BT Share News (BT.A)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Miners Rio Tinto and Anglo American sit near the top of the FTSE 100 index Thursday, after Rio Tinto reported a fall in underlying earnings in 2014, but said it will hike its dividend and launch a USD2 billion share buyback programme in order to return USD6.0 billion to shareholders.

Rio Tinto shares were up 4.1% to 3,093.50 pence per share, while Anglo American was up 2.9% at 1,156.00p, the second and third biggest blue-chip gainers after Coca-Cola HBC.

"Last year, we made a clear commitment to materially increase cash returns to our shareholders. We have delivered this today through a 12% increase in our full-year dividend and a proposed USD2.0 billion share buy-back. These represent a total cash return to shareholders, in respect of 2014, of almost USD6.0 billion," said Rio Tinto Chief Executive Sam Walsh.

The Anglo-Australian miner said its underlying earnings, before one off items, for the year to the end of December hit USD9.31 billion, down from USD10.2 billion last year.

Rio Tinto reported net earnings of USD6.52 billion after booking impairment charges of USD1.18 billion, exchange losses on debt and mark-to-market derivatives of USD1.85 billion and other losses totalling USD1.14 billion, partially offset by impairment reversals of USD1.04 billion.

Revenue for the group fell to USD50.04 billion in the year, down from USD54.60 billion the year before, as revenue fell in the majority of its operating units. Iron ore revenue was down to USD23.28 billion from USD25.99 billion, while aluminium revenue edged down to USD12.12 billion from USD12.46 billion.

But Rio Tinto said it would hike its total dividend by 12% to 215 US cents per share, up from 192 cents per share last year. The dividend comprises its 96 cents interim dividend and a 119 cents final dividend.

The group also said it would launch a USD2 billion share buyback programme, comprising a USD400 million off-market share buy-back tender and a USD1.6 billion on-market buyback of shares.

In 2014, Rio Tinto spent USD8.16 billion in capital expenditure, down 37% from 2013, and will fall to below USD7.0 billion in 2015 and remain at that level in 2016 and 2017. The company said it has identified USD750 million of cash cost improvements it will make during 2015.

Anglo American reports its own 2014 results on Friday.
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Markets: London equities indices have pushed higher, along with their European counterparts, amid news of a ceasefire agreement in the Ukrainian conflict. The pound is higher against the dollar following the Bank of England's quarterly Inflation Report. US futures also point to a higher open on Wall Street, with the DJIA, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 all pointed up 0.5%.

FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6,829.20
FTSE 250: up 0.9% at 16,776.82
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 696.13
GBP-USD: up at 1.5361
EUR-USD: flat at 1.1335
GOLD: up at USD1,224.13 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD56.95 a barrel
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Other Top Corporate News
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BT Group announced a placing of new shares to raise around GBP1.0 billion, which it will use to part fund its acquisition of mobile provider EE. BT announced last Thursday that it has agreed to buy EE from its joint owners Deutsche Telekom and Orange for GBP12.5 billion in cash and shares. BT said the shares issued in the placing will represent around 3% of its outstanding share capital. The placing will be conducted through an accelerated bookbuilding process conducted by JP Morgan Securities , Merrill Lynch International and Goldman Sachs.
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Shire reiterated confidence in its target of USD10 billion in product sales by 2020, as it posted a rise in pretax profit for 2014 boosted by the break-fee from its collapsed takeover by US drugmaker AbbVie Inc, and posted earnings per share ahead of guidance. The FTSE 100 listed pharmaceutical company posted non GAAP diluted earnings per American depositary share of USD10.60 for 2014, up 39% from USD7.66 in 2013. At the time of its third quarter, Shire had said it expected to report non GAAP earnings per American depositary share growth in the high 30% range. Analysts had expected non GAAP diluted earnings per ADS of USD10.55. Shire proposed a total dividend of 22.92 cents, up from 19.93 cents in the previous year.
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Imperial Tobacco Group said tobacco net revenue grew by 4% at constant currency rates to GBP1.49 billion in the first quarter of its financial year, driven by volume and revenue growth from its growth brands, and reaffirmed its outlook for the full year, with dividend growth of at least 10%. However, the firm said it continues to take a hit from adverse currency movements, primarily the strong pound, which in the three months to end-December pushed tobacco net revenue into negative territory at reported rates - down 2%. Excluding the impact of the group's stock optimisation programme, Imperial said tobacco net revenue was down 1%, with a 4% decline in volume.
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AstraZeneca agreed to pay the US government USD7.9 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a kickback scheme in violation of the False Claims Act, the Justice Department announced. AstraZeneca markets and sells pharmaceutical products in the US, including a drug sold under the trade name Nexium. The settlement resolves allegations that AstraZeneca agreed to provide remuneration to Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit manager, in exchange for Medco maintaining Nexium's "sole and exclusive" status on certain Medco formularies and through other marketing activities related to those Medco formularies.
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Royal Dutch Shell and BP are resisting efforts by Abu Dhabi to get them to pay a multi-billion dollar signing-on fee to get a stake in developing the emirate's biggest onshore oil fields, the Financial Times reported. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co is understood to have demanded around USD8 billion in total from a number of international oil companies which are seeking to get a piece of a 40% equity stake in oil reserves to be developed over the next 40 years, the FT said.
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets said outgoing Chief Executive Dalton Philips will now be stepping down on Monday next week, and in the interim replaced by Finance Director Trevor Strain until a new CEO is found. In a statement, the supermarket chain said the search for a new CEO is "progressing well". Having initially announced last month that Philips would be stepping down in March after five years at the helm, Morrisons said Philips will in fact now be stepping down from the board and leaving the company this coming Monday.
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Morgan Advanced Materials reported its pretax profit halved in 2014, as revenue was dragged back by currency headwinds over the year. The FTSE 250-listed carbon and ceramic products manufacturer said its pretax profit for the year to December 31 was down to GBP31.5 million from GBP64 million a year earlier. The company has proposed a final dividend of 7.0 pence per share, up on the 6.7 pence paid last year, bringing its total dividend for 2014 to 10.9 pence per share from 10.5 pence a year earlier.
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Informa raised its dividend for 2014, as impairment charges offset a rise in revenue, leading it to swing to a pretax loss. The business media and events company company proposed a final dividend of 12.9 pence, taking its total dividend to 19.3 pence, up from 18.9 pence a year before. Informa said that, assuming current exchange rates continue, it expects to deliver earnings per share growth in 2015.
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Support services company DCC said its operating profit in the third quarter rose year-on-year, on the back of good performances in its technology, healthcare, environmental and food and beverage units. DCC said volumes and margins in its DCC Energy business were held back by the milder weather conditions in Europe, in particular in the UK, its largest market. The group reiterated its full-year expectations on the back of the third quarter results, saying it still expects to generate earnings per share growth of 5-10%.
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Shares in online property portal Zoopla Property Group dropped after the company reported a drop in listings in the first four months of its financial year, despite it shrugging off the threat posted by start-up rival OnTheMarket. FTSE 250-listed Zoopla said it is trading in line with expectations for its financial year to the end of September so far and is on track to achieve its long-term growth targets. Zoopla added it had 42.3 million average monthly visits between October 1 and the end of January and a record 50.5 million visits in January. Mobile users now account for more than 60% of the monthly visits, the company said, with online customer numbers up 42% year-on-year.
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The Court of Appeal has rejected Ryanair's challenge of a Competition Appeal Tribunal ruling that it must sell most of its 29% stake in Aer Lingus Group, and refused permission for Ryanair to appeal to the supreme court. The Competition and Markets Authority ruled that Ryanair's holding in Aer Lingus was anti-competitive, and required it to sell down its stake in the company to 5%. Ryanair said it will now appeal the case to the UK Supreme Court, saying it "raises human rights issues of significant public importance, including the scope of protection offered to businesses by the right to property." It has also requested a formal review of the CMA of its final report, and a withdrawal of its call for Ryanair to sell its sake, in light of the recent offers from International Consolidated Airlines Group for Aer Lingus.
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AIM Movers
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Mariana Resources, up 30%, reported positive results from the initial drilling programme at the Hot Maden Prospect in Turkey. The group said the assay results from the drilling showed the stronger mineralisation from the Hole 4 discovery at the site continued into the new drilling targets. Lidco Group, up 29%. The cardiovascular monitoring equipment firm said it expects its full year pretax profit to meet market expectations. Trakm8 Holdings, up 8.3%. The telematics and data provider announced it had signed a partnership with Marmalade, a specialist provider of cars and insurance for young drivers. The initial contract order is valued at GBP1 million, which Trakm8 said will be realised within the next financial year.

Northcote Energy, off 16% at 0.0965 pence. The company said it has issued shares to Darwin Strategic following receipt of a conversion notice at the end of January. Northcote has issued 75.2 million shares to Darwin at 0.133p per share. The price was set under the terms of the convertible loan note deal between the two, and the shares have been issued to satisfy the GBP100,000 loan amount.
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Top Economics And General
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The Bank of England expects inflation to return to the 2% target within two years time and the robust pace of growth to be sustained in the near term. In its quarterly Inflation Report, the central bank estimated 2.9% growth for both 2015 and 2016 and 2.7% expansion for 2017. Inflation is expected to fall further in the near term, and to temporarily turn negative as falls in energy prices continue to be passed through. Inflation is expected to be at 0.5% this year and 1.8% in 2016. It is expected to exceed the 2% target slightly in 2017.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was set to come face-to-face for the first time with all of his 27 EU counterparts, with just weeks left for a controversial new deal to be hashed out on the country's bailout programme. "Europe is at a crucial moment," Tsipras said in Brussels a few hours before the start of the EU summit, calling for "new growth policies that will be favourable to all of the European people." The leaders' talks come just hours after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his eurozone counterparts failed to agree a new deal on the bailout - or even the steps to be taken over the next days - despite more than six hours of emergency talks.
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A ceasefire agreement for Ukraine has been reached at peace talks in Belarus and will take effect at midnight on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin says after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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The International Monetary Fund has reached a deal with Ukraine that would offer the cash-strapped country USD17.5 billion over the next four years, in return for "ambitious" reforms, IMF chief Christine Lagarde announced. While fighting a pro-Russian insurgency in the east of the country, cash-strapped Kiev has been negotiating a package of deep economic and political reforms, in return for a much-needed international financial lifeline. The deal still requires the approval of the IMF's executive board, Lagarde said, adding that she would submit it for review "hopefully before the end of February."
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Structural reforms should complement monetary policy in order to raise real potential growth, Executive Board member of European Central Bank Peter Praet said. "Indeed, perhaps the biggest risk we face with our new measures is that they fall on barren ground because governments are not doing enough to raise confidence in the future," he said at the FT Debt Capital Markets Outlook Conference in London. If firms simultaneously revise down their growth expectations with the expanding monetary policy, then there will not be any impact as required.
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Eurozone industrial production remained flat in December after expanding for three consecutive months, data from Eurostat revealed. Industrial production remained unchanged from November, while it was forecast to grow 0.2%. The growth rate for November was revised down to 0.1% from 0.2%. Production of durable consumer goods rose 2.3% and intermediate goods by 1.1%. Energy output and capital goods output gained 1% and 0.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, non-durable consumer goods fell by 1.8%. On a yearly basis, industrial output declined unexpectedly by 0.2%, following a revised 0.8% fall in November. Economists had forecast a 0.3% growth for December.
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The average asking price for a house in the UK continued to increase in January, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed, with a score of +7. That was down substantially from +12 in December, and it marked the slowest rate of growth since May 2013. Prices in London's capital region slipped for a fifth consecutive month, falling to a six-year low.
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A hotly debated Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline cleared final US Congressional approval and was bound for the desk of President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto the law. The House of Representatives voted 270 to 152 to adopt the bill previously passed by the Senate, putting the new, Republican-dominated Congress on course for its first veto.
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Italian captain Francesco Schettino was found guilty of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner three years ago and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment. Judges in Grosseto, central Italy, also inflicted on the 54-year-old a lifetime ban on holding public office and barred him from his profession for five years. The court ordered Schettino to pay millions of euros in legal fees and damages to a long list of plaintiffs, including victims and Italian authorities, together with Concordia's owners, Costa Crociere.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

EU Extraordinary Economic Summit
13:30 US Jobless Claims
13:30 US Retail Sales
13:30 Canada New Housing Price Index
15:00 US Business Inventories
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
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Friday's Key UK Corporate Events

Anglo American - Full Year Results
Rolls-Royce - Full Year Results
Severn Trent - Trading Statement
Riverstone Energy - Full Year Results
S&U - Trading Statement
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Friday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

02:00 China New Loans and M2 Money Supply
06:30 France GDP preliminary
07:00 Germany GDP preliminary
07:00 Germany Wholesale Price Index
07:45 France Nonfarm Payrolls preliminary
08:15 Switzerland Producer and Import Prices
09:00 Italy GDP preliminary
10:00 UK CB Leading Economic Index
10:00 EU GDP preliminary
10:00 EU Trade Balance
13:30 US Export and Import Price indices
13:30 Canada Manufacturing Shipments
14:55 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index preliminary
18:30 US Fed's Richard Fisher's speech
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