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LONDON (Alliance News) - Infrastructure investor John Laing Group Monday became the highest-profile proposed new London listing so far in 2015 on Monday, saying it hopes to raise GBP130 million when it re-lists.

John Laing was taken private by Henderson Group in 2007, and has since then spun off John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd and John Laing Environmental Assets Ltd into listed vehicles. It now wants to raise money of its own to further expand its remaining business, which is focused on public sector building through public-private partnership schemes as well as renewable energy schemes.

Media reports said the company is expected to be valued at about GBP1 billion. Retail investors will be able to get involved in the IPO through an intermediaries offering.

At the end of last September, John Laing owned and managed a proprietary portfolio valued at GBP781 million, comprising 44 infrastructure project investments in public-private partnerships and renewable energy in ten countries. It also managed GBP965 million in infrastructure assets on behalf of third parties.

Key projects include the New Perth Stadium in Australia, the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in the UK, the A1 road in Poland and the Svartvallsberget Wind Farm in Sweden.

The company had previously been involved in construction, but changed tack in 2001, selling off its construction operations to what is now Laing O'Rourke, its property development business to Kier Group, and its housebuilding operations to what is now Taylor Wimpey.

London's IPO market has got off to a subdued start in 2015, after it tapered off after a strong start to 2014. Trainline has confirmed it intends to list on the London Stock Exchange's Main market and will be joined by tool and equipment hire company HSS Hire Group, International Diagnostics Holdings PLC, and Vertu Capital, a vehicle set up to buy up financial services firms in Europe and Asia.

Drug discovery and development company Redx Pharma Ltd and antiobiotics developer Motif BioSciences Inc have said they intend to list on the AIM market.

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Markets: London stocks have edged higher in relatively low volumes, as investors look ahead to an expected announcement from the European Central Bank of stimulus measures and to minutes from the Bank of England's latest policy meeting, both due later in the week.

US stock markets are closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday.

FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,557.12
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 15,993.46
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 697.47
GBP-USD: flat at 1.5151
EUR-USD: up at USD1.1592
GOLD: down at USD1,277.40 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD49.75 a barrel
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Top Corporate News
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Telefonica and Hutchison Whampoa are understood to have held talks about merging their UK businesses, as the Spanish owner of O2 considers its options following BT Group's decision to buy EE, the Financial Times reported. Telefonica has been considering various options for the future of O2 in the UK since last summer and held talks with BT to sell the business in December before BT decided to pursue a deal with EE. The FT cited a person with knowledge of the matter who said "everyone is still speaking to everyone", including Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of Three. The person said other potential partners for O2 include TalkTalk Telecom and Sky.
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Evraz said production of steel and iron ore fell during 2014, whilst vanadium and coal production saw slight increases, as average prices for the year fell across the board. For the year ended December 31, 2014, the company said consolidated crude steel production fell by 4% from 2013 whilst output of steel products dropped 5% during the year. Both decreases were mainly caused by the disposal of Evraz Vitkovice Steel in the Czech Republic and the shut-down of Evraz Claymont operations in the US at the end of 2013, as part of a restructuring plan. Evraz's finished steel product production dropped 4% in Russia and 11% in Ukraine due to higher export sales, driven by the depreciation of the Russian rouble in the second half of 2014, whilst production of semi-finished products increased by 6% in Russia and 11% in Ukraine.
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Greene King reported higher sales in both its brewing and pub operations over the key Christmas trading period, although the growth was lower than in the previous year and it said trading had been volatile either side of the holiday period and soft in recent weeks. In a statement, the brewer and pub operator that's in the final stages of acquiring Spirit Pub Co, said total sales were up 5.9% in the 36 weeks to January 11, with like-for-like sales up just 0.6%. Its like-for-like sales in the last six weeks were in line with the 5.0% growth it reported for the same six weeks a year earlier, it said.
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Kier Group said it has been awarded over GBP145 million of new construction deals in the Middle East since the start of 2015. The property and construction company said it had been made preferred bidder on a GBP100 million mixed-use development as well as two infrastructure contracts totalling GBP15 million on a major new leisure park project for the region, while it has secured a GBP30 million infrastructure project In Saudi Arabia with a Saudi state-owned company in the eastern region.
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Balfour Beatty said it has been appointed as sole contractor to a new UK-wide civil engineering and infrastructure framework for public works that's valued at up to GBP1.5 billion in total. In a statement, the infrastructure company said the framework deal runs until February 2019, and individual projects within the framework are expected to be valued at up to GBP40 million. It covers things such as major road projects, road repairs, new bridges, coastal defence works and light rail schemes.
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Thorntons reported strong growth in like-for-like sales in its own stores and online over the key Christmas period, but this was offset by falling sales through commercial partners as it was hit by a drop in orders from some UK grocers that it previously flagged. The chocolate maker said like-for-like sales in its retail division were up 5.0% over the 14 weeks to January 10, but total sales were down across the board. Total sales in the retail business fell 2.4% on the year to GBP44.9 million, as it closed a further four stores and relocated two more, leaving it with 247 of its own stores by the end of the period. Consumer Direct sales from its website were up by 13.0%, while franchise sales fell 6.4%.
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AIM Movers
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Kimberly Enterprises shares have shot higher after it struck a deal to sell a plot of land in the Czech Republic for CZK195 million, or around EUR7 million, and will get EUR3 million in net proceeds. Tangiers Petroleum shares are up by more than half after it said preliminary results showed a large potential resource at the Project Icewine project in Alaska. XLMedia is another gainer after it said it expects to beat market expectations for 2014 on the back of strong organic growth and a boost from recent acquisitions. Mosman Oil and Gas is up after it significantly improved its takeover offer for Australian Securities Exchange-listed MEO Australia Ltd. Mosman will now offer MEO shareholders one Mosman share for every 10 MEO shares. Kibo Mining is up after it entered a joint venture with Metal Tiger for the Morogoro South gold-prospective exploration portfolio in Tanzania, building on another joint venture for uranium exploration signed last week. Pressure Technologies is also up after it bought the freehold land and buildings at Meadowhall Road, Sheffield where its Chesterfield Special Cylinders and Chesterfield Biogas subsidiaries operate for GBP3.36 million. Densitron Technologies is doing well after it said that its results for 2014 will be marginally behind market expectations, but it returned to profitability and saw a "substantially higher" operating profit than in 2013. Finsbury Food Group shares are up after it said revenue had risen by nearly a quarter in the first half of its financial year, buoyed by the acquisition of Fletchers in its bakery division, and its operating margins also improved. Tavistock Investments shares are down by half after it did a discounted share placing to raise new funds to bolster the capital position of Standard Financial Group Ltd, which it is acquiring in a move that will boost its wealth advisory business. Sorbic International is also down even though it said its pretax loss significantly narrowed in its last financial year, despite revenue falling slightly as it continues to try and recover funds owed to the company by the chief executive of its Chinese subsidiary.
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Other Top Economics And General
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Property prices in the UK recovered in January, after declining in the previous two months, as the recent stamp duty changes made homes cheaper for some first time buyers, figures from property-tracking website Rightmove showed. The average asking price for a house in the UK rose 1.4% from the previous month. The average price climbed to GBP273,275 from GBP269,477. That follows the revised 2.2% contraction in December, lesser than the 3.3% decline estimated earlier. In November, prices had dropped 1.9%. Prices in Greater London grew 0.9% to GBP566,604. On a yearly basis, house prices jumped 8.2% following the 7.0% spike in the previous month.
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The EY ITEM Club has upgraded its forecast for economic growth in the UK, arguing the recent collapse in the oil price is a positive for Britain, and thinks that interest rates won't start to rise until Spring 2016 due to low inflation. The economic forecaster said it has revised up its forecast for UK GDP growth in 2015 to 2.9% from its estimate of 2.4% in October. The upward revision means it is now forecasting an acceleration from last year's estimated growth of 2.6% and has revised up its growth estimate for 2016 to 2.9%. The ITEM Club said the UK is "decisively a winner" from the fall in oil prices over the last few months.
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International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde cautioned that there would be consequences to Greece restructuring its debt after January 25 election."Collective approaches are always good at the European level," she told the Irish Times in an interview. "As a principle, collection endeavours are welcome but at the same time a debt is a debt and it is a contract," Lagarde said. "Defaulting, restructuring, changing the terms has consequences on the signature and the confidence in the signature." The report said she reserved judgment on whether Greece's debt pile, at 175% of the country's GDP economic output, is sustainable.
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China's economy likely missed the government's full-year growth target last year to mark the slowest growth in more than two decades, with the fourth quarter forecast to be the weakest since early 2009. Official data due on Tuesday are expected to show that economic growth eased to 7.4% in 2014, the weakest since 1990. The government target was about 7.5% growth. Gross domestic product is forecast to have grown 7.1% in the fourth quarter, the slowest expansion since the first three months of 2009. The economy expanded 7.3% in the third quarter.
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Consumer confidence in Japan increased more than expected in December, figures from the Cabinet Office showed. The consumer confidence index rose to 38.8 in December from 37.7 in the previous month. Economists had forecast the index to rise to 38.5.
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Japan's industrial production declined less than initially estimated in November, final figures from the Ministry of Economy and Trade and Industry showed. Industrial production dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.5% month-on-month in November, revised from a 0.6% fall. In October, production grew 0.4%.
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The Ukrainian army on Sunday stepped up an operation to retake the strategic Donetsk airport from Russia-backed separatists as pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko vowed to regain control of rebel-held territories in the east. "We will not give away a single inch of Ukrainian land," he told thousands of supporters in Kiev, adding that his government would reinstate Ukrainian sovereignty on the separatist eastern region of Donbass on the border with Russia. Fighting for control of the Donetsk airport had earlier this week prompted the cancellation of peace talks.
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Train traffic through the Channel Tunnel is operating again, the tunnel's operator reported Sunday, a day after all service was interrupted due to a lorry fire near the French mouth of the tunnel. No injuries were reported, though it did require all trains to return to their points of origin.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

No events scheduled
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Tuesday's Key UK Corporate Events

Unilever - Full Year Results
IG Group Holdings - Half Year Results
Rio Tinto - Q4 Production Report
William Hill - Trading Statement
IQE - Trading Statement
BHP Billiton - December Quarter Operational Review
Stock Spirits Group - Trading Statement
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

02:00 China Gross Domestic Product
02:00 China Industrial Production
02:00 China NBS Press Conference
02:00 China Retail Sales
02:00 China Urban investment
07:00 Germany Producer Price Index
09:00 Italy Trade Balance
10:00 Germany ZEW Survey - Economic Sentiment
10:00 EU ZEW Survey - Economic Sentiment
13:55 US Redbook index
15:00 US NAHB Housing Market Index
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