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LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened higher in London Friday, with the FTSE 100 staying above 7,000 points, ahead of UK industrial production figures due at 0930 BST.
Braving the prospect of snarky comments that "the emperor has no clothes", Majestic Wine said it will acquire online wine retailer Naked Wines International Ltd for up to GBP70 million in cash and shares, with founder and chief executive officer of Naked Wines Rowan Gormley to head up the enlarged group.
Shares in Majestic, which also said it will skip two dividend payments, are down 6.7%.
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 7,038.12
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 17,771.98
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 733.07
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Hang Seng: up 0.7% at 27,132.13
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.2% at 19,907.63
DJIA: closed up 0.3% at 17,958.73
S&P 500: closed up 0.5% at 2,091.18
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GBP: down at USD1.4690
EUR: down at USD1.0632
GOLD: down at USD1,194.15 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD56.58 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)
09:30 UK Industrial Production
13:15 Canada Housing Starts
13:30 US Fed's Lacker speech
13:30 Canada Unemployment Rate
14:30 US Import and Export Price indices
15:00 UK NIESR GDP Estimate
17:20 US Fed Minneapolis's Narayana Kocherlakota speech
19:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
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Chinese inflation remained unchanged in March and producer prices continued to remain in negative territory, giving room for the central bank to adjust its policy to spur economic growth. The consumer price index gained 1.4% in March from last year, the same rate of growth as seen in the prior month, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. Inflation was forecast to ease marginally to 1.3%. In a separate report, the NBS said producer prices declined for the 37th consecutive month in March. The decline largely reflects lower mining and raw material prices. Producer prices slid 4.6% from the prior year, which was slower than a 4.8% fall seen in February. Economists had forecast prices to drop 4.8% again in March.
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Job placements in the UK increased at a stronger pace in March, while salaries rose at the fastest rate in six months, data from a survey by Markit Economics and KPMG revealed. Permanent job placements in March rose at a rate unchanged from the previous month's considerable pace. Meanwhile, temp billings growth was only slightly slower than the five-month high of February. The number of job vacancies climbed to a five-month high in March, underpinned by robust demand for staff. Average starting salaries for people enrolled in permanent job roles increased further in March and the latest rise was the strongest pace since last September.
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Switzerland's jobless rate remained unchanged in March, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs reported. The unemployment rate held steady at a seasonally adjusted 3.2% in March, in line with expectations. On an unadjusted basis, the jobless rate fell to 3.4% from 3.5% in February.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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CREDIT SUISSE RAISES BG GROUP TO 'NEUTRAL' (UNDERPERF,) - PRICE TARGET 1350 (815) PENCE
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES BARRATT DEVELOPMENTS TO 'HOLD' ('UNDERPERFORM')
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES PERSIMMON TO 'HOLD' ('UNDERPERFORM')
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES TAYLOR WIMPEY TO 'BUY'
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UBS RAISES RECKITT BENCKISER TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET 6505 (5500) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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EasyJet has cancelled hundreds of flights as strike action by French air traffic controllers moved into its second day on Thursday, the BBC reports. The budget carrier did not operate 331 flights on Thursday, having already cancelled 248 on Wednesday. A spokesman for easyJet told the BBC the "unnecessary" strike has caused "considerable and disproportionate disruption for passengers and airlines across Europe".
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Shire said late Thursday its new drug application for lifitegrast, a treatment for dry eye disease in adults, has been granted a priority review designation by the US Food and Drug Administration. This designation means that the new drug application has a review target of eight months, compared to the standard twelve months. The FDA is expected to provide a decision on October 25, 2015.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Vedanta Resources said its oil and gas production and its zinc production for the full year were both hit by disruptions, though it said its fourth quarter oil and gas production stabilised and it reported better zinc production in the quarter. Vedanta said its oil and gas production for the full financial year to the end of March was 220,876 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down 3% from the 226,808 barrels produced a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, production fell to 224,294 boepd from 232,884 boepd, though Vedanta said oil and gas production has now stabilised following maintenance work carried out in the second quarter, which dragged on its production.
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Tritax Big Box REIT said it has struck a deal with FTSE 250-listed LondonMetric Property to acquire the Brake Bros Distribution Centre in Harlow in a GBP37.2 million deal. Tritax said the acquisition of the site reflects a net initial yield of 5%. It expects the deal to complete in June 2015.
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Hays said it expects to see strong operating profit growth in its full year, as it saw group net fee growth of 5% in its third quarter to end-March. The recruitment company said it expects its second half operating profit to be slightly ahead of its first half level of GBP81.5 million. At constant currency, and excluding acquisitions, net fees rose 8% in the quarter compared to the previous year, as the depreciation of the euro and Australian dollar against sterling held back performance at actual exchange rates.
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Acacia Mining said it has signed a deal to expand its land holdings in the Houndé belt in Burkina Faso via two earn-in agreements. The FTSE 250-listed miner has signed earn-in deals with Canyon Resources and Thor Explorations Ltd. The deal with Canyon will give Acacia a 75% earn-in interest in the Pinarello and Konkolikan projects, and the Thor deal will give it a 51% interest in the Central Houndé project. Acacia said the deals have cost around USD1 million and are part of its USD20 million exploration budget for 2015.
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Riverstone Energy said it will be among the investors committing funding to the Meritage Midstream Services III LP, a Canadian midstream oil services company. Riverstone Holdings LLC, the fund manager for FTSE 250-listed Riverstone Energy will commit USD100 million to Meritage, comprising USD67 million from the Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund VI and USD33 million from Riverstone Energy Ltd.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Majestic Wine it will acquire online wine retailer Naked Wines International Ltd for up to GBP70 million in cash and shares, with founder and chief executive officer of Naked Wines Rowan Gormley to head up the enlarged group. Majestic will pay GBP50 million in cash, funded by new debt facilities, and up to GBP20 million of contingent consideration in shares. Majestic also said it has decided to withhold its final dividend for the its current financial year 2015, and its interim dividend for the financial year 2016. It said it expects to progressively re-instate dividends by the financial year 2018.
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Blur Group said it expects its recognised revenue for 2014 to be substantially lower than expected owing to protracted contract delays. The company said that following discussions with accountants KPMG, it has determined that a number of older projects started between late 2013 and early 2014, which have experienced delays, are showing a "lower likelihood of completion". Blur said it remains focused on reaching profitability by early 2016 and said its net cash position remains in line with expectations at USD17.4 million as at December 31, 2014.
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PR and communications firm Huntsworth posted a swing to a pretax loss in 2014 as a result of booking heavy impairment charges related to its declining Grayling business, and following a board shake-up has launched of a strategic and operation review. Huntsworth proposed a final dividend of 0.75 pence, taking its total dividend for the year to 1.75 pence, down from 3.50 pence in 2013. It said that the decision to cut the dividend was to better align it with the dividend payout ratio of its peer group. The company posted a pretax loss of GBP59.6 million, swung from a pretax profit of GBP17.1 million in 2013.
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Faroe Petroleum said the results from the Skirne East exploration well in Norway were lower than expected and said the well has now been plugged and abandoned as planned. Faroe said the results from the well showed a preliminary resource estimate for the gas discovery of 3 million to 10 million barrels of oil equivalent. Faroe has a 20% interest in the well, meaning the net resource estimate attributable to the company is 0.6 million to 2.0 million barrels
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Construction and infrastructure projects consultancy Sweett Group said it has been re-appointed to provide commercial management and estimating services to Network Rail on the GBP6.5 billion Thameslink Programme. The UK government-backed scheme involves the construction of an enhanced rail link between Brighton and Bedford. Sweett was hired by Network Rail in 2006 to provide support to the programme and the new four-year deal will mean it continues its work advising on the programme.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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General Electric Co is close to selling a real estate portfolio having assets of about USD30 billion, reports said. The real estate business tops 4,400 properties, and the assets include investments in shopping malls, office buildings and certain other commercial property. A deal with Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo & Co for some or all of the assets may be announced Friday. The disposal will reduce the GE Capital unit. GE has scheduled an investor Friday morning to give an update on GE Capital.
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California's chief utility regulator ordered public utility company PG&E Corp to pay fines totalling USD1.6 billion for the deadly 2010 gas pipeline explosion and fire in San Bruno, California. The California Public Utilities Commission or CPUC noted it is the largest penalty ever levied against a utility in the state. The regulator ordered PG&E to pay the fine for the unsafe operation of its gas transmission system, including the pipeline rupture in San Bruno, in 2010.
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The US Federal Aviation Administration granted approval to online retail giant Amazon.com to test-fly their new advanced drones, under certain provision, for potential delivery. The speedy approval for the drone comes after the FAA was severely criticized for the six-month delay in approving Amazon's earlier prototype drone in March.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs
No events scheduled.
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite
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