Kingfisher Share News (KGF)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Standard Life Wednesday said it could transfer parts of its business out of Scotland, potentially including pensions, investments and other long-term savings held by customers, as a precautionary measure due to the uncertainty around Scotland's constitutional future.

The news comes as Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband, together with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, traveled to Scotland to campaign for a 'No' vote amid signs that the 'Yes' vote was continuing to gain momentum.

Standard Life Chief Executive David Nish said the precautionary measures include planning for new regulated companies in England to which Standard Life could transfer parts of its business if there was a need to do so.

The CEO said the potential transfer would ensure that transactions with customers outside of Scotland continue to be in sterling. The company also wants to ensure that customers outside of Scotland continue to be part of the UK tax regime and are covered by existing consumer protection and regulatory arrangements, such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Nish also said Standard Life will continue to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and that there will be no change to the way in which share dividends are paid to shareholders.

"We will continue to serve our customers in Scotland and will consider what additional measures we may need to take on their behalf as a consequence of constitutional change once further clarity and certainty is received," Nish said. "If the referendum result is supportive of Scotland remaining part of the UK, resulting in the devolution of further powers as seems likely, we will monitor any impact that this may have on our stakeholders and take whatever action we feel is required," he added.

Kingfisher is the best performing stock on the FTSE 100 Wednesday morning after the DIY retailer said the head of its Castorama business in France, Veronique Laury, will take over as group chief executive before the end of the current financial year, tasked with expanding the company's online sales, integrating recent acquisitions and expanding some of its brands into new markets.

The company said current CEO Ian Cheshire will step down by the end of the financial year in January. Cheshire told journalists that after seven years as CEO, and 17 years in the Kingfisher business, he has decided that he didn't want to remain in place through the next five-year strategic plan the company has started.

"I've always looked at this job with a 5 to 10 years view... and there comes a time when you have to call the cycle," said Cheshire.

The home improvement retailer reported a 6.5% drop to GBP375 million in pretax profit for the 26 weeks to August 2, down from GBP401 million last year when profit was buoyed by a tax repayment related to its previous demerger of the Kesa business. Excluding exceptional items, pretax profit was flat on the year at GBP364 million, as a 0.9% rise in revenue to GBP5.77 billion, from GBP5.72 billion, was offset by a slight drop in operating margin.

"This was a difficult first half with demand in our largest and most significant market, France, remaining particularly weak with a sharp market downturn experienced in our second quarter," Cheshire said in a statement.

Kingfisher said that sales in August picked up in France, but it is too early to tell what that means for the rest of the year.

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Markets: Corporate updates are driving individual stock movements in London Wednesday as the main indices remain soft, along with the pound, in the absence of fresh economic data and ahead of the Bank of England inflation report hearing during the afternoon trading session. The upcoming Scottish referendum also remains in focus as the main party leaders headed to Scotland to try and bolster the 'No' vote.

US futures are currently indicating a fractionally firmer start on Wall Street, following a lower close on Tuesday as some market participants expressed concern over a report from the San Francisco Federal Reserve that suggested investors may be overestimating the amount of time before the first US interest rate rise.

FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,838.90
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 15,765.18
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 775.45
GBP-USD: up at 1.6121
EUR-USD: flat at 1.2945
GOLD: down at USD1,253.57 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD99.03 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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London Stock Exchange Group said it has continued to see an "encouraging" pipeline of companies looking to raise capital on its markets, while reporting that revenue from trading in secondary markets in August increased on the same period last year. In addition, the group said that both FTSE and LCH.Clearnet performed well in August. The group said trends are "broadly unchanged" since August 22, when it priced a three-for-11 rights issue to part fund the USD2.70 billion acquisition of Frank Russell Co from Northwestern Mutual at 1,295 pence per share, raising GBP938.0 million net. The news comes ahead of a general meeting scheduled to start at 0930 BST at which shareholders will be given the chance to approve the stock exchange's deal for Frank Russell.
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Shares in Sports Direct International dropped after the retailer said sales grew more than 12% in the first quarter of its new financial year, but were held back by England's disappointing performance in the World Cup in June.
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Barratt Developments, up 1.4%. The housebuilder said it plans to return around GBP950 million to shareholders over the next three years, as it more than doubled its final dividend following a strong year underpinned by recovery in the UK housing market. The company, which will drop out of the FTSE 100 on September 22, said it will pay a final dividend of 7.1 pence for the year that ended June 30, compared with 2.5 pence the year before, making a total dividend of 10.3p. The company paid a total dividend of 2.5 pence a year earlier. Under a special cash payment programme, Barratt hopes to make a special cash payment alongside its full-year 2015 results of GBP100 million, followed by a special cash payment of GBP125 million alongside its full-year 2016 results and a special cash payment of GBP175 million with its full-year 2017 results. The capital return plan came as the housebuilder posted pretax of GBP390.6 million for the year to June 30, up from GBP192.0 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 21% to GBP3.16 billion from GBP2.60 billion.
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Meggitt said its Meggitt Training Systems subsidiary has won an additional contract to support the US Army's Targetry Systems programme at TACOM, the US Army Contracting Command based in Warren, Michigan. The new deal for the FTSE 100-listed engineering group is worth USD17.7 million over the next 12 months, bringing the total value of the programme for Meggitt to USD30.5 million.
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Liberty Global, the owner of Virgin Media and which holds a minority stake in ITV, is looking to make further investments in the UK to complement its existing UK holdings, the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday. Jim Ryan, Liberty Global's chief strategy officer, said during a speech at a Royal Television Society conference that the group is looking to "find some portfolio investments we can use to enhance the Virgin Media acquisition". Ryan refused to be drawn on speculation regarding the possibility of Liberty increasing its stake in ITV, the Telegraph said. Liberty bought a 6.4% stake in the FTSE 100-listed broadcaster for GBP481 million earlier this year from British Sky Broadcasting Group.
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Premier Oil said that the subsea oil storage tank, jacket and topsides have been successfully installed at its Solan oil field and it will now start the offshore hook up and commissioning programme. In a statement, the company said the precise timing of first oil from the field will depend on the progress of the hook up and commissioning. Premier Oil has a 60% operator interest in the Solan field in the UK North Sea, with the rest owned by Chrysaor.
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Anglogold Ashanti said it will spinoff its international gold mining operations into a new company that will have its main listing in London, while the parent company will consider branching into other commodities apart from gold. The parent company also said it is contemplating raising about USD2.1 billion in a rights issue to bring down its debt.
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AIM MOVERS
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Shares in Ncondezi Energy are trading higher after the company said that it has agreed a 25-year commercial deal with Electricidade de Mozambique on the sale of electricity from the Ncondezi Power Project. Zytronic shares are up after it said it expects its pretax profit in the current financial year to be significantly above market expectations. Baron Oil is up after the company said it has signed a farm-out agreement with Vale Oil and Gas, Peru, in a deal that means it now owns the entirety of Block XXI onshore northwest Peru. Sula Iron And Gold is another gainer after it restarted work at the Ferensola project in Sierra Leone, targeting both iron ore and a new tantalum and niobium mineralisation target recently identified in the target area. Parity Group has risen after it swung to profit in the first-half, after a number of years of losses as it relaunched one of its divisions. SolGold is doing well after it reported copper sulphides intersects, encouraging metallurgical tests, a second drill rig, and supportive induced-polarisation survey results at the Cascabel project in Ecuador. Optimal Payments is up after the online payments provider reported a jump in first-half pretax profit and said that robust trading since the end of that period means it now believes its full-year results will come in ahead of its expectations. Frontier Resources International is leading the AIM fallers after it reported a wider net loss for the first-half of its financial year and said it was continuing to seek ways of raising fresh capital to fund its future exploration and development work. Orogen Gold is down after it raised GBP1.1 million by conditionally placing 1.02 billion new shares with existing and new investors, funds it will use to advance the exploration programme at its Mutsk gold project in Armenia. Nature Group is another faller after it swung to a pretax loss after contract delays hit revenue, It said it is more positive about its second-half. Advanced Oncotherapy is down after it raised about GBP4.7 million before expenses through a placing and subscription of 145.6 million new shares, as it looks to fund the development of a new system for cancer treatments.
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Top Economics And General
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British Prime Minister David Cameron warned the people of Scotland there would be "no second chances," eight days before they vote on whether to end more than 300 years of union with the rest of the UK. "Let no one in Scotland be in any doubt: we desperately want you to stay; we do not want this family of nations to be ripped apart," Cameron wrote in the Daily Mail. "Across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, our fear over what we stand to lose is matched only by our passion for what can be achieved if we stay together," he said.
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Asset managers, investors and pension savers are moving billions of pounds out of Scotland amid rising concerns about the financial consequences of a Yes vote in next week’s independence referendum, the Financial Times reports citing industry executives. In a further sign of nerves, “exit clauses” are being inserted into commercial property contracts in Scotland to allow buyers to scrap deals or renegotiate prices if voters opt for independence, the FT added, citing leading advisers to the sector.
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US President Barack Obama urged leaders of Congress in a meeting Tuesday to support his military efforts to target the Islamic State, the White House says. Leaders from both parties from the House of Representatives and Senate "expressed their support for efforts to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL," spokesman Josh Earnest says. Obama is to lay out his strategy for targeting the terrorist group in a speech Wednesday evening and told lawmakers that although he has the authority to act on his own, efforts would be more effective with their support.
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French industrial production rose unexpectedly in July, while manufacturing output eased from June on weak transport equipment production, data showed Wednesday. Another official report showed that payroll employment recovered in the second quarter. Industrial production grew 0.2% month-on-month in July, but slower than the 1.2% rise in June, the statistical office Insee reported. Economists had forecast a 0.5% drop for July. Meanwhile, manufacturing output dipped 0.3% as expected by economists. But the decline reversed the 1.6% increase seen in June.
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Ukraine is regrouping its troops in the country's east to improve its defences against pro-Russian separatist forces, President Petro Poroshenko said. Poroschenko told a cabinet meeting in Kiev that the move, which comes during a fragile ceasefire, was purely defensive. "This is not for assault but to safeguard the effective defence of our territory," he was quoted as saying by local news agencies. Fighting between government troops and separatist insurgents has wound down since both sides signed a truce last Friday in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 broke up in the air, probably after being hit by "a large number of high-energy objects," according to a preliminary Dutch report on the crash Tuesday. Images of the MH17 wreckage show that it was pierced from the outside in numerous places, causing the Boeing 777 to break up in flight July 17 over eastern Ukraine, the report said. The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the international investigation, found no evidence the crash resulted from a technical problem or crew error.
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Two nuclear reactors in Japan passed new safety standards, for the first time since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima three and a half years ago. The move brings Japan closer to restarting domestic nuclear power generation after the government shut down all of its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster, which followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
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Thursday's Key UK Corporate Events

Pacific Horizon Full Year Results
Next Half Year Results
Ricardo Full Year Results
Ashmore Group Full Year Results
Darty Interim Management Statement
Home Retail Group Trading Statement
WM Morrisons Supermarkets Half Year Results
Futura Medical Half Year Results
Netplay TV Half Year Results
Ocado Group Interim Management Statement
Dunelm Group Full Year Results
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Thursday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)

00:01 UK RICS Housing Price Balance
00:50 Japan BSI Large Manufacturing
00:50 Japan Foreign bond, stock investment
02:30 China Consumer Price Index
02:30 China Producer Price Index
07:00 Germany Consumer Price Index
07:45 France Consumer Price Index
09:00 EU ECB Monthly Report
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
19:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
20:00 EU ECB President Draghi's Speech

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