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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Friday.
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COMPANIES
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Royal Dutch Shell has reached a binding agreement to sell its Australia downstream businesses, excluding Aviation, to Dutch-owned oil trader Vitol for a total of about USD2.6 billion. The sale covers Shell's Geelong Refinery and 870-site retail business, and includes its bulk fuels, bitumen, chemicals and part of its lubricants businesses in Australia. The sale also includes a brand license arrangement and an exclusive distributor arrangement in Australia for Shell Lubricants.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group is preparing a dramatic retrenchment that would see it become a much smaller UK retail and commercial bank, a move that is expected to see staff numbers slashed by at least 30,000 in the coming years, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the bank's plans.
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Legal & General has expanded its investment management arm in the world's largest economy by buying Atlanta-based Global Index Advisors Inc for up to USD50.4 million. The British insurer had wanted to expand its international investment management operations to help drive growth, and the Global Index deal, its first acquisition in the US, means its US investment management unit now has proforma assets of over USD50 billion. It said the acquisition will give it scale in the USD6 trillion US defined contribution market. It will pay USD30.75 million initially, a further USD1.5 million over the two years following completion, and up to USD18.15 million more over the three years following completion, subject to the performance of Global Index and its ability to grow assets.
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GlaxoSmithKline's Incruse, a treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, had been recommended for marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency's committee for Medical Products for Human Use, a key step in getting approval for the drug.
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Rolls-Royce Holdings has won a USD182.7 million extension on its contract to provide support for the US Air Force's C-130J transport plane fleet. The British company looks after the AE 2100 engines on the planes.
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Tullow Oil said the operator of the Langlitinden prospect in Norway, in which it has a 15% stake, had failed to find any oil. The well on the site will be plugged and abandoned.
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Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Group reported higher revenues and profits for 2013, solely due to a one-off profit boost from the Glyndebourne property development in Singapore at the end of the fourth quarter, and said its room refurbishment programme would continue to weigh on its results this year. It reported a pretax profit of GBP167.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, up from only GBP54.2 million a year earlier, and recorded a pretax profit of GBP263.6 million for the year as a whole, compared with a profit of GBP171.3 million in 2012.
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Informa pledged to deliver further growth in adjusted earnings per share in 2014, as it reported improved revenue and pretax profit for 2013 in the first set of results under new Chief Executive Stephen Carter. The new CEO said a key objective for Informa in 2014 will be managing the transition in leadership as smoothly and effectively as possible. He set out two major challenges for Informa: addressing the shift in technology happening in Informa's market, and returning the company's Business Intelligence division to growth.
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IP Group shares jumped after the firm announced that portfolio company Xeros Ltd intends to float on AIM in March to raise funds to bring its cleaning product to the laundry market.
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MARKETS
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The FTSE 100 is on track to post its sixth consecutive daily rise, as weaker-than-expected UK retail sales and public finances data failed to dent the recent market positivity.
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FTSE 100: Up 0.2% at 6,826.97
FTSE 250: Up 0.2% at 16,400.34
AIM ALL-SHARE: Up 0.02% at 883.10
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The pound trimmed its early losses against other major currencies in European deals on Friday, despite a fall in UK retail sales in January.
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GBP-USD: Up at USD1.6674
EUR-USD: Down at USD1.3707

GOLD: Up at USD1,321.22 per ounce
OIL (Brent): Down at USD109.96 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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British retail sales declined more than expected in January due to a notable decrease in food store sales. Including automotive fuel, retail sales fell 1.5% month-on-month in January, which was the first decline in three months, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists were expecting sales to fall 1% after posting a 2.5% rise in December. Sales excluding automotive fuel, also decreased by 1.5% in January versus 2.7% increase a month ago. Sales were forecast to drop 1.2%.
Food store sales slipped 3.4% from December, while non-food store sales gained 0.4% in January.
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The UK's budget surplus declined unexpectedly in January from the same period of last year. Public sector net borrowing excluding temporary effects of financial interventions was -GBP 4.7 billion in January compared to -GBP 6 billion last year, the Office for National Statistics said. The surplus was expected to rise to GBP 8 billion. The January figure excludes GBP 3.8 billion asset purchase facility transfer.
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Confidence among British residents regarding the value of their homes increased to the record high in February, data from a survey by Knight Frank and Markit Economics revealed. The headline house price sentiment index, which measures households' views of the current value of their houses, climbed to 60.7 in February, hitting the highest level since the survey began. The index has now stayed above the no-change 50 mark, which separates growth from contraction, for the eleventh successive month. Property owners in every region of the UK perceived that the value of their home rose in February, led by London, data showed.
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Multinationals that shift revenue around the world to pare their tax bill will be in the firing line at this weekend's meeting in Sydney of global finance chiefs, Australia's top economics minister said.
Joe Hockey said that "where you earn the money you pay the tax" and that the G20 finance chiefs meeting he is hosting is "where the rubber hits the road on these issues."
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Negotiators from the EU and Russia have agreed with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition on a solution to the political crisis, the president's office says. The deal was due to be signed on Friday at 1000 GMT. A senior pro-government lawmaker, Oleksandr Yefremov, said the deal includes an early presidential election in December and a vote on constitutional change in September. However, other participants in the eight-hour talks, which lasted until the early morning, urged caution as unknown gunmen in Kiev opened fire on police guarding the parliament building, the Interior Ministry said during a week that has seen at least 77 people die in unrest between anti-government protesters and security forces in Ukraine's capital.
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Italy's prime ministerial designate, Matteo Renzi, was due to present his government team on Friday, a day earlier than expected. Renzi, the outgoing mayor of Florence and leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, has been negotiating a coalition pact with the New Centre Right party of Angelino Alfano and smaller centrist and leftists groupings.
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A draft UN Security Council resolution on humanitarian aid access in war-torn Syria has been finalized and will be put to vote Saturday morning, said Gary Quinlan, Australian ambassador to the UN. The draft backed by Western and Arab states calls for ending violence against civilians, allowing humanitarian aid into Syria and also makes provision for the use of force in the case of non-compliance, according to a copy of the draft obtained by dpa. The text calls for lifting the siege of several areas, including Old City Homs, Aleppo and Damascus, to allow civilians to leave and get access to food and medical help.
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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a six-point action plan to the UN Security Council Thursday, saying immediate measures are needed to stop violence in the Central African Republic.
"The international community must act decisively now to prevent any further worsening of the situation and to respond to the dire needs of the country's people," Ban told the council. The secretary general appealed for 3,000 additional troops, increased funding, political support to establish a functioning government in the country and assistance to get the peace process underway.
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Libyans voted on Thursday to elected members of an assembly that will draft a new constitution, which many hope will avert violence between rival militias and armed factions. Turnout was reported to be low. Many Libyans are disillusioned with politics three years after the outbreak of the revolt that ended with the caputre and killing of Moamer Gaddafi.
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Iran is complying with obligations under an interim agreement with six world powers by curbing its nuclear activities and allowing more intrusive inspections, the UN nuclear watchdog said in its second positive assessment. The International Atomic Energy Agency issued its report hours after Iran and the six nations agreed to an intensive schedule of talks to reach a comprehensive agreement and resolve the standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme.
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China urged the US to cancel a planned meeting Friday between US President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama at the White House. The meeting would cause "serious damage" to ties between the two countries and amount to interference in China's domestic affairs, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
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North and South Korean families divided since the Korean War in the 1950s met again Friday in the latest set of reunions, a media report said. Eighty-two selected South Koreans accompanied by 58 family members saw 180 relatives from the North at the coastal resort of Mount Kumgang in North Korea, the South's Yonhap News Agency said.
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