Glaxosmithkline Share News (GSK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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Shire PLC said it has received a USD248 million cash refund from the Canadian revenue authorities, and said it expects a further USD162 million in late 2014. The company said it intends to use the cash to repay debt, giving it increased capacity to invest in business development activities. The FTSE 100 listed pharmaceutical company is presently fending off a takeover approach from US based AbbVie Inc, after rebuffing three indicative offers from AbbVie.
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BAE Systems PLC said it plans to reorganises its interest in Saudi Arabia into one company to enhance its working relationship with Riyadh Wings Aviation Academy LLC, its partner in the region.
The two companies will bring together their training, electronics and IT systems engineering in Saudi Arabia into a single holding company, which will be majority owned by FTSE 100-listed BAE. Riyadh Wings will progressively acquire a 49% stake in the holding company which will be called OMC.
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Coca-Cola HBC AG said it intends to delist its American depositary receipts from the New York Stock Exchange, ending the programme because most trading of its shares takes place on the London Stock Exchange. In a statement, Coca-Cola HBC AG said that the UK has become the main trading market for its shares, accounting for more than 85% of total volume in the 12 months ended June 18. In contrast, only 1.4% of its shares were held as ADRs at the end of that period, with trading volume in the US accounting for just 1.3% of the total.
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Asset manager Henderson Group PLC said it has inked a deal to acquire Geneva Capital Management for up to USD200.0 million, as its bids to up its presence in North America and bring in institutional distribution capabilities to complement its retail franchise. In a statement, Henderson said it has agreed to pay USD130.0 million up front for Geneva. Henderson has been focused on growing its North American business, doubling its assets under management to USD12.0 billion at the end of May 2014, from USD5.9 billion at the end of 2011. The combined North American business now will have about USD18.3 billion in assets under management, about 15% of Henderson's group total.
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Sports Direct International PLC said it is not considering an offer to acquire UK footwear retailer, OFFICE, following recent trade speculation. The FTSE 100-listed sports retailer quashed the rumours and said that such speculation was "unhelpful to the customers, staff, suppliers and other stakeholders of both companies."
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Carphone Warehouse Group PLC said it has entered into a legally binding agreement to sell its joint venture with Virgin Media Inc, Virgin Mobile France, to Numericable Group SA. Carphone has a 46% share in the joint venture, which will be sold for a total of EUR325 million, of which EUR149.5 million would be attributable to Carphone. The sale is subject to approval from the French Competition Authority. Carphone had said in May that it was in talks for the sale.
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Mecom Group PLC said it has agreed to be acquired by Belgian media group De Persgroep Publishing NV for GBP196 million in cash. De Persgroep will pay 155 pence for each Mecom share, which it said was a 35% premium of Mecom's closing price of 115p on Friday. Mecom was trading up 32% at 152.08p Monday Morning. Mecom is a media company, with operations in the Netherlands and Denmark.
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Merlin Entertainments PLC said it will open its first LEGOLAND park in Japan in a project set to cost approximately GBP185 million. The new LEGOLAND Japan site will add to Merlin's existing portfolio of six LEGOLAND parks in five countries and will be opened under the company's 'operated and leased' model through which the infrastructure of the park is funded by a third party. Under the terms of the agreement Merlin will directly invest approximately GBP53 million in the park over the next three years and lease the balance of the assets from a company owned by KIRKBI Invest A/S, a subsidiary of KIRKBI A/S, a privately held investment and holding company with a 75% ownership share in the LEGO Group and a 29.9% shareholding in Merlin.
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Anglo American PLC has put up some of its platinum mines in South Africa up for sale in order to dispose of underperforming assets as part of a GBP2.35 billion clearout, according to a report in the Sunday Times. The newspaper reported that the Australian mining company has put some of its historic South African platinum mines up for sale as part of a company-wide clearout led by Chief Executive Mark Cutifani. Earmarked for disposal are the company’s oldest and deepest shafts in the impoverished mining region of Rustenberg, South Africa, some of which have been in operation since the 1950s, in a move that demonstrates the CEO's willingness to break with legacy operations, said the Sunday Times. South African investment bank, RMB, has reportedly been lined up to run the auction.
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Oil giant BP PLC has approached a US court seeking repayment from several companies part of the compensation they received related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil company claimed these companies were allowed to inflate their losses by the administrator in charge of processing the claims.
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The investigation into allegations of bribery by GlaxoSmithKline PLC in China began with a sex tape involving the company's most senior executive in the country, Mark Reilly, the Sunday Times reported. The tape of Reilly and his Chinese girlfriend was attached to an email sent in March last year alleging that Glaxo was bribing doctors in China, the report said, and caused alarm at Glaxo. Glaxo's Chinese unit, run by Reilly, hired a company called Chinawhys to look into the breach, according to the Sunday Times. Chinawhys was run by Peter Humphrey, who has since been arrested after investigating Vivian Shi, suspected of being a whistleblower at Glaxo.
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TUI Travel PLC Chief Executive Peter Long cast aside earlier doubts about the UK tour operator's merger with German parent TUI AG because its 54.5% majority owner has become a better-run company, according to Financial Times report Sunday. TUI AG on Friday said it will buy the remaining 45.5% of TUI Travel in an all-share deal worth about GBP2 billion, a move that ends years of speculation that TUI AG would eventually take full control of TUI Travel. The merged entity will have two chief executive officers - both TUI Travel's Peter Long and TUI AG's Friedrich Joussen - up until February 2016, after which Long will become chairman of the supervisory board, and Joussen would lead solely as CEO. "There is far greater clarity within TUI AG,” said Long, according to the FT's report Sunday. “Under Fritz’s leadership, it’s very businesslike."
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Lloyds Banking Group PLC's private equity arm has turned down a takeover offer for part of its business, according to a Sky News report. The report states that Goldman Sachs recently proposed buying the London operation of Lloyds Development Capital. However, Goldman is not pursuing its interest in the business after its offer was rejected, while Sky News reported that a Lloyds spokesman denied it had any interest in offloading Lloyds Development Capital.
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100 index is fractionally higher for the third consecutive day, but still looks set to end the month of June firmly in negative territory amid a rush of UK company reporting on the last day of the half year.
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6764.98
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 15729.1
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 783.32
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The euro is up against the dollar after data showed EU inflation remaining stable in June. The pound is down slightly after data showed a fourth straight month of declines in UK mortgage approvals.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.7012
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3653

GOLD: down at USD1313.22 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD112.60 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK mortgage approvals declined for the fourth consecutive month in May, data from the Bank of England showed. The number of loans approved for house purchases fell to 61,707 in May, the lowest since June 2013, from 62,806 in April. Approvals were forecast to fall to 61,600. The new mortgage rules helped to reduce the overall approvals. Consumer credit increased by GBP 0.7 billion in May, in line with the average monthly increase over the last six months. Consumer credit rose by 0.5% from April. Total lending to individuals rose GBP 2.7 billion versus GBP 2.4 billion rise in April.
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British financial services firms expect business volumes to grow at a solid pace in the coming quarter, survey data from the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers showed. A positive balance of 28% of financial services firms felt optimistic about the overall business situation over the three months to June. About 48% of firms said that business volumes were up, while 15% said they were down, giving a balance of +33% in the three months to June. Looking ahead to the next quarter, 44% of firms expect business volumes to increase, while 7% said they will decrease, giving a balance of +37%.
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Eurozone inflation remained stable at 0.5% in June, flash estimate from Eurostat showed. It was forecast to rise slightly to 0.6%. Inflation has been below the European Central Bank's target of 'below, but close to 2%' for the seventeenth consecutive month. At the same time, core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, rose marginally to 0.8% in June from 0.7% in May. Final figures are due on July 17.
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German retail sales fell unexpectedly in May from the prior month, official data revealed. Retail sales were down 0.6% month-on-month in May, but slower than the 1.5% drop seen in April, provisional results from Destatis showed. This was the second consecutive fall in sales. Economists had forecast a 0.8% rise in turnover in May.
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Europe's banking sector is in a critical situation even six years after the height of the global financial crisis, the Bank for International Settlements said in its annual report published Sunday. "The good news is that the global economy is healing and global growth has picked up during the past year," said Jaime Caruana, BIS general manager. "Reforms have taken hold, if unevenly." But while the euro area has emerged from recession, as Caruana acknowledged, the report noted that much more needs to be done to make banks more resilient and their business models more sustainable.
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The ageing populations of many industrialized nations will put a brake on rising real estate markets, the Bank for International Settlements says. "Demographic factors could dampen house prices by reducing property price growth considerably over the coming decades," the umbrella organization for central banks said in its annual report Sunday.
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Military hostilities and mutual criticism between North and South Korea should stop later this week, Pyongyang suggested, in a bid to reduce tensions between the two neighbours, a news report said. North Korea's National Defence Commission said the two sides should improve the conditions for dialogue, Yonhap News Agency reported. Pyongyang said it was ready to implement from Friday a deal struck with Seoul in February to end hostilities. As part of the North's proposal, Seoul should scrap joint military drills with the US planned for August, Yonhap reported.
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Pakistan's military boosted their ground operations against militant strongholds after more than two weeks of aerial bombardment and civilian evacuations, an official said. Troops moved into Miranshah in the tribal district of North Waziristan for house-to-house searches, army spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bjawa said. "Fifteen terrorists have been killed in the ground offensive," he said. "Troops have recovered underground tunnels and explosive device workshops in the area cleared so far." Three soldiers were injured by gunshot, he said.
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Andy Coulson, former press secretary to British Prime Minister David Cameron, will be retried over charges relating to the payment of police officers for royal phone directories, a judge ruled. The charges stem from his time as editor of the News of the World tabloid, which was closed in 2011 after revelations that its reporters had hacked the phones of celebrities, politicians and even a murdered schoolgirl. Coulson was convicted last week of conspiracy to hack phones, but the jury failed to reach a conclusion on charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office by paying the police officers. On Friday, Coulson, a private detective and four other News of the World journalists are to be sentenced for their role in the phone hacking. They face up to two years in prison.
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