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LONDON (Alliance News) - Lonmin Thursday said it has reached a tentative deal over wages and working conditions with the leadership of the union that has brought the South African platinum mining industry to a halt for several months.

In a statement, the company said the two sides have reached "informal undertakings" in principle on a potential deal. Peers Anglo American Platinum, part of Anglo American, and Impala Platinum Holding have received the same in principle undertakings, it added.

"The companies expect to receive feedback from "the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union" on Friday, 13 June. Thereafter, and should an agreement be reached, the companies will be assisting employees to ensure a safe return to a normal working environment," Lonmin said.

The news comes after talks set up by South Africa's Minister of Mineral Resources to solve the ongoing strikes that are crippling the platinum mining industry in the country and weighing on its economic growth dissolved without an outcome on Monday.

US crude oil prices have surged above USD106 a barrel amid escalating violence in Iraq, where militants are fighting towards Baghdad. With oil supplies threatened, US crude for July jumped nearly USD2 to USD106.34, its highest level since last Setpember. The Brent price has risen by more than 3% so far this week to its highest in almost three months, peaking Thursday at USD112.26 per barrel.

The worsening situation in Iraq is continuing to weigh on some of the smaller oil companies operating in the country, with Afren and Gulf Keystone both lower after falling sharply Wednesday.

The Iraqi parliament has adjourned a session to vote on declaring a nationwide state of emergency due to lack of quorum, even as radical jihadists pressed ahead towards the capital Baghdad. No date has been set for the next parliamentary meeting, independent Alsumaria TV said, a fiasco set to deepen Iraq's political and security woes.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talibini had asked for declaring the state of emergency to grant the government sweeping powers to halt lightening advances by Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Critics of al-Maliki, a Shiite who has been in power since 2006, accuse him of monopolizing power and taking advantage of a military campaign against what he calls "terrorism" to marginalize the country's Sunni minority.

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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,843.48
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 16,142.58
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 796.84
GBP-USD: up at 1.6835
EUR-USD: up at 1.3541
GOLD: up at USD1,265.70 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD111.78 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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The initial public offering of B&M European Value Retail, the discount retailer chaired by former Tesco PLC Chief Executive Terry Leahy, was well received Thursday, as it became the biggest London IPO of the year so far. The company priced its IPO on the London main market at 270 pence a share, giving it an initial market capitalisation of GBP2.7 billion. However, it was trading at 283.50 pence in early conditional dealings. B&M was joined Thursday by online retailer Mysale Group, part owned by the wife of UK retailer Philip Green, in pricing its IPO. MySale is listing on London's AIM market. Its placing price was set at 226 pence per share, which will give it an initial market capitalisation of about GBP340 million when it starts trading on June 16.
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AstraZeneca said it has signed a global licence agreement with AIM-listed biotechnology company Synairgen for its SNG001 compound for the treatment of infections that exacerbate asthma. The compound is used to treat respiratory tract infections in patients with severe asthma, by correcting a deficiency that makes patients vulnerable to the infections. Under the terms of the deal, AstraZeneca will pay Synairgen an up-front free of USD7.25 million, with potential milestone payments of up to USD225 million possible.
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Separately, AstraZeneca and Amgen said late Wednesday that phase II study results of psoriatic arthritis drug brodalumab showed that the treatment showed significant improvement in clinical symptoms. The results, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and will be presented at the 2014 European League Against Rheumatism congress in June, also showed that many patients continued to improve and saw sustained improvements. The companies said that the encouraging data from the study was why they had opted to continue developing brodalumab as a potential treatment for psoriatic arthritis.
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Home improvement retailer Kingfisher said Philippe Tible, chief executive of its Castorama & Brico Dépôt brands, will step down at the end of July, although he'll stay with the company until the end of the year to assist with the company's exclusive talks to buy Mr Bricolage. The company's Chairman, Daniel Bernard, said the company had decided to change the leadership of its European operation given the changes that are being undertaken in that business. Group Chief Executive Ian Cheshire said he was promoting both Véronique Laury, CEO of Castorama France, and Alain Souillard, CEO of Brico Dépôt brand International, to the company's executive team.
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Imperial Tobacco Group is considering a deal to buy assets that are likely to be sold by US tobacco companies Reynolds American Inc and Lorillard Inc if they go ahead with a proposed merger, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The two US tobacco companies are in advanced talks about a deal and have discussed selling some brands to address antitrust concerns, the report said.
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Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group said sales growth accelerated in both its businesses in the first quarter of the year, driven by strong sales of seasonal and electrical products and big-ticket items such as kitchens. "At this early stage of the financial year, we expect to deliver full year group benchmark profit in line with current market expectations," said Chief Executive John Walden in a statement. Home Retail said it is now forecasting a benchmark pretax profit for the full year of between GBP122 million and GBP135 million, compared with a market consensus that the company put at GBP129 million. Benchmark pretax profit strips out costs such as amortisation of intangibles, store impairment charges and exceptional items.
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Engineering and consulting firm WS Atkins reported an increase in profit and revenue for its recent full year, following a strong performance in Asia Pacific and the UK and Europe. The company, which has operations around the world including the Middle East, posted pretax profit of GBP114.2 million for the year ended March 31, up 17% from GBP98.0 million a year earlier, as revenue crept up to GBP1.75 billion from GBP1.71 billion a year earlier.
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Premier Oil said the UK government has approved its development plan for the Catcher oil and gas field area in the North Sea, meaning it can press ahead with developing oil fields within the area for first production, expected in mid-2017. The Premier-operated Catcher area, located in the UK Central North Sea, is expected to produce 96 million barrels of oil equivalent with a peak production rate of around 50,000 barrels of oil per day, the company is forecasting.
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Halma upped its total dividend for the year to end-March and expressed confidence for further growth in the year ahead, as it saw pretax profit rise, boosted by strong revenue growth in the US, UK and mainland Europe. The technology company proposed a total dividend of 11.17 pence, up 7.1% from 10.43 pence in the previous year, after it posted a pretax profit of GBP138.7 million, up 15% from GBP120.1 million, on the back of a 9.3% revenue increase to GBP676.5 million, from GBP619.2 million.
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Irish airline Aer Lingus Group became the second European airline in two days to issue a profit warning, with the country''s flag carrier blamed the threat of further strike action by cabin crew for hitting bookings. Airline stocks across Europe fell sharply Wednesday after German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa reduced its profit expectations for this year and next, warning that it was having to reduce prices on European and US routes due to weak demand, and it had also been hit by a recent pilots strike. Aer Lingus said that the threat of strike action by the Impact union had caused "significant" damage to its trading and forward bookings for several months into the future. "Aer Lingus now expects that its 2014 operating profits (before net exceptional items) will be 10% to 20% lower than last year. The outcome will depend in part on the speed with which we can win back customer confidence," it said.
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The UK competition regulator has moved to try and reduce motor insurance premium costs, primarily by proposing a cap on the charges that are passed to the insurer of an at-fault driver for the cost of providing a replacement vehicle to the non-fault driver. The Competition and Markets Authority is also proposing to increase competition in the car insurance market and reduce the costs of premiums by banning price parity agreements between price comparison websites and insurers which stop insurers from making their products available to consumers elsewhere more cheaply, as well as ensuring consumers are better informed about the costs and benefits of no-claims bonus protection. It said it would also recommend that the consumer credit regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, looks at how insurers inform consumers about other motor insurance-related add-on products, particularly no-claims bonus protection.
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AIM MOVERS
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Tissue Regenix Group is a big gainer after it launched its DermaPure wound-healing product in the US, and said it has expanded its distribution network in the country. The company's US partner, Community Tissue Services, will begin shipping the skin substitute to customers next week. Proxama is up after it said it has partnered with PrePay Solutions to provide mobile contactless payment services to PrePay's customer base. Image Scan Holdings is another gainer after it posted a narrowed pretax loss in the half year to end-March, as revenue was boosted by strong sales of its security products and it cut overheads. Hummingbird Resources is up after it did a deal to acquire all of Gold Fields' mining and exploration interests in Mali for USD20 million in shares. Max Petroleum is a big faller after it said its proved and probable reserves, which include new drilling results from 35 wells, have fallen significantly when compared to the previous year. Surface Transforms is down after it said it will miss market expectations with a widened pretax loss for the year to end-May. It blamed an expected revenue shortfall compared with targets on a poor performance by original distributors, and said it had moved to improve its distribution network. Wildhorse Energy is down after it said it will raise up to AUD1.4 million before costs in a rights issue, using the money to develop existing products and identify and evaluate new uranium and other resource projects. It said it is offering shareholders one share for every two shares that they currently hold, at AUD0.007 a share, meaning it could issue up to about 205 million new shares.
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Top Economics And General
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House prices in the UK were higher in May, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors revealed with an index score of 57%. That's up from 55% in April, and it topped forecasts for 52%. RICS now expected house prices to rise 3.6% in the next year.
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The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash, the International Monetary Fund warned as it published new data showing house prices are well above their historical average in many countries, according to the Financial Times on Thursday. The paper quotes Min Zhu, the IMF’s deputy managing director, saying that the tools for containing housing booms were “still being developed” but that “this should not be an excuse for inaction”.
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Ireland's EU measure of inflation held steady in May, after accelerating in the previous two months, a report from the Central Statistics Office showed. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.4% annually, same as in April. In March, inflation was 0.3%. The latest figure is the highest since July last year, when the rate was 0.7%.
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France's EU measure of inflation was stable in May, in line with economists' expectations, figures from the statistical office INSEE showed. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.8% year-on-year, same as in April. On monthly basis, the index remained flat, also similar to the previous month. Both outcomes were in line with economists' expectations. The consumer price index climbed 0.7% annually, repeating April's gain and matched economists' consensus.
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US drones killed 16 Islamist militants at their hideouts in north-western Pakistan, in the first strikes by the unmanned aircraft in almost six months, officials said. Drones fired around 20 missiles at two separate locations in North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, destroying compounds and vehicles allegedly used by militants, security officials said. At least 10 suspected members of the Haqqani group of Afghan Taliban were killed in strikes early Thursday in the Dandy Darpa Khel area. Overnight, six militants, including Uzbek members of the Taliban, were killed in a separate drone attack in the Ghulam Khan area of North Waziristan, officials said. The attacks occurred after Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) - a group of Central Asian militants affiliated with al-Qaeda - said its fighters staged a siege of country's busiest airport on Sunday night.
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Chinese fighter jets buzzed Japanese military planes in airspace that both countries claim as their identification zone, prompting Tokyo to summon the Chinese ambassador Thursday in protest. A Chinese SU-27 fighter flew to within 30 metres of a Japanese YS-11 EB plane, and an OP-3C reconnaissance plane was also approached by another fighter in the same airspace, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters late Wednesday.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)
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15:00 US Business Inventories
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
21:00 UK BOE's Governor Carney speech

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Friday's Key UK Corporate Events
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Bonmarche Holdings Full Year Results
SThree Trading Statement

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Friday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)
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04:00 Japan BoJ Interest Rate Decision
04:00 Japan BoJ Monetary Policy Statement
05:30 Japan Industrial Production
06:30 China Industrial Production
06:30 France Nonfarm Payrolls
06:30 China Retail Sales
07:00 Germany Consumer Price Index
09:00 Italy Consumer Price Index
10:00 EU Employment Change
10:00 EU Trade Balance
13:30 US Producer Price Index
14:55 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Preliminary

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