Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Legal & General Group said it has sold its Cofunds investment platform and its Investor Portfolio Service platform to Dutch insurance agency Aegon for GBP140.0 million. The UK investment manager and life insurer said the sale of both platforms is subject to regulatory approval, which is expected by December. All employees from Cofunds and Investor Portfolio Service will be transitioned to Aegon, Legal & General said.
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Old Mutual said it is making good progress with its managed separation, which the insurer and wealth and asset manager expects to be "materially complete" by the end of 2018, as it increased its interim dividend and reported a fall in pretax profit for the first half of 2016. Old Mutual is currently undergoing to process of separating itself into four standalone businesses. Old Mutual reported a pretax profit of GBP608 million for the six months to the end of June, down from GBP683 million a year before. Pretax adjusted operating profit was GBP708 million, down 22% from GBP904 million a year before, hit by the weaker rand. Old Mutual proposed an interim dividend of 2.67 pence, up from 2.65p a year before. Shore Capital said Old Mutual's interim results were "a series of misses", but the broker retained a Buy recommendation as it expects value to be created by the process of separating Old Mutual into four standalone businesses.
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Coca-Cola HBC reported growth in profit in the first half of 2016, but revenue slipped due to negative movements in foreign-exchange rates. The drinks bottling business said pretax profit in the recent six months to June 30 rose to EUR190.9 million from EUR164.7 million in the first half of 2015, although net sales revenue decreased to EUR3.04 billion from EUR3.15 billion. "We remain confident that 2016 will be another year of currency-neutral revenue and operating margin growth," Chief Executive Dimitris Lois said.
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TUI Group reported growth in earnings in the third quarter of its financial year, but revenue fell as it continued to suffer from the terrorist attacks which have occurred in Europe and the Middle East over the past year. The Anglo-German travel operator said total earnings before interest, tax and amortisation grew by 27% to EUR162.9 million in the three months to June from EUR128.3 million a year before, although revenue slipped 5.4% to EUR4.83 billion from EUR5.10 billion. TUI reiterated its earnings guidance for the full year, with underlying Ebita expected to grow by at least 10%.
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Glencore adjusted its full-year production guidance, as its saw copper, zinc, oil and coal production fall in the first half of 2016, but nickel and agricultural products rise. The mining and commodities house adjusted its production guidance for the full year;. It raised its copper production guidance by 20 kilo tonnes to 1,410 kilo tonnes, lowered its coal production guidance by 5 metric tonnes to 125 metric tonnes, and trimmed its oil production guidance by 200,000 barrels to 8 million barrels. Glencore said its production had been down "as expected" in commodities for which it had previously announced, and is delivering on, proactive supply reductions, these being copper, zinc, lead, coal and oil.
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Royal Mail's 'gold-standard' pension scheme is at risk of closure, as the company braces itself for negotiations with trade unions after telling workers the plan was "unaffordable" beyond 2018, the Financial Times reported. Royal Mail pays GBP400 million annually towards a defined-benefit pension fund. However, in June it wrote to employees saying the deterioration in financial markets meant the cost of keeping the plan open was likely to more than double to GBP900 million per year, the FT reported.
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William Hill repeated it thinks the takeover offer proposed by fellow gaming companies The Rank Group and 888 Holdings undervalues the company, despite Rank and 888's renewed efforts to outline the rationale for the proposed merger. Late Wednesday, 888 and Rank released a follow-up statement saying they believe a merger between the three companies would create a "significant and transformational force" in the global betting and gaming industry, noting that it would be the UK's largest multi-channel gambling operator by revenue and profit. But William Hill was unimpressed. Early Thursday, the high-street book maker released a statement saying the consortium's announcement contained "no new proposal or substantive new information" and that it still believes the offer to undervalue the company. As such, William Hill said it sees no merit in engaging with the pair.
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Aldermore Group said it has seen "no direct impact" on its business from the UK's Brexit vote, and expressed optimism for its future, as it reported a rise in pretax profit for the first half of 2016. For the six months to the end of June, Aldermore reported pretax profit of GBP59.1 million, up from GBP39.5 million in the same period the previous year. It reported operating income of GBP127.7 million, up from GBP104.8 million.
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Motor insurer Hastings Group Holdings said its results for the six months to June displayed "impressive momentum", with increases in revenue and profit. Gross written premiums grew 28% year-on-year to GBP360.6 million from GBP282.7 million, as net revenue was up 27% to GBP282.7 million from GBP222.6 million a year previously. Pretax profit rose 20% in the half-year to GBP70.8 million from GBP59.2 million, which Hastings Group said was due to its strong operational performance, lower financing costs, and a "data-driven" approach. It declared an interim dividend of 3.3p per share.
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MARKETS
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London shares were flat to lower with Old Mutual and a raft of stocks trading ex-dividend weighing on the FTSE 100. However, the blue-chip index touched a high for 2016 of 6,867.92 points at the open. Wall Street was expected to start higher.
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FTSE 100: down 0.3% at 6,844.27
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 17,659.08
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 776.61

GBP: down at USD1.2967 (USD1.3002)
EUR: flat at USD1.1146 (USD1.1168)

GOLD: down at USD1,345.11 per ounce (USD1,347.56)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD44.02 a barrel (USD44.14)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Housing activity in the UK slowed in July following the Brexit vote, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed with an index score of +5. That missed forecasts for +6 and was down sharply from +15 in June to rest at a 39-month low. By region, the biggest falls were in the London area. "The housing market is currently balancing a raft of somewhat mixed economic news alongside the latest policy measures announced by the Bank of England, which have already begun to lower cost of mortgage finance," said RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn.
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Strikes by Southern Railway workers on Thursday and Friday have been called off but UK services will still be disrupted even though fresh talks are to be held in the bitter row over the role of conductors. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union walked out on Monday and were due to stay out until the weekend, causing travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of passengers. Following an offer from the RMT to suspend the action if Southern returned to talks without any preconditions, Acas announced that new talks will be held on Thursday. But Southern, part of the giant Govia Thameslink Railway franchise, said Thursday's service will be based on the present strike timetable, although it will try to add services. And the RMT is pressing ahead with four days of strike action from Friday on Eurostar in a separate row over the work/life balance of train managers.
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Theresa May could find it difficult to ignore Switzerland's immigration troubles with the European Union as she holidays in the country and mulls over how to deliver Brexit. The UK prime minister has broken with predecessor David Cameron's habit of spending a few days in Britain before jetting off for a foreign break and is continuing her tradition of visiting the Alpine country with husband Philip. Cameron repeatedly came under fire for urging Britons to take "staycations" but then enjoying sunshine breaks in the likes of Spain, Italy and Portugal combined with trips in the UK. May is unlikely to suffer the mishaps which plagued the former PM, who has been stung by a jellyfish in Lanzarote, mocked for dressing on the beach under a Mickey Mouse towel, and criticised for his choice of clothes.
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French harmonized inflation rose slightly in July, final data from the statistical office Insee showed. The harmonized index of consumer prices climbed 0.4% year-on-year in July, slightly faster than the 0.3% in June. At the same time, consumer price inflation held steady at 0.2% in July. Both harmonized and consumer price inflation rates matched flash estimate. Meanwhile, core inflation eased to 0.5% from 0.7% a month ago.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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