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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Friday.
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COMPANIES
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Royal Bank Of Scotland Group said its contingency plans to move its registered office to England are no longer needed, but Lloyds Banking Group refused to rule out a future relocation despite Scotland voting 'No' to independence. The news comes after First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond conceded defeat in the independence referendum. However, he said he expects the three largest political parties at Westminster to deliver on promises of more power for Scotland, which could have constitutional and political consequences for the rest of the UK. Standard Life, another FTSE 100 financial services group that made contingency plans in the build-up to the referendum, recognised that further constitutional change is "very likely" following the 'No' vote.
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UK oil and gas and renewable energy companies expressed pleasure in the result of the Scottish independence referendum, saying it is good for energy investment. BP said the North Sea is an important asset for the company and expects to be an active participant within the industry in Scotland for years to come. "BP will continue to work closely with both the UK and Scottish governments to realise our shared ambition of maximising economic recovery from the North Sea," a BP spokesman said in a statement. Royal Dutch Shell also welcomed the outcome of voting, stating it reduces "the operating uncertainty for businesses based in Scotland"
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Several big names in the retail and beverage industry have welcomed Scotland's decision to remain part of the UK, after the likes of drinks giant Diageo and home improvement retailer Kingfisher warned ahead of the vote that an independent Scotland would lead to higher prices. Scotch whisky maker Diageo welcomed the news Friday, with Chief Executive Ivan Menezes amongst the top executives that had said before the vote that they would prefer the union to remain intact for business reasons. Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire said the no vote leaves it confident in its investment plans in Scotland.
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GlaxoSmithKline said a Chinese court has ruled its GSK China Investment Co Ltd arm has broken Chinese law and will pay a GBP297 million fine. Glaxo said the Changsha Intermediate People's Court in Hunan Province ruled GSK China had, under Chinese law, offered money or property to non-government personnel in order to obtain improper commercial gains, and been found guilty of bribing non-government personnel. GSK China will pay a GBP297 million fine to the Chinese government. Glaxo said the associated costs and charges related to the fine will be included in its third-quarter update.
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Investec hailed the completion of the bulk of its restructuring and reshaping, though it cautioned that first-half results have been hurt by the depreciation of rand against sterling. In a statement, the Anglo-South African financial services group said it expects operating profit for the six months ending September 30 to be ahead of the corresponding period last year in sterling terms, and substantially ahead in rand. Investec said it expects its wealth and investment division's results to increase substantially and asset management to report results ahead of the prior year.
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Evraz announced it is considering an initial public offering of its North American subsidiary, Evraz North America. Evraz said it released the statement in response to market rumours. It has not filed a registration statement to the US Securities Exchange Commission, but may do in the foreseeable future, the company said. "Evraz remains committed to its North American operations and continuing to grow its business in North America," it said in a statement.
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Domino Printing Sciences said trading in the year to date has been ahead of the year before and said it is confident for its full-year prospects, though it once more cautioned on its prospects for 2015. Sales in the ten months to August 2014 were up 4% year-on-year, the company said, with underlying growth in its core business up 9%, though the core business took a 5% hit from foreign exchange movements.
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Just Eat said its Brazilian business RestauranteWeb has merged with Brazilian online restaurant delivery company iFood.com Agencia de Restaurantes Online. The new company will be called IF-JE Participações Ltda and will be a joint venture between Just Eat and iFood's existing shareholders.
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MARKETS
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UK indices trade higher, managing to hold on to their early relief rally gains from the Scottish vote.
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FTSE 100: up 0.7% at 6,863.64
FTSE 250: up 1.2% at 15,917/.65
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.4% at 761.19
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Sterling traders already had been betting on a "No" vote, sending the pound up to a two-week high against the dollar of USD1.6525, and a two-year high against the euro of EUR1.28. The pound has lost its previous gains since the final results have been reported and leaving it weaker against the greenback.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6395
EUR-USD: up at USD1.2880

GOLD: down at USD1222.59 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD97.70 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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In a historic referendum to decide whether Scotland should become independent from the UK, a majority of voters polled against it. In a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout Thursday, the campaign in favour of Scotland remaining in the UK, "Better Together", received 2,001,926 votes, or 55%. The campaign in favour of Scottish independence, called "Yes Scotland", had the support of 1,617,989, or 45% of voters. The winning total needed was 1,852,828 votes, and the margin of victory is three points higher than expected in the final opinion polls.
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Top EU and NATO officials breathed a sigh of relief at the outcome of Scotland's referendum. "I welcome the decision of the Scottish people to maintain the unity of the UK," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. "This outcome is good for the united, open and stronger Europe that the commission stands for."
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Germany's producer prices decreased at a stable rate as expected in August, data from Destatis showed. Producer prices fell 0.8% year-over-year in August, the same rate as in July. This was in line with the consensus estimate. On a month-on-month basis, producer prices declined at the stable rate of 0.1% in August, as expected by economists.
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Streets across Sierra Leone were empty as the country began a three-day, government-imposed curfew to gain control of an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 2,600 people in West Africa. Security personnel were deployed to all major roads to ensure Sierra Leone's roughly 6 million residents were complying with the lockdown, which confines people to their homes from September 19 to 21. "We need to restrict movement for us all to avoid body contact," government spokesman Abdulai Baratay told dpa.
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France agreed Thursday to conduct airstrikes alongside the US against the Islamic State in Iraq, as the US Congress approved plans to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels to go after the terrorist group. President Francois Hollande said France would join the US-led air campaign in Iraq, ruling out any involvement in Syria where the militant group controls large territories.
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Iran must speed up its cooperation with an investigation into alleged nuclear weapons projects, US and EU envoys said Thursday in Vienna, warning that the issue was key to negotiations on a wide-ranging nuclear deal. Diplomats were discussing the sluggishness of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) investigation at an IAEA board meeting just as a next round of talks began in New York.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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