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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 said it has secured a deal to sell its 75% stake in China-based Tongyi Lubricants to Huo's Group and private equity company Carlyle Group. The oil major did not provide any financial details on the transaction, but said it expects to complete the deal by late 2015 or early 2016. Tongyi is a joint venture between Shell and Huo's Group, the Chinese lubricants supplier. Shell said the deal is consistent with its ongoing strategy of consolidating its downstream operations and focusing them on a smaller base of assets and on markets in which it can be competitive.
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UK media and communications regulator Ofcom late Thursday opened an investigation into Sky after complaints made by consumers that the company had ignored their requests to cancel their contracts with the broadcaster and telecommunications group. Ofcom said it has opened an investigation into Sky after it received complaints that it was making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions. It comes as part of a probe launched by the regulator into the way that providers across the board give consumers the opportunity to cancel their contracts. The new probe will look at Sky's television, phone and broadband services.
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GlaxoSmithKline and Theravance Inc late Thursday announced the approval in Canada of BREO ELLIPTA for the once-daily maintenance treatment of asthma in patients aged 18 years and older with reversible obstructive airways disease.
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William Hill reported a drop in profit in the first half of 2015 as it was hit by tax hikes and a tough comparative period, and said it has bought a stake in online lottery company NeoGames, as its shares slumped in early trade. The bookmaker reported a 35% drop in pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended June 30 to GBP78.7 million from GBP121.8 million in the first half of the prior year. Revenue, however, grew to GBP808.1 million from GBP805.2 million. William Hill said that an increase in machine games duty and the introduction of the point of consumption tax cost the business GBP44 million in the half year, which in turn hit its profit. The half-year also faced a tough comparative which included the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the company added.
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Housebuilder Bellway said it sold more houses at higher prices in its 2015 financial year and said its forward order book leaves its looking strong moving into the new year. Bellway said it sold 7,752 homes in the year to the end of July, up 13% from the 6,851 it sold a year earlier, with the average selling price of those homes rising to GBP224,000 from GBP213,182. The group said it has 4,568 homes in its forward order book, up from 4,363 at the end of its 2014 financial year, with a total value of GBP1.09 billion, up from GBP924.3 million.
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GVC Holdings said it has made a fully-funded proposal to acquire Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment in cash and shares, as it continues to attempt to gatecrash 888 Holding's takeover of the FTSE 250-listed online gaming company. GVC said it has made a bid under which Bwin.Party shareholders would get 25 pence in cash and 0.231 new GVC ordinary shares, valuing Bwin.Party at 125.5 pence per share. That is an increase from the 122.5 pence per share bid GVC outlined in July.
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MARKETS
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London shares are lower mid-morning, with FTSE-100 listed mining stocks rebounding from Thursday's losses, as the market awaits the release of US nonfarm payrolls later in the afternoon.
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,743.10
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 17,71
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 750.90
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GBP: up at USD1.5522
EUR: down at USD1.0920
GOLD: up at USD1097.33 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD49.40 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The UK visible trade deficit widened in June, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. The visible trade deficit increased to GBP9.2 billion in June from GBP8.4 billion in May. But it was smaller than the expected shortfall of GBP9.3 billion. Exports fell by GBP0.3 billion, while imports rose by GBP0.5 billion in June from May.
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The UK economy expanded at a stable rate in July, extending an improving trend from previous months, latest estimates from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research have revealed. The gross domestic product grew by 0.7% in the three months to July, the same rate of expansion in the previous month, the think tank said. This implies that the economy has expanded by 2.7% in the last 12 months, the NIESR said. In its latest quarterly forecast, released on Wednesday, the institute predicted 2.5 growth for this year and 2.4% expansion for next year.
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Permanent job placements in the UK increased at the weakest pace in over two years in July, the Report on Jobs compiled by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG showed. The number of people placed in permanent jobs continued to rise in July, but the rate of expansion eased to the slowest in 26 months. The rate of growth in temporary and contract staff billings also moderated to a twenty-five month low in July.
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Germany's industrial production logged an unexpected decline in June, provisional data from Destatis has revealed. Industrial production dropped 1.4% month-on-month in June, which was the biggest fall since August, when it declined 2.8%. It was expected to rise 0.3%. In May, production grew by revised 0.2%.
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Islamic State has seized a strategic town in central Syria from President Bashar al-Assad's troops, a monitoring group said, while dozens of fighters from the extremist militia were killed in US-led airstrikes in the east and north-east. The hardline jihadists overran the town of al-Qaryatain south-west of the historic city of Palmyra, which has been under the control of Islamic State since May. Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 51 Islamic State militants were killed in the past 48 hours by US-led airstrikes targeting the group's strongholds in eastern and north-eastern Syria.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun
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