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LONDON (Alliance News) - The top team at Wm Morrison Supermarkets is now entirely made up of former Tesco executives, after the ailing grocer Wednesday appointed David Potts, the former head of Tesco's Asian business, as its new chief executive.

The appointment means Potts is joining Chairman Andrew Higginson, Tesco's former chief financial officer, and Chief Financial Officer Trevor Strain, who is also formerly of the UK's biggest retailer, at Morrisons.

"David is the best retailer I have worked with in 25 years in the industry. Having worked alongside him for 15 years, I know he will bring to Morrisons a focus on the customer, a track record of delivery, flair, talent, and immense energy to his new role," Higginson said in a statement.

Potts, aged 57, began his career with Tesco in 1973 as a shelf-stacker and rose to become its UK retail director and head of its Irish business before becoming head of its Asian business. He left Tesco at the end of 2011, only a few months after Richard Broadbent came in as chairman, and former Chief Executive Terry Leahy retired to be replaced by Philip Clarke.

He has a tough job ahead of him as Morrisons tries to stem the loss of customers to discounters Aldi and Lidl, and catch up with Tesco and J Sainsbury PLC in the convenience store and online grocery business.

Former Morrisons CEO Dalton Philips stepped down last week after five years at the helm, after the supermarket chain once again underperformed its major rivals in the sector over the key Christmas trading period.

Weir Group has joined a growing list of companies in the oil and resources sector that have protected or even raised dividend payments despite scaling back operations in the face of the steep decline in oil prices.

The oil and gas services company slashed its North American workforce by 22% in 2014 and made GBP46 million in procurement savings, and is targeting a further GBP20 million of savings in 2015, after warning that it is preparing for a "significant reduction" in revenue and operating margins this year.

"While visibility in oil and gas remains limited, it is clear that the group's strategic progress and cost initiatives will only partly offset the impact of a substantial reduction in demand and the associated pricing pressure," said Chief Executive Keith Cochrane. "As a result we are planning for a significant reduction in constant currency group revenues and lower operating margins in 2015," he added.

Despite this, Weir Group raised its 2014 dividend to 44.0 pence a share, from 42.0p in 2013, which it said marked a 31st consecutive year of growth.

Weir's move comes after BHP Billiton Tuesday announced a 5% increase in its interim dividend, despite saying it will slash capital and exploration expenditure in response to the drop in iron ore and oil prices.

Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, had maintained their dividends despite slashing their capital expenditure budgets for 2015 and booking impairments and writedowns on assets in 2014, in response to the recent slide in oil prices. BP had said the dividend was its first priority despite the current market conditions.

The dividend increase wasn't enough to stop Weir's shares plunging on Wednesday. The stock was down 9.8% at 1,681.00 pence, by far the worst-performing stock in the FTSE 100 on the day.

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Markets: London shares are trading broadly down amid a flurry of UK corporate news, with Weir Group shares plunging after the oil and gas company warned it is preparing for a "significant reduction" in revenue and operating margins in 2015. The pound is higher against the dollar after UK mortgage approvals increased in January for the first time since June.

Wall Street is set for a flat to lower start, with stock futures indicating that the DJIA will open flat and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 down 0.1%.

FTSE 100: down 0.3% at 6,926.52
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 17,163.61
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 709.44
GBP-USD: up at 1.5477
EUR-USD: up at 1.1345
GOLD: up at USD1,207.41 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD58.96 a barrel
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Top Corporate News
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St James's Place made good on a promise to up its dividend by at least 40% due to a strong rise in its underlying cash results, as the FTSE 100 wealth management and financial advice group reported strong growth in 2014. The full numbers for the company's last financial year come after last month's update that showed an 18% rise in funds under management, bolstered by a rise in new business sales and the success of a business model under which it provides face-to-face wealth management advice to clients. In a statement, the group said its operating profit on a European embedded value basis rose by 29% to GBP596.4 million in 2014, ahead of the GBP533.4 million forecast by financial analysts. EEV new business profit rose by 14% to GBP373.1 million. Its underlying cash result rose by 24% to GBP173.8 million, prompting a 46% rise in its dividend for the year as a whole to 23.30 pence per share.
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Housebuilder Barratt Developments joined peers Persimmon and Bovis Homes in reporting a big leap in earnings driven by higher home sales at higher average prices, and in saying 2015 had got off to a strong start. Barratt said pretax profit rose to GBP210.2 million in the six months to end-December, the first half of its financial year, from GBP120.4 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP1.58 billion, from GBP1.26 billion. It raised its interim dividend by half to 4.8 pence, from 3.2p, and said it plans to return 97.0p a share to shareholders over the three years to November 2017. The interim dividend marks the second payment under that plan.
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Whitbread reported like-for-like growth of 5.8% in the fourth quarter of its financial year, as its Premier Inn hotels and Costa coffee chain continued to grow sales and win UK market share, leaving the group confident of delivering full-year results towards the top end of expectations. The hotel and coffee-shop chain operator said like-for-like sales slowed slightly in the fourth quarter to 5.8% for the 11 weeks to February 12, having increased 6.0% in the third quarter, while total sales in the fourth quarter rose 14.3%. Total sales for the 50 weeks to February 12 as a whole were up 13.3%, and rose 6.5% on a like-for-like basis.
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British Land Co refinanced its revolving credit facilities, signing a GBP485 million unsecured revolving credit facility with a syndicate of seven banks to replace a GBP560 million facility that was due to expire in May 2016, a move it said will lower its financing costs.
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Meggitt said its Heatric subsidiary has won a multi-million pound deal to supply recuperative heat exchangers for a natural gas-fired pilot plant in the US from NET Power. The engineer of components for the aerospace, defence and energy markets, said Heatric will deliver four printed circuit heat exchangers by the end of April 2016, ready to commission the 50 megawatt demonstration plant in Texas later that year. The plant is aiming to produce low-cost energy with no carbon dioxide emissions.
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Petrofac reported a drop in net profit for 2014 after a significant impairment charge, but kept its dividend flat and said it expects to hit its net profit target in 2015 after it said it had "excellent revenue visibility". In addition, the company said it has signed an agreement to form a strategic marketing alliance with US engineering and construction company McDermott International to pursue opportunities together across a wide range of geographies. For the year ended December 31, the company reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of USD935 million, down from USD1.03 billion in 2013. Petrofac said EBITDA margins were lower from its onshore and offshore divisions, partially offset by margin growth from its integrated energy service unit, it said.
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TSB Banking Group said it is open to making acquisitions to help bolster its growth as the retail lender carved out of Lloyds Banking Group PLC set out targets for attracting customer deposits and increasing net lending. The news came as TSB reported a 2.3% rise in management pretax profit, which excludes volatility arising from derivatives and a non-recurring settlement gain arising from the group's withdrawal from defined benefit pension schemes, to GBP133.7 million in 2014, with more than half of that coming from a GBP3.4 billion mortgage portfolio assigned to it by Lloyds.
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Domestic appliances retailer AO World said it expects its results for the year to be below market expectations following a weaker-than-anticipated fourth quarter for its UK business. The company said its revenue growth year-on-year remains strong, but said it now expects its results for the financial year to the end of March to be slightly below market expectations due to weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings growth in its UK business.
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Ultra Electronics Holdings said its Oman Airport IT contract has been formally terminated and it will book a GBP47 million provision in its accounts related to the loss of the deal. In addition, Ultra said it would book a further GBP7.4 million non-cash impairment following a review of its activities in the Middle East. The charge related to its Al Shaheen joint venture with Emirates Advanced Instruments in the training sector in the region.
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SEGRO reported a slight drop in earnings per share for 2014 as a result of disposals it made during its almost completed restructuring programme, but said it was seeing strong demand for its rental properties and rising rental income is set to continue growing in London and the southeast of England. The company is now focused on logistics properties like retailer distribution hubs after re-shaping its portfolio by selling off other assets. Disposals as part of that programme meant EPRA earnings per share fell to 17.2 pence in 2014, from 17.7 pence in 2013. SEGRO raised its final dividend by 0.3 pence to 10.2p, a move it said reflected its confidence in its long-term prospects.
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Man Group revealed plans for another share buyback, worth USD175 million, upped its dividend and reported a 62% rise in adjusted pretax profit, but the alternative asset manager remains cautious on the near-term future as it doesn't expect demand for its AHL products to rise enough until later in 2015. Funds under management rose by 35% to USD72.9 billion over the course of 2014.
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Henderson Group reported higher profits for its last financial year, bolstered by a rise in assets under management. In a statement, the asset manager said it made a GBP187.8 million underlying pretax profit from continuing operations in 2014, compared with GBP165.5 million in the prior year. Assets under management rose by 8% to GBP81.2 billion in 2014, bolstered by an increase in net inflows to GBP7.1 billion from GBP2.5 billion.
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Recruitment company Hays reported a rise in pretax profit in the first half of its financial year on the back of a rise in net fee income. The company said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of December was GBP77.3 million, up from GBP62.5 million a year earlier. The company also proposed a 5% rise in its interim dividend, up to 0.87 pence per share from 0.83 pence per share last year.
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Gulf Keystone Petroleum shares jumped 65% after it confirmed it recently has held discussions with a number of parties about potentially selling the company and its assets. Sky News had reported prior to the London market open that oil company would make such an announcement Wednesday. The company, which operates the Shaikan field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, said that talks are preliminary and said there is no certainty as to the terms of any deal, should one go through.
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AIM Movers
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San Leon shares are up over 40% after it hit gas and sustained a good flow rate from the Racwicz-12 well in Poland and said it plans to drill an additional three to five wells on the Rawicz field. RTC Group shares are up more than a third after it won a deal potentially worth between GBP80 million and GBP100 million to provide staff to Network Rail. Dolphin Capital Investors is also doing well after it appointed several new non-executive directors, including a chairman, and revealed plans to review its strategy with the aim of narrowing the discount of its share price to net asset value and accelerating returns to shareholders. Coms shares are down by a half after it warned it will report a "substantial loss" for the financial year that just ended of at least several million pounds, citing lower gross margins in the second half of the year than in the first half, and after it failed to achieved the level of cost savings from its recent restructuring process than it had hoped for. It is also looking to strengthen its executive management team as soon as possible. Driver Group shares are down by a quarter after Chairman Alan McClue warned that contract delays and cancellations meant that its performance in the current financial year will fall short of the board's expectations. McClue also said he would resign at the AGM, handing over the reigns to non-executive director and former Conservative Member of Parliament Steve Norris. Ithaca Energy has also lost a quarter of its value after it said it would book USD10 million in costs from a delay to the deployment of the floating production facility modification programme at the Greater Stella Area production hub in the North Sea. Ferrex is another faller after it raised GBP835,000 via a discounted share placing. Molins is down after it reported a drop in profit and revenue for 2014 as its tobacco machinery unit was hit by a widespread slowdown in the tobacco market, particularly in the Middle East due to the political and social tensions there.
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Other Top Economics And General
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UK mortgage approvals increased in January for the first time since June, the British Bankers' Association reported. Mortgage approvals for house purchases rose to 36,394 from 35,816 in the prior month. Economists had forecast it to rise to 36,000. But approvals were 20% lower than last January. "The housing market appears to be bottoming out with a slight increase in approvals for new purchases in the last month but this is still significantly down on the levels of activity we saw last year," Richard Woolhouse, chief economist at the BBA, said.
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The chief executive of recently introduced UK regulator the Oil and Gas Authority, Andy Samuel, issued an urgent call to action for industry, government and the regulator to maximise the economic recovery of resources in the North Sea. Samuel made his comments after releasing his initial findings on the North Sea and in response to the government's decision to assess the impact of the sharp decline in global oil prices on the UK oil and gas industry, which resulted in the Oil and Gas Authority being set up.
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The US Federal Reserve may change language in its forward guidance indicating that policy makers will be "patient" before raising rates, but that does not mean that tightening is imminent, Fed Chair Janet Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee. At its January meeting, the Fed vowed it would be "patient" before hiking interest rates from zero, but that was before a blockbuster jobs report renewed speculation that a mid-year rate hike is in the cards. "The FOMC's assessment that it can be patient in beginning to normalize policy means that the Committee considers it unlikely that economic conditions will warrant an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate for at least the next couple of FOMC meetings," Yellen said in prepared remarks before the Senate Banking Committee. In essence, the Fed will hike interest rates only when they are "reasonably confident" that annual inflation is moving back toward their 2% target.
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The US has been among the strongest growing economies in the developed world in the last two years, but foreign developments present significant risks, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen told US lawmakers. "Growth in Europe has been very slow. Growth in China is slowing," she told the Senate Banking Committee. "The huge decline we've seen in oil prices has had repercussions all over the globe - in some areas positive, very positive, in other areas negative."
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US President Barack Obama vetoed a bill calling for the construction of a hotly debated Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline. Obama said he exercised his veto power because the bill is an attempt to "circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest." The bill authorizing construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline arrived on Obama's desk about two weeks ago. Obama had been widely expected to veto it.
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China's manufacturing sector rebounded unexpectedly in February as the PMI rose to its highest level in four months, flash figures from Markit Economics showed. The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers' index, or PMI, rose to a four-month high of 50.1 in February from 49.7 in January. Economists expected the index to come in at 49.5. The latest reading marked a slight expansion in manufacturing activity.
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The foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany made a fresh call for a "strict implementation" of the ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine and suggested expanding an international observer mission there. "We call for the strict implementation of all provisions of the Minsk agreements starting from a comprehensive ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons," the ministers said in a statement read out by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius after a meeting in Paris. The four countries called upon the parties on the ground to fully cooperate with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and give full access to the organization's monitors.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

14:30 EU ECB President Draghi's Speech
15:00 US Fed's Yellen testifies
15:00 US New Home Sales
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
23:50 Japan Foreign bond/stock investment
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Thursday's Key UK Corporate Events

Royal Bank of Scotland Group - Full Year Results
Robert Walters - Full Year Results
Capital Counties & Properties - Full Year Results
Howden Joinery Group - Full Year Results
Colt Group - Full Year Results
Capita Group - Full Year Results
CRH - Full Year Results
Interserve - Half Year Results
Kier Group - Full Year Results
Ladbrokes - Full Year Results
National Express Group - Full Year Results
Domino's Pizza Group - Full Year Results
Playtech - Full Year Results
Premier Oil - Full Year Results
Circassia Pharmaceuicals - Full Year Results
Derwent London - Full Year Results
STV Group - Full Year Results
RSA Insurance Group - Full Year Results
KAZ Minerals - Full Year Results
Synthomer - Full Year Results
Bodycote - Full Year Results
British American Tobacco - Full Year Results
Countrywide - Full Year Results
Redde - Half Year Results
Jupiter Fund Management - Full Year Results
Lavendon Group - Full Year Results
Macfarlane Group - Full Year Results
Merlin Entertainments - Full Year Results
Reed Elsevier - Full Year Results
RPS Group - Full Year Results
Spirent Communications - Full Year Results
Xchanging - Full Year Results
Interserve - Full Year Results
Photo-Me International - Trading Update
Kennedy Wilson Real Estate - Full Year Results
Pantheon International Participations - Half Year Results
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Thursday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

07:00 Germany Gfk Consumer Confidence Survey
07:00 UK Nationwide Housing Prices
07:45 France Consumer Confidence
08:55 Germany Unemployment Rate
09:00 Italy Retail Sales
09:30 UK Gross Domestic Product
10:00 Italy Business Confidence
10:00 EU Consumer Confidence
10:00 Italy Consumer Confidence
10:00 EU Business Climate
10:00 EU Economic Sentiment Indicator
10:15 EU Targeted LTRO
13:30 US Consumer Price Index
13:30 US Durable Goods Orders
13:30 US Jobless Claims
14:00 US Housing Price Index
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
18:00 US Fed's Lockhart speech
23:30 Japan National Consumer Price Index
23:30 Japan Unemployment Rate
23:50 Japan Industrial Production
23:50 Japan Retail Trade
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