Hogg Robinson Group Share News (HRG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever reported a higher 2014 profit as it managed to offset a currency hit with price rises and cost cutting, but its shares fell as its fourth quarter sales growth missed analysts' expectations and it gave a cautious outlook for 2015. Unilever said net profit rose 5% to EUR5.52 billion in 2014, as it grew volumes, raised prices, and introduced new product innovations that it charged more for. It also continued to cut overheads in its personal care and foods units. It reported a pretax profit of EUR7.98 billion for 2014, up 7% at current exchange rates from EUR7.11 billion in 2013, even though revenue declined by 2.7% to EUR48.4 billion from EUR49.8 billion, hit by adverse currency movements. If exchange rates had stayed the same, Unilever said revenue for the year would have risen by 2%.
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Rio Tinto said its global iron ore shipments rose 17% to 302.6 million tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2014, while total production hit 295.4 million tonnes, up 11% year-on-year. Rio Tinto's share of production in the period was 12% higher than in 2013. Of the global iron ore shipments, the group's share totalled 239.9 million tonnes, while its share of the total production volume was 233.6 million tonnes. The company noted that mined copper production for the year was 4% higher than last year, driven by the sustained ramp-up at its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. This ramp-up, along with higher grades at both Oyu Tolgoi and Kennecott in the US, resulted in a 69% increase in mined gold production over 2013.
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Royal Dutch Shell will sell a stake in one of its crude-producing projects in Brazil to HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA, Bloomberg reported citing two people familiar with matter. The report indicated that HRT, based in Rio de Janeiro, has agreed to buy Shell's 80% stake in the Bijupira and Salema fields, an offshore venture that started production in 2003. HRT will boost production to more than 30,000 barrels a day with the purchase.
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Capita said it had won a six-year contract extension with Sheffield City Council that it thinks is worth between GBP140 million and GBP170 million in revenue. In a statement, the outsourcing and support services giant said the new deal to run the council's ICT, revenues, benefits, HR and payroll and financial business transactions services, will run from January 2016 to January 2022.
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UK car insurance premiums rose at a slower rate over the final three months of last year than in the previous quarter, though further increases are expected as insurers continue to raise premiums. The AA British Insurance Premium Index's average 'shoparound' quote for an annual comprehensive car insurance policy increased to GBP540.26 in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 0.2% from the third quarter. That compares with a quarter-on-quarter rise of 1.2% in the third quarter, which was the first increase in three years, though premiums are 10% cheaper than this time last year.
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TSB Banking Group is opening its range of mortgages to brokers across the UK, a move that has been seen as vital to the bank's development as a challenger to the traditionally strongest lenders on the high street, according to a Financial Times report. TSB had previously offered mortgages only through its branch network.
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Babcock International Group said its Cavendish Nuclear subsidiary has renewed its long-term agreements to support the operation of EDF Energy's nuclear power stations in the UK, currently worth about GBP40 million a year to Babcock. In a statement, the support services company said the new deals, which will run until the last of EDF Energy's advanced gas-cooled reactor power stations stop generating electricity in about 16 years time, cover the continuation of fuel route and other services to EDF Energy's portfolio which also includes pressurised water reactor stations.
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William Hill said revenue and adjusted operating profit fell in the fourth quarter of 2014 as football results went against it over the Christmas holidays, and it suffered a similar fate in the third week of 2015 although it said it has started the new year in a strong position. The company also said it will rebrand its Australian operations to the William Hill brand. In a trading statement, the betting operator said net revenue was down 2% in the 13 weeks to December 30, while its adjusted operating profit, which excludes exceptional items and some amortisation, fell 7%.
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3i Infrastructure said it will sell its entire stake in UK train leasing company Eversholt Rail Group to a Hong Kong-based infrastructure company, generating estimated proceeds of about GBP358 million. Eversholt is one of three train rolling stock leasing companies in the UK, and it owns about 28% of the current UK passenger train fleet. The leasing companies lease the stock to the train operating companies, and Eversholt leases to 11 of those operators.
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IG Group reported a 2.8% rise in first-half pretax profit, but said it expects full-year earnings and profit to be hurt by losses stemming from the Swiss National Bank's surprise decision to remove its cap on the franc against the euro, though IG said it intends to maintain its full-year dividend at last year's level. IG said it made a GBP101.4 million pretax profit in the six months ended November 30, compared with a GBP98.6 million pretax profit in the corresponding period in the prior year. IG's first-half results come just days after the financial trading services provider said it was facing a loss of up to GBP30 million due to Swiss franc trading losses. Its first-half results included the breakdown of those losses, with GBP12 million from market exposure and GBP18 million relating to client credit.
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Balfour Beatty poached Phil Harrison from corporate services company Hogg Robinson Group to become its new finance director, a step that bolsters the company's depleted management and board as it continues to search for a new chairman. Harrison will take up the position and join the board of the FTSE 250-listed support services and construction company later in the year, Balfour said, without providing a specific date. Hogg said Harrison will remain in the role at least until its full-year results are announced in May 2015, and would then leave at a "mutually acceptable time".
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Petrofac said it has been awarded a contract for the first phase of Kuwait Oil Co's Lower Far heavy oil development programme in the north of Kuwait as part of a consortium with Greece-based Consolidated Contractors Co. Petrofac said the scope of work the consortium will complete includes greenfield and brownfield facilities, including engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning, start up and operations, maintenance work and associated infrastructure work.
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Dairy Crest Group said it has retained its contract to supply fresh milk to Wm Morrison Supermarkets for a further three years, although it will supply about a third less milk than it had been supplying to the grocer previously. In a statement, the dairy company said it does not expect the volume decline to materially affect its financial results for the current financial year ending March 31, 2015. However, the volume decline only comes into effect in March. Dairy Crest said it will also continue to supply Morrisons with cheese, flavoured milk, butter and spreads.
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MARKETS
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London markets are broadly higher, lifted by better-than-expected economic growth in China and positive consumer sentiment in Germany and shrugging off cuts to global growth forecasts by the International Monetary Fund.
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FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6,615.91
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 16,120.59
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 698.74
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Brent crude is quoted at around USD48.50 a barrel, edging closer to last week's six-year low of USD45.16. Gold is trading at a 5-month high as investors seek safer investments amid persistent uncertainty.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.5153
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.1610

GOLD: up at USD1291.79 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD48.86 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The International Monetary Fund downgraded its global growth outlook as positive effects of lower oil prices and depreciation of euro and yen are more than offset by persistent negative forces. In its World Economic Outlook Update, the Washington-based lender said the global economy is set to grow 3.5% this year, down from the prior forecast of 3.8%. For 2016, growth is projected to be at 3.7% instead of 4%.
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The Chinese economy grew at the weakest pace since early 2009 in the fourth quarter, though the growth was more than the consensus estimate, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Gross domestic product grew 7.3% in the fourth quarter from a year ago, the same rate as in the third quarter. This was the weakest growth since the first quarter of 2009. However, the growth was stronger than the 7.2% rise forecast by economists. Quarter-on-quarter, GDP rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.5%, slower than the 1.7% increase expected by economists. In the third quarter, GDP had grown 1.9%. For the year 2014, GDP was up 7.4%, the same rate as for the first three quarters of the year. The growth rate was more than the 7.3% consensus estimate.
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China's industrial production grew more than expected in December, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Industrial production rose 7.9% year-over-year in December following the 7.2% growth in November. Economists had expected production to rise 7.4%.
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Germany's economic confidence rose to a 11-month high in January, survey results from Centre for European Economic Research showed. The indicator of economic sentiment rose sharply to 48.4 in January from 34.9 in December. The reading was forecast to rise to 40. This was the third consecutive rise and also marked the highest score since February 2014, when the reading was at 55.7.
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Germany's producer prices declined at the fastest pace since March 2010, data from Destatis showed. Producer prices fell 1.7% year-on-year in December, the biggest fall since March 2010 when it declined 1.8%. Prices decreased for 17 consecutive months. Economists had forecast producer prices to drop 1.4% after easing 0.9% in November.
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British tabloid The Sun has ended 44 years of publishing photographs of bare-breasted women after years of protests from feminist groups, news reports said. The Times, which is also owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, confirmed that The Sun had dropped its topless models. A two-year campaign that drew more than 200,000 signatures against the photos celebrated the end of the topless Page 3 woman.
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