Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
The UK government said it has raised GBP4.2 billion in its sale of a second tranche of Lloyds Banking Group PLC shares, meaning it has now recouped GBP7.41 billion of the roughly GBP21 million it had to pump into the bank during the financial crisis. In a statement, UK Financial Investments Ltd, which manages the government's stakes in bailed out banks, said it had sold a 7.8% stake in Lloyds at 75.5 pence a share, taking the UK government stake down to 24.9%, from 32.7%. UKFI sold an initial 6% stake in the bank last September at 75 pence a share, raising about GBP3.21 billion for government coffers.
----------
Legal & General Group PLC has forecast that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's changes to pensions rules could result in the GBP12 billion a year annuity market more than halving in size, according to the Financial Times. The measures introduced in the Chancellor's 2014 Budget will give savers savers more flexibility in how they use their pension pots in retirement. According to the FT, Legal & General said the measures could cut total annuity sales by all providers to GBP4.4 billion.
----------
Legal & General also said it has won a bulk annuity contract with ICI Pension Fund, covering GBP3.00 billion of its liabilities, as the life insurer moved to reinforce its expectation that it will exceed the GBP2.1 billion of annuity net flows in 2013. Legal & General said the deal is the largest ever bulk annuity contract arranged by a pension scheme in the UK.
----------
GlaxoSmithKline PLC said it had withdrawn its marketing authorisation application for the combined use of Meikinist and Tafinlar for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation in Europe. This was as a result of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use within the European Medicines Agency indicating that the data provided by Glaxo had not allowed it to conclude on a benefit of the combined treatment. Glaxo said that it will re-submit its application for the combined treatment when it has further data from its ongoing Phase III programme.
----------
BG Group announced that it has secured a new exploration opportunity after being awarded new exploration acreage offshore Myanmar. The oil and gas major said it will operate a 45% equity on the A4 block and a 55% equity on the AD2 block, while it has also secured 45% equity non-operated acreage in blocks A7 and AD5, all of which are in the Rakhine Basin, offshore Myanmar. The company said that it has committed to a 3D seismic acquisition programme in each block along with its bidding partners, which it expects to begin in 2014/15 with options for future drilling.
----------
UK-based travel operator TUI Travel PLC said it remains on track to deliver first half results broadly in line with last year, excluding Easter, and is still confident of growing its underlying operating profit by 7% to 10% in the full financial year. In a trading update, Chief Executive Peter Long said the company was pleased with its performance during the winter trading season, with most of its programmes now almost fully sold, while trading of the summer season is so far in line with expectations.
----------
SSE PLC announced a major asset disposal plan, cost cutting initiatives and a freezing of UK household energy bills ahead of its full year results next week. The major UK energy supplier said that as part of its value programme, it is now planning asset and business disposals that will secure proceeds and debt reduction estimated to total around GBP1 billion. The company said it has started the disposal process which is expected to take two years, with the disposal of SSE's portfolio of PFI street lighting contracts already under way and a GBP500 million disposal of the company's onshore wind farms planned.
----------
Home emergency company Homeserve PLC said its expects its key profit measure to be in line with market expectations in its current financial year, as it also reiterated that costs related to the settling of previous regulatory issues in the UK had met its expectations. Last month it agreed to the final terms of a GBP30.6 million fine imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority following the regulator's probe into allegations that it mis-sold policies and mis-handled customer complaints. In its trading statement, the company re-iterated that all customers that may have been affected by what it called "historic practices" had now been contacted and the cost of the exercise was in line with its expectations. The company also said it expects its underlying pretax profit for the year to end-March to be in line with market expectations
----------
Phoenix Group Holdings PLC said it has agreed to sell Ignis Asset Management Ltd to Standard Life PLC in a GBP390 million cash deal, with the two life companies also agreeing to a long-term strategic asset management deal. The strategic deal will result in Standard Life managing assets for Phoenix's Life subsidiaries, including the potential to manage future books of assets that Phoenix may acquire. It also means that Phoenix is now solely focused on the management of closed life funds.
----------
EnQuest PLC said its pretax profit fell in its full year 2013 despite an increase in revenues, as costs and expenses hit the company. The oil and gas development and production company, with operations in the UK Continental Shelf said its pretax profit fell 18% to USD330.9 million from USD403.4 million in the previous year despite an 8.1% increase in revenues to USD961.2 million from USD889.5 million in 2012. The company said its revenues jumped as production increased 6.2% to 24,222 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 22,802 barrels per day the previous year, due to additional production from its Heather and Broom sites as well as its newly acquired Alba field offsetting marginally lower production from its Thistle site.
----------
MARKETS
----------
UK indices are pushing higher with life insurers leading the UK gains after shares in annuity provides plummeted last week on a market shake-up announced in the UK budget.
----------
FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6637.54
FTSE 250: up 0.8% at 16277.26
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 852.98
----------
The euro is down against the dollar on mixed eurozone data reports.
----------
GBP-USD: up at USD1.6532
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3979

GOLD: up at USD1314.50 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD107.07 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
British wage growth is starting to pick up and income and wages should rise so as to sustain economic growth, Bank of England policymaker Martin Weale told the Reading Post in an interview. "That's another favorable straw in the wind," he said. Economic growth last year appeared to be driven by consumer spending but investment now seems to be playing a bigger part, he observed. Weale said the economic picture will differ from one part of the country to other. "From the committee's point of view, it's the national picture which matters because we set monetary policy for the whole country, not just affluent parts," he said. Further, he urged companies to focus on export market for future growth. As the economy recovers, interest rates should return to more normal levels, central banker noted. But any increase in rates will be relatively gradual.
----------
German consumer confidence is expected to remain stable in April, a closely watched survey from the market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer confidence index remain unchanged at 8.5%, in line with forecast. The economic outlook of consumers in March was back on the road toward recovery. The indicator gained 1.3 points to 33.2 points. Meanwhile, income expectations dropped three points to 45.6 points in March.
----------
Russia wants to boost its military presence on the Crimean Peninsula after annexing it from Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported citing an unnamed defence official. The plan includes deploying Tupolev Tu-22M3 long-range bombers by 2016, as well as air-superiority and maritime patrol aircraft, and submarines. A helicopter carrier will be deployed in 2017."The need for these aircraft in the south was always there, but not is the right time that they return there," Interfax quoted the defence official said saying. Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers and their families have been leaving the peninsula, which became part of Russia after a majority supported accession in a referendum earlier this month. The soldiers have been leaving their weapons behind.
----------
The US aid package of USD1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine neared final passage as early as this week, after Democrats in the Senate on Tuesday dropped a provision sought by the International Monetary Fund. A fight over a provision to ratify long-waiting reforms at the IMF had stalled passage of the urgent aid measure for two weeks.
----------
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang urged Malaysia to provide more information about missing flight MH370, amid relatives' anger at the authorities in Kuala Lumpur, news reports said. Li "urged Malaysia to provide detailed and accurate information" on the Malaysia Airlines flight, which data analysis indicated crashed into the southern Indian Ocean on March 8, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines have been widely criticized in China, in particular by relatives of the 154 Chinese passengers on board the Boeing 777-200.
----------
North Korea test-fired two missiles into the sea, an official in Seoul said, prompting condemnation from South Korea, Japan and the US. It was the latest of several such launches this week, as South Korean, Japanese and US leaders criticized the North's nuclear weapons programme during a meeting in the Netherlands. "North Korea fired a ballistic missile at 2:35 am (1735 GMT) and another at 2:45 am," the South Korean military was cited as saying by Yonhap News Agency. The missiles were fired from north of Pyongyang and flew about 650 kilometres before falling into the waters east of the Korean Peninsula, a spokesman for the South's Defence Ministry said.
----------
An Egyptian court adjourned the trial of Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie and 682 alleged supporters to April 28, when it will announce its verdict in the death penalty case. The opening session Tuesday of the trial in the Minya Criminal Court heard prosecution witnesses, who accused the defendants of storming a police station and killing officers in August in the southern town of Udwa. Defence lawyers boycotted the hearing in protest at the death sentences presiding Judge Saeed Youssef handed down Monday to 529 people charged with similar offences.
----------
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.