Empresaria Group Share News (EMR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - African Barrick Gold has fallen sharply Tuesday after parent Barrick Gold Corp sold a 10% stake, while Sports Direct International is up after the company's board said it will again try and give Mike Ashley a bigger stake as payment for his work over the past seven years.

Barrick's sale of part of its majority stake in African Barrick comes after the company said late Monday that it would sell assets and cut costs in an attempt to bring down its debt pile. It now has a 63.9% stake in African Barrick, and has agreed not to sell any more shares for 120 days.

Sports Direct, meanwhile said it plans to reward founder, deputy Chairman and biggest shareholder Ashley with share options worth more than GBP65 million, money it says is due to him for the company's strong performance as a listed company.

Billionaire Ashley, who has a 61.72% stake in the business he founded in 1982, has not been paid for his executive role at the company since the business was listed in February 2007, despite two previous attempts by the board to reward him.

Sports Direct said its board has therefore decided to propose to shareholders that he be given options over eight million shares in the company, a further 1.3% stake. Ashley would not vote on the proposal, which has the support of the company's largest institutional shareholder, Odey Asset Management, Sports Direct said in a statement.

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FTSE 100: Down 0.1% at 6,684.35
FTSE 250: Down 0.01% at 16,449.26
AIM ALL-SHARE: Down 0.2% at 895.00
GBP-USD: 1.6630
EUR-USD: 1.3858
GOLD: USD1,347.46 an ounce
OIL (Brent): USD108.05 a barrel

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KEY UK CORPORATE NEWS:

FTSE 250: Inchcape pretax profit rose in 2013, driven by higher like-for-like sales, an Australian acquisition and cost cutting, and it raised its dividend by 20%. Close Brothers reported increased half-year pretax profit, driven by its banking division's increased lending to commercial and retail borrowers, while its securities and asset management divisions also delivered growth. Fenner has confirmed that its results for the first half of its current financial year will be below those it posted in the first half of fiscal 2013. Computacenter has reported lower pretax profit for 2013 as it booked higher exceptional costs relating to onerous contracts in Germany and under-performance in its French business, offsetting higher revenues. It still raised its dividend. Esure Group reported a marginally larger annual pretax profit, but said the costs of severe weather events in the first quarter of the new year are likely to cost GBP3.0 million to GBP4.0 million more than expected. Barratt Developments has appointed Dixons Retail chairman and Royal Mail non-executive director, John Allan, as its non-executive chairman, replacing Bob Lawson who will retire in November. Hansteen Holdings has reported an increase in profit and revenue for the full year, as demand for its properties remained strong. Foxtons Group will pay its first normal dividend and a special dividend after it said pretax profit and revenue rose strongly in its maiden set of annual results since listing.

AIM: Plethora Solutions Holdings is a big gainer after it said that the US FDA has now unambiguously defined the path for a successful submission of a new drug application for premature ejaculation treatment PSD 502. Plethora added that it is in negotiations with a number of potential marketing partners for the treatment and is also making "excellent progress" with its preferred manufacturing partner. Ceres Power Holdings is doing well after the low-cost fuel cell technology firm signed a joint development agreement with a subsidiary of power firm Cummins Inccovering its Steel Cell technology. Empresaria Group is up after the recruitment firm posted an increase in profit and revenue for the full year, boosted by a strong performance from its UK division, and it also announced an acquisition in the Middle East. Deltex Medical Group is another gainer as its 2013 pretax loss remained flat, but revenues rose to GBP7.2 million, from GBP6.8 million in 2012, driven by sales of its surgical probes. The company also has launched a new training aide, an oesophageal Doppler patient simulator. Share is up after it said 2013 pretax profit more than doubled, boosted by heightened investor interest after the initial public offering of Royal Mail and by historically low interest rates driving savers to equity markets in the search of yield. CloudBuy is higher after it was awarded a contract in India to provide a cloudBuy private purchasing portal for electronic payments.

TOP ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK industrial production growth slowed more than expected in January, while manufacturing output growth remained stable compared to December, official data showed. Industrial output edged up 0.1% from December, the Office for National Statistics reported. Output was forecast to expand 0.2%, following December's 0.5% rise.
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The Italian economy recovered moderately in the December quarter, in line with the preliminary estimates, marking the first growth since the second quarter of 2011, final figures published by statistical office Istat revealed. Gross domestic product edged up a seasonally and working-day adjusted 0.1% sequentially in the fourth quarter, which matched the preliminary estimates. In the third quarter, the economy had contracted by 0.1%, which has been revised down from zero growth recorded earlier.
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The Bank of Japan refrained from initiating additional easing ahead of the planned sales tax hike in April that could dent the moderate recovery. The policy board, led by Governor Haruhiko Kuroda decided, by a unanimous vote, to leave the size of its monetary easing unchanged. Accordingly, the bank will continue to increase the monetary base at an annual pace of JPY 60 trillion to JPY 70 trillion. The bank expects the economy to continue a moderate recovery as a trend, while it also sees negative impact from the front-loaded increase and the subsequent decline in demand prior to and after the sales tax hike.
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China expects to fully liberalize interest rates on bank deposits within two years, and will soon test private banks, finance officials said. Interest-rate liberalization will follow steps last year to remove a required minimum interest rate for state-run commercial banks and to pilot negotiable deposit certificates for the interbank market, said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank. "Deposit-rate liberalization is definitely on the agenda," Zhou told reporters on the sidelines of the annual state parliament.
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EU finance ministers were under pressure Tuesday to reach a compromise on a new scheme to shield taxpayers from bank bailouts, during three days of last-ditch negotiations. The mechanism to wind down troubled eurozone banks would be the second element of a crisis-thwarting banking union, considered key to restoring trust in the currency bloc. The eurozone's 18 finance ministers held a first round of talks on Monday, aimed at settling the final details of an intergovernmental agreement to steer a new fund from which troubled banks could get assistance.
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The passenger who used a stolen Italian passport to boarded the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines plane at the weekend was believed to be an Iranian travelling to Sweden, police said. Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet said it had been in contact with a man in Sweden who said a distant relative in Iran had been on the plane and was travelling on an Italian passport. Police in the west coast city of Gothenburg told dpa they had received a missing persons report and have forwarded it to Interpol, but could not comment further.
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Deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych denounced the West for supporting the new government in Kiev, calling it "a band of ultra-nationalists and neo-fascists." Yanukovych, who was speaking to reporters in the southern Russian city of in Rostov-on-Don, promised that he will return to Ukraine. "As soon as circumstances allow it - I am sure it won't be long - I will return to Kiev," he said.
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The pro-Russian Crimean leadership pushed forward with accession plans to Russia, saying that the polling stations on Sunday will be monitored by 150,000 armed troops. Crimean parliamentary speaker Vladimir Konstantinov declared Monday that more than 80% of Crimea residents would vote "yes" in the referendum to decide whether the Black Sea peninsula is to secede from Ukraine. He cited focus group surveys for the percentage.
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The World Bank says it intends to support Ukraine with up to USD3 billion in development projects in 2014. The Washington-based development agency said it had received a request for support form the interim Ukrainian government "and stands ready to continue supporting the Ukrainian people" with badly needed reforms for the economic sector.
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Greece is expected to reach a key agreement with its international creditors, allowing much needed bailout aid to again flow to the country, by the end of the week, sources say. During their latest talks in Brussels, several eurozone ministers admonished Greece to finally fulfill the preconditions set by the creditors, such as reforms and privatizations, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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AFTERNOON WATCHLIST:

Afternoon UK BOE Governor Mark Carney Testifies To UK Lawmakers
14:00 US Wholesale Inventories
15:00 UK NIESR GDP Estimate
23:50 Japan Domestic Corporate Goods Price Index

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Wednesday's Key UK Corporate Events

Ferrexpo Full Year Results
Brooks Macdonald Half Year Results
French Connection Group Full Year Results
G4S Full Year Results
Hikma Pharmaceuticals Full Year Results
Servelec Full Year Results
MirLand Development Corporation Full Year Results
Prudential Full Year Results

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Wednesday's Key Economic Events

05:00 Japan BoJ Monthly Economic Survey
05:00 Japan Consumer Confidence Index
06:30 France Nonfarm Payrolls
09:30 UK Total Trade Balance
10:00 EU Industrial Production
11:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
14:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
18:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
23:50 Japan Machinery Orders

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By Steve McGrath; steve.mcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1

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