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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Irish drug company Shire said it thinks AbbVie Inc should proceed with its recommended takeover offer for the company, and noted that Shire would be due a break fee of about USD1.64 billion if the deal is called off. US drug maker AbbVie said late Tuesday that it intends to reconsider the recommendation made to its shareholders to adopt the takeover agreement to acquire Shire amid proposed tax rule changes in the US. It had sent Shire a notice about its intention to withdraw or modify its recommendation. In its response Wednesday, Shire said its board will meet to "consider the current situation" and it will make a further announcement in due course.
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Mining giant Rio Tinto reported late Tuesday higher iron ore shipments and production in the third quarter, and backed its iron ore production forecast for the full year, while lifting guidance for copper output. While production of copper increased, bauxite aluminium and coal saw a decline from last year. For the third quarter, the company's global iron ore shipments rose 15% year-over-year to 78.0 million tonnes. Global iron ore production grew 12% to 76.8 million tonnes. Sequentially, iron ore shipments grew 3%, and production increased 5%.
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Precious metals miner Fresnillo raised its 2014 gold production target to take account of its recent acquisition of the whole of its former Penmont joint venture, although third quarter gold production was down on the year due to a stoppage at another mine. In a statement, the company said it now expects consolidated attributable gold production to be 590,000 ounces in 2014, reflecting the full consolidation of the Penmont assets and temporary disruptions it suffered at the Herradura mine up until March.
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Oil company BG Group poached Helge Lund from rival Statoil to be its new chief executive from next March, and separately said it had started production at a block in Brazil early. In a statement, BG Group said Lund, currently Statoil's CEO, will start as its own CEO On March 2, 2015. Separately, BG Group said it had started production on the Iracema area in block BM-S-11 in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil early.
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The Weir Group said it has entered into an agreement to buy Chinese-American crushing and separation equipment manufacturer Trio Engineering Products. The FTSE 100-listed group will pay USD220 million to buy the company, which it said will expand its portfolio for mining customers and will provide it with scale in growing aggregates markets. Weir will fund the deal via existing bank facilities and said the deal will be immediately earnings accretive, with post-tax returns from the deal expected to exceed the cost of capital for Weir group within its first year of ownership.
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Barclays's auction of its index business has hit a snag, Reuters reported late on Tuesday. According to the report, which cited two people familiar with the matter, would-be buyers realised that some crucial bond pricing data that does not belong to the British bank will not be part of the package. The data in question belongs to third parties, including Bloomberg LP and Interactive Data Corp, the sources told Reuters, adding that those entities won't allow the data to be sold as part of the deal.
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Balfour Beatty confirmed it has poached the chief executive of defence products company QinetiQ Group, Leo Quinn, to be its own CEO from January 1, 2015, a job that will involve turning the struggling company around after a string of profit warnings, a failed merger attempt from a rival, and the disputed sale of its US project management business. QinetiQ confirmed Quinn's departure at the end of this year, saying it has started looking for a replacement. Chief Financial Officer David Mellors will become acting CEO on January 1 until a replacement is found.
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CSR said it has reached an agreement to be acquired by Qualcomm Inc for 900 pence per share in cash, valuing the company at GBP1.6 billion. In a statement, CSR said the price represents a premium of approximately 56.5% on its closing price on August 27, and a 66.3% premium on the average closing price of CSR shares in the one month since August 27.
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Aldermore Group said it has decided against proceeding with its initial public offering in London, citing the "recent deterioration" of global equity markets. Earlier this month Aldermore had set the price range for the IPO at between 217 and 265 pence per share, with the mid-point implying a market capitalisation of about GBP800.0 million on admission to the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
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MARKETS
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UK shares have fallen heavily with the focus on individual stocks, as Shire lost a quarter of its share value after AbbVie appeared to have gotten cold feet on its acquisition for the company.
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FTSE 100: down 1.0% at 6,326.42
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 14,655.93
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.8% at 692.56
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Positive UK unemployment data helped sterling recover against the dollar, after low inflation figures knocked the pound below the USD1.60 mark Wednesday.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.5929
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2648

GOLD: down at USD1222.64 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD84.23 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The UK unemployment rate fell to the lowest since late 2008, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. The jobless rate fell to 6% during June to August, the lowest since late 2008 and down from 6.5% seen in March to May period. Economists had forecast a rate of 6.1%. During June to August, there were 1.97 million unemployed, 538,000 fewer than a year earlier. This was the largest annual fall in unemployment since record began in 1972. The claimant count rate fell to 2.8% in September as expected, from 2.9% in August.
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Germany's consumer price inflation held steady at 0.8% as initially estimated in September, final data from Destatis showed. This was the lowest rate since February 2010, when prices gained 0.5%. Month-on-month, consumer prices remained unchanged in September. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.8% in September from last year and remained flat on a monthly basis.
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Chinese consumer prices slowed slightly more than expected in September, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Consumer prices grew 1.6% year-over-year in September following the 2% rise in August. Economists had expected inflation to slow to 1.7%. This marked the second consecutive month of slowing.
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Police in Hong Kong cleared demonstrators from a tunnel near government headquarters early Wednesday, news reports said, as pro-democracy protests continued their third week. Security forces used pepper spray and arrested 45 people before dawn as they cleared Lun Wo Road, which had been blocked since the previous evening, the South China Morning Post reported. A video circulated online of a group of officers apparently leading a handcuffed protester around a corner and beating him. The authorities said there would be an investigation.
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Japan's industrial output was revised to show steeper decline in August, final figures from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. Industrial production fell 1.9% month-over-month in August, which was faster than the 1.5% drop estimated earlier. In July, production had decreased 0.4%. On a year-over-year basis, industrial output dropped 3.3% in September, exceeding the flash estimate for a 2.9% decrease. This follows the 0.7% fall in July.
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The global financial markets are dangerously stretched and may unwind with shock force as liquidity dries up, The Telegraph quoted the Bank of International Settlements as warning. The newspaper quotes Guy Debelle, head of the BIS’s market committee, saying in a speech in Sydney that investors have become far too complacent, wrongly believing that central banks can protect them, many staking bets that are bound to “blow up” as the first sign of stress.
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The Republic of Ireland is to shut its so-called “Double Irish” corporate tax loophole from the beginning of next year, bowing to intense pressure to close one of the most controversial measures in international tax planning, the Financial Times reports. The strategy, which allowed US technology and pharmaceutical groups to avoid paying tax on billions of dollars of income over two decades, helped to create Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy before the financial crisis. For years Dublin resisted intense pressure from its EU partners over what they regarded as unfair tax competition, the FT said.
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A second health care worker in Texas who provided treatment to Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola outside of Africa, has tested positive for the disease, state health officials said.The employee reported a fever on Tuesday and was immediately isolated, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in statement. Those who have had recent contact with the worker have been identified and will be monitored, it said.
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The US-led coalition against Islamic State militants said Tuesday it had carried out its most intense bombardment yet of jihadist positions around the besieged Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria. US and Saudi fighters and bombers carried out 21 strikes on Islamic State positions around the town between Monday and Tuesday, US Central Command said.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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