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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Carillion PLC said it has held meetings with a number of major Balfour Beatty PLC shareholders since Monday, as it seeks to push through a merger between the two construction companies. On Monday, Balfour Beatty said it had "lost confidence" in a successful merger with Carillion PLC and concluded that it is in its best interest to continue with its current plan to refocus and simplify the group. However, Carillion said that it continues to believe in the "powerful strategic logic" and financial benefits of a merger with Balfour Beatty and is therefore continuing to consider its position. Carillion said it has proposed that Balfour Beatty's shareholders receive an additional cash dividend, or equivalent, of 8.5 pence per Balfour Beatty share at the time that Balfour Beatty's final 2014 dividend would otherwise have been paid in 2015. In response, Balfour Beatty said Carillion's statement did not address significant risks it outlined its own statement on Monday.
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AstraZeneca PLC said it has started a phase III trial for tralokinumab, a potential treatment for patients with severe, inadequately controlled asthma, developed by the company's global biologics research and development arm MedImmune. In a statement, the drugs company said the Phase III programme will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of tralokinumab in reducing the rate of asthma exacerbations in adults and adolescents with severe, inadequately controlled asthma despite receiving inhaled corticosteroids plus long-acting β2-agonist.
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Barclays PLC's index unit has drawn offers from Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. Bloomberg LP, and CME Group Inc, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. According to one of the people, who did not want to be identified because the matter isn't public, the Index Portfolio and Risk Solutions business could fetch about USD1.0 billion.
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A selection of the biggest drugmakers in Europe are understood to be among the bidders for US biotechnology firm InterMune Inc, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the deal. Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Centerview Partners LLC are advising InterMune on the bids. Shares in the company were up 14% in New York trade, giving the company a market value of USD5.62 billion. GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Actelion Ltd, Sanofi SA and Roche Holding AG are all thought to be interested in acquiring firm, with the sources suggesting Sanofi is showing the most interest.
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Gold producer Centamin PLC reported lower profit for the second quarter as operating costs rose due a drop in the grade of ore being delivered to its main processing plant, but it predicted that the grade will rise again and it announced a maiden interim dividend. The company reported a pretax profit of USD11.3 million for the three months to June 30, down from USD51.7 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to USD102.6 million, from USD134.3 million. For the first six months of 2014, the company reported a pretax profit of USD31.9 million, down from USD123.6 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to USD205.3 million, from USD272.5 million. The company said it would pay a maiden interim dividend of 0.87 cents a share.
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Cineworld Group PLC reported a sharp drop in profits for the first half of its financial year, partially due to acquisition costs of Cinema City, but said the acquisition of the cinema chain helped drive a 33% increase in revenue, boosted by the release of 'The Lego Movie' and the X-Men and Spiderman sequels. The group raised its interim by 2.7% to 3.8 pence per share. The cinema chain - which operates under the brands Cineworld, Picturehouse, Cinema City, and Yes Planet - reported strong revenue growth in the period, up 33% to GBP268.6 million compared with GBP201.6 million a year earlier, boosted by the recent acquisition of Cinema City. Box office revenue and admissions on the other hand were lower, due to the World Cup, as people opted to watch football rather than head to the cinema. However, the group's pretax profit fell by almost 16% to GBP13.9 million, down from GBP16.5 million in the first half of 2013, hit by a number of higher costs it booked during the period, including acquisition costs.
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Subprime lender Provident Financial PLC said it has agreed to acquire Duncton Group Ltd, which operates under the Moneybarn brand, for GBP120.0 million, and simultaneously unveiled plans to raise an equivalent amount in a placing of new shares. In a statement, Provident Financial said it is acquiring Moneybarn, which provides secured car finance to non-standard customers in the UK and operates mainly through brokers, in order to broaden its product offering and to create a "third leg" of earnings to complement its consumer credit and its credit card divisions.
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Capita PLC said it has acquired SouthWestern Business Process Services Ltd from private equity group Ion Equity for EUR35.0 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis, in a move to increase the outsourcing company's presence in the Irish business process outsourcing market. "SouthWestern is a highly respected outsourcing company with an excellent private and public sector client base. It has particularly strong relationships with organisations in the agricultural sector, which is a growing and new market for Capita," Chief Executive Andy Parker said in a statement.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks have moved higher, seemingly unaffected by disappointing German, French and eurozone economic data.
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6667.6
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 15593.71
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 754.28
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The euro is up against the dollar despite the eurozone economy failing to grow in the second quarter.
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.6783
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3381

GOLD: up at USD1315.49 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD104.47 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The euro area economy stagnated in the second quarter, flash figures from Eurostat showed. Economists had forecast gross domestic product to grow 0.1% sequentially after rising 0.2% in the first quarter. On a yearly basis, GDP growth slowed to 0.7% from 0.9% in the first quarter. The annual rate matched economists' expectations.
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The German economy contracted more-than-expected in the second quarter on weaker exports and investment, while France stagnated for the second straight time, forcing the government to discard its 2014 deficit target. Germany's gross domestic product fell 0.2% sequentially, after expanding by a revised 0.7% in the first quarter, preliminary figures from Destatis showed. This was the first decline since the first quarter of 2013 and was deeper than the 0.1% fall forecast by economists.
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French GDP remained flat in the second quarter, preliminary data from Insee showed. Economists had forecast the economy to grow 0.1% after staying steady in the first quarter. The GDP figure was also below the Bank of France's 0.2% growth projection. Earlier last month, Bundesbank had said it expects the German GDP to stall in the second quarter, as geopolitical concerns dragged industrial production.
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The average asking price for a house in the UK moderated in July, the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors revealed on Thursday - showing a score of 49. That's down from 52 in June, and represents a five-month low. The decline in prices was centered on London, which had been enjoying a boom in prices through recent months. Analysts had called the surge unsustainable, however - and that was borne out by the July reading. Buyer inquiries in London tumbled at the sharpest rate since April 2008.
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A massive Russian aid convoy bound for civilians in eastern Ukraine was pushing toward the embattled city of Luhansk on Thursday, amid fresh accusations from Kiev that Moscow was not cooperating with international organizations. The almost 280 lorries with 2,000 tons of food and medicine were moving some 100 kilometers north of the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a European Press Agency photographer said. Kamensk-Shakhtinsky is close to the Izvarino border post, which has seen heavy fighting between rebels and government forces.
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A five-day extension of a temporary truce between Palestinian militants and Israel went into force after it was agreed shortly before the ceasefire was to expire. Rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip two hours before the midnight deadline, and Israel responded with airstrikes early Thursday, but it has carried out none since 3 am and no rockets have been fired since then, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. An air raid siren in the late morning in the southern Israeli Eshkol region proved a false alarm, she said. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, denied launching the latest rockets. Three rockets landed in open areas while a fourth was downed over the town of Netivot, an Israeli spokeswoman said.
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A major effort to evacuate Iraqi civilians besieged on a mountain by Islamist militants looks unnecessary, the US said Wednesday after a reconnaissance team found "far fewer" people than believed on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq. The US had been weighing options, including airlifts, to rescue members of the Yezidi religious minority who fled their homes in the face of territorial gains by militants from the group calling itself the Islamic State. For days, some tens of thousands of civilians had been feared to be on the mountain without shelter and with little food and water. The US carried out airstrikes to disrupt militant forces, while the US, British and Iraqi militaries dropped supplies to the refugees.
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A five-day extension to the ceasefire between Palestinian militants and Israel went into force early Thursday, agreed at the last minute the night before. Israel launched airstrikes shortly after midnight in response to rocket fire from Gaza, but none since 3am, and no rockets were fired since then, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military said. Hamas, which controls Gaza, denied launching the latest rockets at 10pm Wednesday. Three rockets landed in open areas while a fourth was downed over the town of Netivot, an Israeli spokeswoman said. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said that no injuries were reported in the retaliatory airstrikes, which struck unoccupied areas. The latest truce, to expire Monday, was to give indirect, Egyptian-mediated negotiations in Cairo more time to forge a long-term ceasefire.
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A "new model" relationship between the US and China is key to maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday at the conclusion of a trip that included stops in several Asian countries. Kerry highlighted US-China cooperation on Iran's nuclear programme, monitoring North Korea's nuclear aspirations and promoting peace in South Sudan. As the two largest greenhouse gas emitters, China and the US had committed to significantly reducing emissions, he said in a speech at the East-West Center in Hawaii, after visits to Myanmar, Australia and the Solomon Islands. Kerry also said the US opposed the use of intimidation, coercion or force to assert conflicting territorial claims in the Asia-Pacific region.
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The United Nations World Health Organization said Wednesday the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has now infected nearly 2000 people in the four countries most impacted by the disease, with more than half of those ending in death. The UN agency's latest update show 128 new cases of Ebola virus disease and 56 deaths reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone between August 10 and 11. The figure brings the total number of cases to 1,975 and deaths to 1,069.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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