Coca-Cola HBC Share News (CCH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 touched a new 15-year intraday high at the open Wednesday, after also achieving its highest close in 15 years on Tuesday.

The blue-chip index is just short of its record high of 6,950.60 points, set in December 1999.

Markets are being encouraged by reports that the Greek government will ask for an extension of its loan agreement with the eurozone.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 6,918.05
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 16,951.96
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 707.08
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.2% at 24,832.08
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.2% at 18,199.17
DJIA: closed up 0.2% at 18,047.58
S&P 500: closed up 0.2% at 2,100.34
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.5352
EUR-USD: down at USD1.1390

GOLD: flat at USD1,209.20 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD62.14 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

China Chinese New Year's Eve holiday
09:30 UK Bank of England Minutes
09:30 UK ILO Unemployment Rate, Claimant Count and Average Earnings
10:00 EU Construction Output
10:00 Switzerland ZEW Survey
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 US Producer Price Index
13:30 US Housing Starts and Building Permits
13:30 Canada Wholesale Sales
14:15 US Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
19:00 US FOMC Minutes
22:00 US FOMC Member Powell Speech
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Greece will ask for an extension of its loan agreement with the eurozone, government sources said, in an apparent turnaround for Athens, which is threatened with insolvency while facing an ultimatum from its European partners. Austerity measures demanded from Athens in return for the financial help do not apply, the government sources said Tuesday night without elaborating. That stance left open the critical question of whether Greece's new government is prepared to accept conditions imposed by international creditors on the previous administration in Athens. Earlier in the day, however, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was defiant in a speech to Parliament in which he outlined a rollback of reforms imposed on Greece, hardening a showdown with its equally unyielding eurozone partners.
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The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged, as expected, but lowered its inflation assessment after data showed earlier this week that the country exited recession. The bank decided by an 8-1 vote to maintain its target of raising the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY80 trillion. Also, the bank left its asset purchase policy unchanged. The bank said that the annual consumer prices index growth was around 0.5%. In the previous statement, the bank said that inflation was in the range of 0.5% to 1%. The BoJ maintained its optimistic assessment of the economy by stating that the economy has continued to recover moderately as a trend.
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Ukraine cried foul after Russia-backed separatist forces advanced against government troops in the strategic eastern city of Debaltseve despite a ceasefire that has been in force since Sunday. President Petro Poroshenko condemned the offensive as "a cynical attack on the Minsk agreements" and called upon the international community to show a tough reaction to the "treacherous actions" of both the separatists and Russia. Poroshenko was speaking during a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also condemned the attack, his office said. Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Kiev troops defending the city to surrender, and accused the West of arming them, a news report said. The separatists argued that Debaltseve is not part of the Minsk agreement, because it is located inside rebel-held territory.
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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the government would invoke a constitutional power allowing it to push through a package of economic reforms , prompting the lower house of parliament to consider holding a no-confidence vote. The reforms, proposed by Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron in December, are aimed at spurring growth in the French economy by liberalizing key sectors - such as the legal profession - softening rules on how many hours businesses can stay open, and selling some state assets. But the bill has faced fierce opposition, and some members of President Francois Hollande's own Socialist party had said they would vote against the measures.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BARCLAYS CUTS INTU TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' ('EQUAL WEIGHT') - TARGET 313 (326) PENCE
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Numis Downgrades Merlin Entertainment To Reduce From Hold, Price Target 330p
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CITIGROUP RAISES HOMESERVE TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 440 (350) PENCE
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES CUTS TSB TO 'HOLD' ('BUY')
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BARCLAYS CUTS WH SMITH TO 'EQUAL WEIGHT' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 1375 (1250) P.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Coca-Cola HBC said its sales and volume decline improved in the fourth quarter, but still posted a drop in both for the full year. However the bottling group's pretax profit for 2014 was up on the year before on the back of lower finance costs and a one-off disposal gain. The company, which is the world's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler and amongst the largest beverage distributors in Europe, cited a "challenging" year ahead, having been hit in 2014 by volume weakness due to political unrest in Russia, Ukraine and Greece, as well as weak demand in Romania.
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SSE said it will work with the Competition & Markets Authority after the UK competition regulator published a report which indicated energy suppliers in the UK are charging long-term customers higher prices. The CMA found a total of 95% of dual-fuel customers on standard variable tariffs would have saved GBP158 to GBP234 per year had they switched provider between 2011 and 2014. SSE said it intends to continued "working constructively" with the CMA, adding it "continues to believe that an independent and authoritative market investigation will help to address key issues and as a result help to restore the confidence of both customers and investors".
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RSA Insurance Group said it has agreed a deal to sell its minority stake in Indian insurance company Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance to joint venture partner Sundaram Finance. Sundaram will pay GBP46 million in cash to RSA to acquire the FTSE 100-listed insurer's 26% stake in the company.
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Tesco said late Tuesday it will appoint John Allan as chairman from the start of March, succeeding Richard Broadbent. Allan is currently deputy chairman of Dixons Carphone, chairman of Barratt Developments and of Worldpay UK Ltd. Following his appointment to Tesco's board, Allan will step down from the boards of Dixons Carphone and Royal Mail.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Hong Leong Co (Malaysia) is to reduce its stake in The Rank Group, according to a statement, with subsidiary GuoLine Overseas Ltd to sell about 50 million shares at a minimum price of 185 pence per share in an accelerated bookbuild placing with institutional investors. Rank shares closed at 185.10 pence on Tuesday. In a statement, GuoLine Overseas said the sale of the 12.8% stake will leave Hong Leong with about 219.1 million shares in Rank, the London-listed casino and bingo club owner, equivalent to a 56.1% stake.
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Online betting company Betfair Group announced its subsidiary TVG has acquired the HRTV horseracing television network from US gambling and horse racing firm Stronach Group. Betfair said the television operations of the Stronach Group's HRTV will be combined with its own TVG network, while it has acquired broadcast rights to all races from Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Pimlico, Golden Gate Fields and Laurel Park for a term of seven years. Betfair said it will pay an initial USD25 million for HRTV, and estimates paying a further consideration totalling USD47.8 million over a seven-year period, dependent on TVG's performance.
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Galliford Try reported a rise in pretax profit for first half of its financial year on the back of higher revenue and hiked its dividend by nearly half. The FTSE 250-listed construction and housebuilding company said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of December was GBP42.5 million, up 12% from the GBP38.1 million posted a year earlier. The group hiked its interim dividend on the back of the rise in profit, raising it to 22 pence per share from 15 pence per share last year.
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Balfour Beatty said it has reached financial close and completed the acquisition of the GBP352 million Gwynt y Môr offshore transmission project. The FTSE 250-listed construction and support services company said it will jointly own the project with infrastructure investor Equitix. Balfour will invest GBP28 million of equity in the project, representing 60% of the equity required.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Alecto Minerals said it has received a notice from Centamin to terminate the pair's joint venture in Ethiopia. Alecto said Centamin, the FTSE 250-listed gold miner, has issued Alecto with a 90-day formal notice to terminate the joint venture the two entered into in 2013 for the development of Alecto licences in Ethiopia. Alecto said it continues to believe in the prospectivity of the licenses and will actively seek a new partner to replace Centamin.
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Rangers International Football Club said it has decided to hold its upcoming extraordinary general meeting at its Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow after a second London hotel pulled out of hosting duties, citing "threats from persons unknown". On Tuesday morning, the club had said it had secured The Grange Tower Bridge Hotel in London for March 4 to host the meeting. That came after it was forced to find a new venue to hold the meeting when the Millennium Gloucester hotel said the meeting "cannot be managed without significant disruption to guests and neighbours".
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APR Energy said it has signed a contract renewal for its Iraq power generation deal, taking the term of the contract through to the end of 2015. The power plant in Basra, southern Iraq, has been in operation since 2012 and comprises six GE TM2500 mobile gas turbines capable of generating more than 120 megawatt of electricity, APR said.
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Zoo Digital Group said it expects to post revenue for its financial year to end March ahead of the previous year and announced it has won a contract with BBC Worldwide Ltd. Zoo Digital provides cloud-based media production and software services. Under the BBC contract, it will provide a new subtitling and captioning system for BBC Worldwide using its ZOOsubs and ZOOcore software.
Zoo said its second-half revenue will be lower than the first due to a combination of seasonality of projects in the entertainment industry, and disruptions within a major customer.
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Mi-Pay Group said it is raising GBP1.75 million before expenses in a placing of 7.6 million new shares at 23 pence per share, with the proceeds to be used for general working capital purposes. In a statement, the payments company said the shares have been placed conditionally with institutional and other investors, with company directors to invest in 241,474 of the shares. The placing price represents a discount of 16% to the closing mid-market price of 27.5 pence per share on Tuesday.
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COMPANIES - UK OTHER
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The private-equity owner of UK leisure parks operator Center Parcs is understood to have appointed banks to manage a flotation which could value the company at around GBP2.5 billion, Sky News reported. US private-equity group Blackstone earlier this week hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley to act as global coordinators on an initial public offering, with Barclays and Deutsche Bank also hired to work on the deal. The move comes after Blackstone rejected a takeover offer for Center Parcs from BC Partners and the Canada Pension Plan which is understood to have valued the business at around GBP2 billion.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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French bank Crédit Agricole Group reported net income group share of EUR1.33 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to EUR1.30 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%. In the fourth quarter of 2014, Crédit Agricole Group recorded revenue of EUR7.35 billion , a decrease of 5.3% compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.
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French building materials company Lafarge reported fourth-quarter net loss group share of EUR145 million, compared to net income group share of EUR213 million in the comparable quarter the year before. Sales rose 2% to EUR3.21 billion, from EUR3.16 billion a year earlier. Like-for-like sales, at constant exchange rates, rose 1%.
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Danish brewer Carlsberg reported its fiscal 2014 consolidated profit attributable to shareholders fell to DKK4.41 billion from last year's DKK5.47 billion. Net revenue increased to DKK64.51 billion from DKK64.35 billion last year. Organic net revenue growth was 2%.
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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold off 41 million shares in Exxon Mobil in the fourth quarter, amid a plunge in oil prices. The investment in the stock was initially made in the third quarter of 2013 and was increased from time to time. Berkshire also sold shares in ConocoPhillips and reduced its stake in National Oilwell Varco Inc. During the fourth quarter, Berkshire boosted its stake in farm-equipment maker Deere & Co to USD1.5 billion.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Titon Holdings
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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