Balfour Beatty Share News (BBY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC moved to appease investors unhappy with the company's recent outlook downgrade, saying it will return cash to shareholders through a GBP1 billion share buyback once the planned sale of its energy gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens AG goes through. It said the cash return reflects its strong balance sheet and because it isn't planning any material acquisitions.
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The UK government awarded the West Coast Main Line rail franchise to existing operator Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Richard Branson's Virgin Group and transport operator Stagecoach Group PLC. In a statement, Stagecoach said the new franchise will start on June 22 and run until the end of March 2017. It said Virgin Rail had agreed to provide a multi-million-pound package of improvements on the route providing new services between Shrewsbury and Blackpool and London. Stagecoach said the joint venture will pay the Department for Transport GBP433 million to run the franchise over the initial period.
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Carillion PLC, Balfour Beatty PLC, Costain Group PLC and a joint venture including Morgan Sindall Group PLC won a GBP184 million contract to upgrade the M60 and M62 motorways around Manchestet, as Carillion also said it has now signed a GBP200 million support services contract with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
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Lloyds Banking Group PLC is set to value TSB Banking Group PLC, the new bank it must divest to meet European conditions of its state bailout in 2009, at GBP1.3 billion when it prices the offer, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal. The FT said that the order book was "well covered" at the midpoint of a 250p-270p per share price range. Lloyds is planning an initial sale of between 25% and 27.5% of TSB. Mark Carney's hint at an earlier interest rate rise than markets expected has served to buoy investor demand, the FT cited the people as saying. The paper added that Lloyds is now considering selling a bigger stake than first planned.
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Kier Group PLC said it has won a GBP140 million, four-year deal to do planned maintenance work on a portfolio of 33,000 properties in London and the East of England for Genesis Housing Association. In a statement, the company said the deal, which has the potential to be extended for a further six years, includes the provision of responsive repairs for over 10,000 homes. It will start getting ready to start work this month, and expects to be fully operational by October.
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Man Group PLC said it has agreed to acquire Numeric Holdings LLC, a Boston quantitative equity manager that had USD14.7 billion in funds under management at the end of May, for up to USD494.0 million, as it looks to diversify its flagship AHL fund and expand in North America. News of the acquisition comes three weeks after Man Group confirmed it was in talks to buy Numeric from majority owners TA Associates and other shareholders, as well as from management and employees. Man Group has been seeking to diversify its AHL fund, which has suffered from investor outflows and weak performance in recent years.
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Micro Focus International PLC upped its total dividend for the year to end-April, as it saw pretax profit decline slightly despite revenue growth, hampered by higher operating costs. The software company proposed a total dividend per share of 44.0 cents, up 10% from 40.0 cents in the previous year. The company reiterated that its core objective is to deliver long-term consist returns to shareholders of at least 15% to 20% per year. Micro Focus posted a pretax profit of USD147.8 million, down slightly from a restated USD151.5 million in the previous year, despite seeing revenue rise to USD433.1 million from EUR412.2 million, as profit was damped by higher administrative expenses.
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Infinis Energy PLC reported a lower profit for its last financial year due to refinancing costs and the costs of its initial public offering last November, although revenue rose 7.3% on the back of higher exports of wind power and average selling prices. The company, reported a net loss of GBP11.8 million for the year to end-March compared with the GBP8.9 million profit it made a year earlier. However, this was mainly due to a GBP59.2 million pretax charge for the listing costs and as it refinanced and consolidated ten of its wind projects last October. It said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding operation exceptional items, rose to GBP148.4 million, from GBP125.4 million, which beat the target it had set at its IPO.
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Online sales retailer MySale Group PLC said it was open to creating a joint venture in Australasia and Asia with its new investor Sports Direct International PLC. The news comes just a day after Sports Direct, the UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue, bought a 4.8% stake in MySale, and said it wants to work with the fledging online retailer on developing a Sports Direct offering in Australasia and Asia. Sports Direct Wednesday said it was "looking forward to developing its relationship with MySale, including the potential to co-operate on significant collaboration and joint venture opportunities in Australasia and Asia".
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MARKETS
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UK stocks indices are holding onto strong gains, having opened much higher after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday suggested that interest rate hikes are a long way off.
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FTSE 100: up 0.8% at 6832.25
FTSE 250: up 0.9% at 15756.79
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 785.39
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The pound fell back slightly against the dollar following a decline in UK retail sales for May, having earlier reached a fresh recent high of USD1.7025 on the back of the Fed remarks. Brent is also up having reached a fresh nine-month high of USD114.77 overnight.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.7017
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3632

GOLD: up at USD1281.66 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD114.50 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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British retail sales declined May largely due to a fall in food store sales, the Office for National Statistics showed. Retail sales volume, including auto fuel, fell 0.5% in May from April. This was the second fall in last five months and matched economists' expectations. In April, sales were up 1%. Sales, excluding auto fuel also fell 0.5%. The decline reversed April's 1.7% rise. Economists had forecast a 0.6% drop for May.
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The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday reduced the pace of monthly asset purchases by USD10 billion to USD35 billion, as expected. The central bank will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of USD15 billion per month, and will add to its holdings of longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of USD20 billion per month. Additional tapering is likely if the labor market continues to show improvement and inflation picks up, the Fed said in a statement accompanying its decision. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said a post-decision press conference that the Fed will look at a "range of indicators" on jobs before deciding to raise rates.
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The Federal Reserve also cut its forecast for US growth to a range of 2.1-2.3% for this year, slashed from a March projection of 2.8-3% after an economic contraction in the first quarter at an annualized pace of 1%. The central bank's projections remain stable for outlying years. The Fed sees growth of 3-3.2% in 2015, 2.5-3% in 2016 and 2.1-2.3% in the longer run.
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US President Barack Obama huddled Wednesday with congressional leaders over the growing crisis in Iraq as the Sunni-led insurgency moved on Iraq's largest oil refinery. US defence officials confirmed that Iraq had asked Washington to mount airstrikes against the jihadist movement, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
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Iraq has asked the US to mount airstrikes against militants, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hohyar Zebari was quoted as saying Wednesday as Sunni-led insurgents were pressing on with advances in the oil-rich country. "Iraq has formally asked for Washington's assistance under a security agreement to mount airstrikes against the terrorist groups," Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV quoted Zebari as saying on the sidelines of an Islamic meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
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Israeli war jets carried out several airstrikes early Thursday, targeting training facilities that belong to the Islamic Hamas movement in northern Gaza Strip and Gaza city, security officials said. Officials in Gaza said several explosions damaged northern and central Gaza Strip as well as eastern and western Gaza city. Israeli jets hovered over the coastal enclave before carrying out the strikes. Training camps and bases that belong to Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing al-Qassam Brigades were targeted, officials said. Ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scenes.
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England captain Steven Gerrard believes the key to beating Uruguay in Sao Paulo on Thursday will be the team's ability to defend against the "genius" of Luis Suarez. The Liverpool midfielder faces his club team-mate in the must win second game of Group D and both he and England manager Roy Hodgson praised the attacking ability of the Uruguayan striker who is expected to start tomorrow's game after missing the team's opening defeat to Costa Rica.
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