easyJet Share News (EZJ)

LONDON (Alliance News) - BBA Aviation has provided the main company news interest in London early Wednesday, confirming it has agreed to pay USD2.07 billion to acquire US rival Landmark Aviation and will launch a heavily discounted GBP748.0 million rights issue of shares to fund the deal. The stock is down 7.0%, the biggest mid-cap faller.

At the opposite end of the FTSE 250, Premier Oil is up 9.4%, after saying production is currently running above its full-year guidance.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 5,951.06
FTSE 250: flat at 16,531.21
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 730.66
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Hang Seng: down 2.5% at 21,261.24
Nikkei 225: Market closed for holiday until Thursday.
DJIA: closed down 1.1% at 16,330.47
S&P 500: closed down 1.2% at 1,942.74
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GBP: flat at USD1.5359
EUR: up at USD1.1134

GOLD: up at USD1,127.15 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD49.30 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 BST)

08:30 Germany Markit Services, Manufacturing and Composite PMI Preliminary
09:00 EU Markit Services, Manufacturing and Composite PMI Preliminary
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 Canada Retail Sales
14:00 EU ECB President Draghi speech
14:00 Switzerland SNB Quarterly Bulletin
14:45 US Markit Manufacturing PMI Preliminary
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
17:30 US Fed's Lockhart speech
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Chinese manufacturing activity contracted the most in six-and-a-half years in September, as orders and production declined at faster rates. The flash manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 47 in September from 47.3 in August, survey data from Caixin Insight Group and Markit showed. This was the lowest score in 78 months and was below the consensus estimate of 47.5. Moreover, a reading below 50 indicates contraction by the sector.
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China is ready to cooperate with the US on issues from cyber crime to the environment, President Xi Jinping told political and business leaders in Seattle. "We must read each other's strategic intentions correctly," and "stick to the right direction" in bilateral relations, he said. "We want to see more understanding and trust, less estrangement and suspicion, in order to forestall misunderstanding and miscalculation." Xi spoke before a banquet of more than 750 US and Chinese officials and business leaders at the start of an eight-day trip to the US.
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A majority of EU interior ministers approved a contentious plan to redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers within their bloc, outvoting the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. "Today's decision is a turning point. We have made an important step towards a European response based on common values and shared responsibilities," said EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. The ministers had been under pressure to deliver a deal so that a redistribution controversy would not overshadow an EU crisis summit due to be held in Brussels on Wednesday.
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A senior French prosecutor requested the dismissal of a case against IMF head Christine Lagarde, over a business arbitration when she was French finance minister, a news report said. Lagarde, 59, is under investigation for alleged negligence in connection with a EUR400 million state payout to businessman Bernard Tapie over the sale of his sportswear company Adidas. Prosecutors say that during mediation she pushed for a settlement that was far more than might have been decided by a court.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BARCLAYS RAISES EASYJET PRICE TARGET TO 2100 (1950) PENCE - 'OVERWEIGHT'
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TRADERS: HSBC CUTS MITCHELLS & BUTLERS TO 'HOLD' ('BUY')
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TRADERS: HSBC CUTS CAPITAL & COUNTIES TO 'REDUCE' ('HOLD')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Engineer Smiths Group said an improvement in margins helped its profit to edge higher in the year to the end of July, despite revenue falling, though it said its results for the current financial year will be more second-half weighed than normal. The company said its pretax profit for the year was up to GBP459.0 million from GBP445.0 million a year earlier. The increase in profit was driven by a better operating margin in the year, up to 17.6% from 17.1%, which offset a 2% decline in revenue to GBP2.90 billion from GBP2.95 billion. Smiths will pay a final dividend of 28.0 pence per share, meaning its total dividend increases by 2% to 41.0 pence.
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Diageo said its new financial year has started well and that performance is in line with company expectations, although operating profit for the full year may decline if current exchange rates are maintained. The drinks giant, which is holding its annual general meeting Wednesday, said that volume has grown into the mid-single digits reflecting both improved volume growth trends and a weak comparative period at the start of the prior year. However, it warned that while it has continued to deliver a positive sales mix, price increases have been muted.
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United Utilities said current trading is in line with expectations but said its financial results in the first half of the financial year will be hit by compensation payments related to a water incident in August and restructuring costs. The water and wastewater firm said revenue in the first half of the financial year ended September 30 will be similar to the GBP859.0 million reported a year earlier, but warned its operating profit will take a GBP30.0 million hit in the period. In August, customers across Lancashire were forced to boil their water before consumption after routine tests at the company's Franklaw water treatment works in Preston detected small traces of cryptosporidium - a microscopic bug - in the water.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Aircraft services company BBA Aviation confirmed it has agreed a USD2.07 billion deal to acquire US rival Landmark Aviation and will launch a big rights issue of shares to fund the deal. The group said the deal will be funded by existing debt facilities and by raising around GBP748.0 million via a fully-underwritten rights issue, which will see it issue 562.3 million shares at 133.0 pence per share. BBA shares closed at 284.7 pence on Tuesday, meaning the rights issues comes at a significant discount to its current share price. BBA said the deal will be transformational for its business, increasing its Signature fixed-base operator unit's network to 133 locations in North America and 189 locations overall.
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Premier Oil said production is currently running above its full-year guidance, as it continues to focus on lowering costs and using its substantial hedging programme to battle the downturn in oil prices. The oil and gas producer said production since the start of 2015 has averaged 57,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day after the company completed its summer maintenance activities. The current production rate is above the company's full-year production guidance to average 55,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which excludes any production that may come from the Solan field in the UK North Sea, which is expected to begin producing later in 2015.
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US-focused science and technology development and commercialisation company Allied Minds said its Federated Wireless Inc wireless services company has signed a collaboration deal with the National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network. Under the deal, the pair will work together on the first pilot test of an environmental sensor capability for Federated Wireless' spectrum access system. The news comes a day after Allied Minds saw its shares plunge after New York-based hedge fund Kerrisdale Capital criticised the company, saying it had "no objective evidence of commercial success" in its portfolio.
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Property investor Hansteen Holdings said it has acquire two industrial assets in the UK in Derbyshire and Teesside for a total of GBP41.1 million.
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Student accommodation developer Unite Group said it has acquired two sites in central Bristol for a total investment of GBP85.0 million. Unite said the sites are expected to provide accommodation for around 900 students and are expected to be completed in 2019. The sites are located close to the city's two universities.
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Swiss Re Group announced that its Admin Re unit has agreed to acquire Guardian Holdings Europe, the holding company for operations trading under the name Guardian Financial Services, from private equity company Cinven for GBP1.6 billion. The deal will add 900,000 annuity, life insurance and pension policies to Admin Re's portfolio in the UK and Ireland. The deal for Admin Re comes after Phoenix Group Holdings, the closed life funds consolidator, had said last week that it was involved in the bidding for Guardian.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Irish agri-services company Origin Enterprises posted higher pretax profit and revenue for the year to the end of July, despite a more challenging backdrop in its key markets. Origin said its pretax profit was up to EUR88.2 million from EUR87.4 million in the year, while its operating profit was broadly flat at EUR93.0 million. Origin said the agri-services trading environment was tougher in the year, with a difficult backdrop for its services business and higher input costs offsetting the benefits it got from the weak euro. Origin will pay a total dividend for the year of 21.0 euro cents per share, up 5% year-on-year.
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Real Good Food said it is very satisfied with trading at the start of its new financial year, although revenue is down on a like-for-like basis. The ingredients and baking products company said that its cake decorating businesses are continuing to perform well, showing good growth in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and that its most recent acquisition Rainbow Dust has made a "healthy contribution". However, total like-for-like revenue is down year-on-year due to commodity price deflation particularly in the dairy and sugar markets, which has hit its Garretts Ingredients subsidiary, Real Good Food said.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn vowed to get to the bottom of an emissions-cheating scandal and said he intends to keep his job amid mounting pressure on Europe's biggest carmaker. It would be wrong "to call into question the hard and honest labour of more than 600,000 people over the grave mistakes made by very few," Winterkorn said in a video message. Shares in the German carmaker crashed a further 26% Tuesday - beyond Monday's loss of 19% - after it issued a profit warning and admitted that emissions tests might have been manipulated for about 11 million cars worldwide.
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Boeing is preparing to announce its first plant outside the US with a deal to set up a completion facility in China for the 737 single-aisle aircraft, to mark the visit of President Xi Jinping to Seattle on Wednesday, according to several media reports. The facility is expected to handle only final steps in completing work on 737 single-aisle jets ordered by Chinese customers, the report said citing person familiar with discussions on the venture.
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German media holding company Axel Springer is in advanced talks to buy Business Insider in a deal that would value the US digital publisher at about USD500 million, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter. A transaction could be finalised in the coming weeks. No agreement has been reached and the discussions could end without a deal, the reports said. Business Insider, co-founded in 2007 by current Chief Executive Officer Henry Blodget as a Web-only business publication, now has six additional editions outside the US, including in the U.K, Australia and Singapore.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Begbies Traynor Group
First Property Group
Diageo
Best of the Best
Real Good Food
Scientific Digital Imaging
Eckoh
Imaginatik
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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