Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

Management at Sports Direct is licking its wounds after being forced into a second humiliating climbdown over a proposed reward scheme for its Chief Mike Ashley. Overnight institutional investors revolted against the proposal to hand Ashley shares worth more than 72.5m pounds. As a result the company has decided to cancel a general meeting due to take place tomorrow. One investor explained that what they were opposed to was, in effect, allowing Ashley to gain further control little by little, although one cannot deny his business acumen, The Times says. The acquisition by Fleurette Group of a 20% stake in a Glencore-operated copper and cobalt miner in the Democratic Republic of Congo has raised some eyebrows. Fleurette, which is controlled by Israeli diamond tycoon Dan Gertler, purchased that stake back in 2011, all good. However, the fact that the price paid was below most valuations from third parties has attracted suspicions of corruption. Significantly, Glencore helped to pave the way for the deal, The Times reports. The Chancellor's surprise launch of a reform of the pensions market could see annuities sales plummet by 75%, ratings agency Moody's has warned. Hence its decision to lower its outlook for the industry to "negative" from "stable". In parallel, Moody's also lowered its outlook on six of the sector's main companies, including Prudential, Legal & General and Aviva. Ironically, the agency admits that while the changes may eventually lead to greater demand for pensions products in the short-term the main result will be a large decrease in sales volumes and margins in the UK individual annuity market, The Times reports.In remarks to the Northern Echo, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney refused to rule out the possibility of an interest rate increase before the next elections. In his opinion there continues to be slack in the labour market, which needs to be used up before raising rates, but the rise in Bank Rate will be gradual and the recovery continues to be uneven, according to The Guardian. UK Coal has announced the closure of its Kellingley and Thoresby collieries in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, which together employ 1,300 people, by the end of next year at the latest because they are no longer financially viable. That decision means that there will be just one deep coal mine left in Britain. However, if the firm does not secure £20m in financing quickly then those closures could be imminent. A bailout might also help save UK Coal's six remaining surface coal mines, The Daily Telegraph reports. The probability of being able to retrieve the 'black boxes' or flight recorders for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 are quickly falling. Time is running out before the batteries for their locator beacons die out. Nonetheless, authorities continue to believe that the flight ran out of fuel thousands of kilometres from the nearest airport hours after it lost contact, The Wall Street Journal Europe writes. AB