Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
BP said it has agreed to sell its petrochemicals business to privately owned UK chemicals company Ineos for USD5 billion as part of a plan to "reinvent BP". Under the agreement, Ineos will pay BP a deposit of USD400 million and will pay a further USD3.6 billion on completion. An additional USD1 billion will be deferred and paid in three separate instalments of USD100 million in March, April and May 2021 with the remaining USD700 million payable by the end of June 2021. The sale, which is slated to complete by the end of 2020, is expected to strengthen BP's balance sheet and delivers its USD15 billion divestment target a year early than originally scheduled, it noted. Proceeds from the sale will be used by BP for general corporate purposes.
----------
Rio Tinto said it has reached an agreement with the government of Mongolia on a new source of domestic power for its Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine.The Anglo-Australian miner said the agreement paves the way for the government to fund and construct a state-owned power plant at Tavan Tolgoi. The miner also said the two sides would work towards finalising a power purchase agreement by the end of March 2021. Construction of the coal-fired power plant will begin no later than July 2021, with commissioning within four years thereafter. The government of Mongolia has a 34% stake in the mine, which Rio Tinto has managed since 2010.
----------
GlaxoSmithKline said its drug Duvroq had been given its first approval in Japan to treat anaemia caused by chronic kidney disease. Glaxo said the Japan Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare approved Duvroq, the brand name for daprodustat, to treat anaemia from chronic kidney disease. Japanese approval was mostly based on a phase 3 programme, which was conducted in Japan and evaluated Duvroq in patients across the chronic kidney disease spectrum, including those not on dialysis. The drug has not been approved anywhere outside of Japan but Glaxo said its ongoing phase 3 global programme, including the Ascend-D and Ascend-ND studies, will support further submissions worldwide.
----------
Energean said it has entered into amended terms for its Edison E&P acquisition and will pay out USD466 million less than originally planned. Edison is part of France's EDF Group. The Mediterranean-focused gas producer said it has inked further amended terms for the deal, originally announced in July 2019, that now exclude Edison E&P's Norwegian subsidiary. This, along with the previous exclusion of Edison E&P's Algerian asset, means that the gross price tag has fallen to USD284 million from USD750 million. The USD466 million reduction in sale price includes a USD155 million from the Algerian exclusion and USD200 million from the Norwegian exclusion. The remaining USD111 million is due to "additional reductions relating to the macro environment".
----------
MARKETS
----------
London shares were mixed amid persisting coronavirus concerns after the global death toll reached 500,000. BP was up 2.2%, the second best performer in the FTSE 100 after Berkeley Group. Energean was the best performer in the FTSE 250, up 12%. US stock market futures were pointed to a mixed open.
----------
FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,168.40
FTSE 250: down 0.3% at 17,070.41
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 883.50
GBP: flat at USD1.2329 (USD1.2326)
EUR: up at USD1.1263 (USD1.1210)
GOLD: up at USD1,769.30 per ounce (USD1,760.70)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD40.75 a barrel (USD40.70)
(changes since previous London equities close)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
More than half a million people have died in the coronavirus pandemic globally, an AFP tally showed Sunday, as bars in Los Angeles were ordered to close again due to surging cases in the US. The worldwide number of recorded infections is now just over 10 million from the virus that first emerged in China late last year, with fears growing of a full-blown second wave. The rate of contagion has doubled since May 21. One million new infections were recorded in just six days, according to the AFP count based on official sources, even as some countries loosen punishing lockdowns that have devastated their economies and thrown millions out of work. The US, the hardest-hit country, has more than 2.5 million cases alone, and efforts to reopen the world's biggest economy have been set back by a jump in new infections in big states such as Florida and California.
----------
Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts French President Emmanuel Macron for talks, days before Germany takes on the rotating presidency of the EU with the economy in the throes of the most severe storm since World War II. Berlin's chairing of the 26-member bloc will be its last with Merkel in charge, and could be the one that defines the legacy of the leader dubbed the "eternal chancellor". With the future of the bloc's relationship with Britain to be determined, a crucial shift to a lower carbon world in the balance and crises from Libya to Syria all jostling for attention, there is no shortage of burning issues to tackle. But the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic devastation it has wrought have become a bull in the painstakingly arranged EU china shop. "This crisis that we're currently experiencing is different compared to any other we have experienced since the founding of Europe," Merkel, in power since 2005, told parliament in an address laying out priorities for the EU presidency.
----------
The EU and Britain launch an intense five weeks of negotiations on a deal to define their post-Brexit relations on Monday, with London keen to wrap things up quickly. The new round of talks in Brussels will be the first to be held face-to-face since the coronavirus shutdown combined with the two sides' entrenched positions to stall progress. The meetings will alternate weekly between Brussels and London throughout July and at the end of August, as the teams learned on Sunday, the British negotiator David Frost will be promoted to become Prime Minister Boris Johnson's national security adviser. Some commentators immediately suggested this could break the British side's focus, but a UK spokesman insisted Frost's new title does not mean he will be distracted from the ongoing discussions with his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier.
----------
China moved a step closer to passing a controversial law targeting dissent in Hong Kong after a top law-making committee discussed the bill on Sunday, state media reported. The Communist Party leadership says the national security law is needed to end political unrest after the city was rocked by months of pro-democracy protests last year, but critics fear the law would smother the financial hub's treasured freedoms. Delegates at a meeting of the National People's Congress Standing Committee reviewed the draft of the law at the committee's second meeting of the month on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency said without giving details of the bill's latest contents. Sunday's discussion means the committee is expected to vote on and adopt the law – which is being fast-tracked – in the next few days. China's parliament endorsed the planned legislation last month, sending the draft to the Standing Committee for discussion and revision.
----------
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
