dartington Holdings, a stockbroker and discretionary investment manager with more than GBP1 billion in funds under management. The wealth management and financial advice company said it the provision of a discretionary fund management service has been on the cards for some time, with the acquisition of Rowan Dartington giving it a platform from which to do just that. The acquisition was revealed as St James's Place said it had a net inflow of funds under management of GBP2.67 billion in the six months to the end of June, compared with GBP2.44 billion in the corresponding period the prior year. That helped funds under management to increase by 6.7% to GBP55.5 billion during the first six months of 2015. St James's Place increased its interim dividend by 20% to 10.72 pence per share.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it has priced its offering of shares in Citizens Financial Group, having announced it would sell a further stake in the US retail bank on Tuesday. RBS said it will sell 86 million shares in Citizens, or 16% of the total issued share capital of the company, for USD26 per share. RBS will get gross proceeds of USD2.2 billion from the sale and intends to use the proceeds for general business purposes.
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SSE said it has agreed to acquire a 20% stake in four gas fields offshore the Shetland Islands in the UK from Total E&P UK. The gas fields surround the exploration acreage approximately 125 kilometres north-west of the Shetland Islands, collectively known as the Greater Laggan Area. SSE also will have a 20% stake in the gas plant servicing those fields. SSE will pay a total of GBP565 million for the 20% interest and will invest a further GBP350 million between 2015 and 2018 to complete the entire development of those fields.
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Switzerland-based Zurich Insurance said that should it make any offer for RSA Insurance Group PLC, the offer would be made solely in cash. The announcement was made in relation to Swiss market regulations. Shares in RSA closed up 16% on Tuesday following Zurich confirmation that it is running the rule over the insurer.
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Capita said its pretax profit fell in the first half of 2015 despite a rise in revenue, as the group said it has won more contracts in the period and hiked its interim dividend. The FTSE 100-listed outsourcing company said its pretax profit in the half to the end of June was GBP146.1 million, down from GBP152.3 million a year earlier, despite revenue rising to GBP2.29 billion from GBP2.07 billion. It will pay an interim dividend of 10.5 pence, up from 9.6 pence a year earlier.
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Catering services and outsourcing company Compass Group said sales growth in the third quarter was slightly slower than for the rest of the year, but said it is having a strong year, though it will book some restructuring charges related to its offshore and remote business. The FTSE 100-listed group said organic revenue growth in the third quarter to the end of June was 5.1%, slightly slower than the 5.5% growth it registered in the first nine months of the year, with strong business wins in North America and good growth in Europe and Japan offset by a more subdued environment in its fast growing and emerging markets business and in its offshore and remote business, which primarily serves the oil and gas and mining industries.
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Taylor Wimpey said its pretax profit surged in the first half of 2015, driven by higher housing completions and better selling prices, prompting the company to say it will return a further GBP300 million in cash to shareholders. The FTSE 100-listed housebuilder said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was GBP237.2 million, up from GBP197.3 million a year earlier, as revenue for the group increased to GBP1.34 billion from GBP1.19 billion. It will pay an interim dividend of 0.49 pence per share, up from 0.24 pence last year.
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J Sainsbury said it has struck a deal to sell its pharmacy business to Germany's Celesio AG for GBP125 million. Sainsbury's said that, under the deal, Lloyds Pharmacy, which Celesio owns, will acquire its pharmacy business and will pay the supermarket annual rent payments to operate its in-store pharmacies. Lloyds Pharmacy will buy 281 pharmacies in total, including 277 in-store locations and four located in hospitals. They will all be rebranded under the Lloyds Pharmacy name. The deal is expected to complete by February 2016.
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Premier Farnell warned it now expects its adjusted operating profit for its first half to be down 10% compared to the previous year, hit by slowing sales, challenging market conditions and the continued weakness of the euro. As a result it now expects adjusted operating profit to be down around 6% compared to the previous year. The FTSE 250-listed technology products and services company said this guidance excludes a potential GBP2.0 million provision release related to the successful outcome of a potential legal action.
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Rightmove said its pretax profit for the first half of 2015 was higher on the back of a strong rise in revenue and good growth in its average revenue per advertiser in the period. The FTSE 250-listed company said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was GBP66.6 million, up from GBP58.8 million a year earlier, as its revenue rose to GBP93.1 million from GBP80.4 million, a 16% rise.
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Tate & Lyle said that trading in the first quarter of its financial year was in line with its expectations and said that guidance for the full year remains unchanged. The sugar and sweeteners company said that the Speciality Food Ingredients business made an encouraging start to the year and performed ahead of the comparative period, as SPLENDA Sucralose performed "solidly" in the quarter to June 30. Volume growth was slightly behind the comparative period, however, although this improved as it exited the quarter, the company said, and it expects volume to strengthen through the remainder of the year.
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Man Group reported stronger first-half profit after generating higher performance fees, and said it remains cautious about the remaining months of the year due to "very challenging" financial markets. It said it made a USD163 million pretax profit in the six months to the end of June, compared with USD106 million in the corresponding period the prior year, as performance fees doubled to USD200 million.
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Lancashire Holdings reported an 11% drop in second-quarter pretax profit, with the value of gross premiums written by the specialty insurer down and a key indicator of underwriting profit weakening. The company said its pretax profit decreased to USD37.1 million in the three months to the end of June, compared with USD41.5 million in the corresponding quarter the prior year, as gross written premiums fell by 44% to USD179.3 million. Net investment income was down by 8.0% to USD7.0 million.
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MARKETS
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London stock prices are higher with shares across the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 mostly driven by UK earnings updates, while the wider market awaits a US Federal Reserve decision on interest rates expected at 1900 BST.
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FTSE 100: up 0.6% at 6,591.12
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 17,457.02
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 750.18
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The pound rose to 6-day high against the dollar after UK mortgage approvals rose more than expected in June.
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GBP: up at USD1.5631
EUR: up at USD1.1066

GOLD: up at USD1096.82 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD53.11 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK mortgage approvals increased more than expected in June and secured lending climbed by the most since 2008, data from the Bank of England showed. The number of loan approvals for house purchase totalled 66,582 in June, up from 64,826 in May when the UK held its General Election. It was forecast to increase marginally to 66,000. IHS Global Insight Economist Howard Archer said housing market activity is now clearly on the up. Nevertheless, the upside for housing market activity and prices is expected to be constrained by more stretched house prices to earnings ratios, tighter checking of prospective mortgage borrowers by lenders, and the strong likelihood that interest rates will soon start rising gradually, he noted.
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Greece's government launched negotiations on a new multi-billion-euro bailout programme, insisting that it has taken all the measures agreed with creditors for reaching a deal. Representatives of Greece's creditors started talks at a technical level, visiting Greece's General Accounting Office and the Bank of Greece, a finance ministry official said Tuesday. The same official said "technical groups are expected to complete their work by Friday 31 July" adding that no further meetings are expected during the weekend, "unless otherwise specified".
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German consumer confidence is set to stabilize in August, survey data from market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index came in at 10.1 points, unchanged from July. The score came in line with expectations. The economic expectations index dropped 6.5 points to 18.4 in July. As a result, the economic indicator has lost just under 20 points within two months.
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A man has died after hundreds of migrants stormed the Channel tunnel in the French port of Calais, reports said. The Sudanese man, between 25 and 30 years old, was crushed under a truck as up to 1,500 migrants tried to force their way into the tunnel. The death was the ninth among migrants in Calais since June 1, the France Info website reported.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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