LGO.L Share News (LGO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group has been fined GBP14.5 million by the UK financial regulator for "serious failings" in the advised mortgage sales business at its National Westminster Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland units.

In a statement, the Financial Conduct Authority said the firms failed to ensure that advice given to customers was suitable, citing two reviews of sales from 2012, which found that in over half the cases the suitability of the advice was not clear from the file or call recording.

"We made our concerns clear to the firms in November 2011 but it was almost a year later before the firms started to take proper steps to put things right. Where we raise concerns with firms we expect them to take effective action to resolve them without delay. This simply failed to happen in this case," said Tracey McDermott, the FCA's director of enforcement and financial crime.

RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan admitted the bank got things wrong and called the behaviour unacceptable. RBS has now completely overhauled its processes and retrained its mortgage advisers, he said.

Estate agency Foxtons Group has seen its shares fall after it warned that the measures the Bank of England took to cool the surging housing market, and increased expectations among house buyers that interest rates will soon start to rise, would lead to a slowdown in transaction volumes in the second half of this year.

That took the shine off a strong set of first-half numbers, and another big payout to Foxtons' shareholders. It reported a 57% rise in first-half pretax profit to GBP23.1 million, from GBP14.7 million in the first half of 2013, as revenue rose to GBP72.8 million, from GBP62.6 million, thanks to strong sales and mortgage broking growth.

The company, which is focused on the London market, said it will once again reward shareholders with a special dividend, paying an interim dividend of 1.77 pence and a special dividend of 2.77 pence. The company paid a final dividend of 1.70 pence and a special dividend of 3.74 pence per share, a total of 5.44 pence per share, for its last full year.

---------
Markets: UK stocks have edged higher as stock-specific news takes centre stage, pushing economic data, central bank statements and geopolitical tensions to one side for now.

In the US, futures point to a flat to slightly higher open on Wall Street, with the DJIA expected to open up 0.1%.

FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,827.44
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 16,057.75
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 1.0% at 778.17
GBP-USD: up at 1.6591
EUR-USD: up at 1.3179
GOLD: up at USD1,285.81 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD102.77 a barrel
---------
Other Top UK Corporate News
----------
The UK's big-four supermarket chains continue to feel the squeeze from heavy discounters and upmarket grocers, but while Asda continues to outperform its three big rivals, Tesco and Wm Morrisons Supermarkets are still taking the brunt of falling sales and declining market share, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel. Tesco and Morrisons market shares remained under pressure in the 12 weeks to August 17, while J Sainsbury, usually one of the better performing of the four, suffered a small drop in share to 16.4% from 16.5%, as its sales growth lags behind the market at 0.3%. The four big players are being squeezed between players including Aldi, Lidl and Farmfoods at the bottom end of the market, and Waitrose and Marks & Spencer Group at the premium end.
----------
GlaxoSmithKline said Tuesday the US Food and Drug Administration approved a supplemental New Drug Application for the once-daily use of Promacta (eltrombopag) in patients with severe aplastic anaemia who have had an insufficient response to immunosuppressive therapy. Severe aplastic anaemia, or SAA, is a blood disorder where the bone marrow fails to make enough red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Eltrombopag, an oral thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor agonist, works by helping to induce proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow stem cells to increase production of blood cells.
----------
BG Group said the results from its second drill-stem test on the Mzia discovery in Block 1, offshore Tanzania, has provided further support for a hub development to supply a potential onshore liquefied natural gas project. The exploration and LNG company said the drill-stem test on the Mzia-3 appraisal well was drilled in approximately 1,800 metres of water around six kilometres north of the original Mzia-1 discovery. Ophir Energy also participates in the well.
----------
Evraz said that it swung to a pretax profit in its first-half due to cost cutting across the business, but revenue fell on lower selling prices and overcapacity across the global steel industry. The steel maker and miner said pretax profit for the six months to June 30 came in at USD85 million, compared with a USD139 million loss in the first half of last year. Revenue fell 7% to USD6.81 billion, from USD7.32 billion in the first-half of 2013.
----------
Polymetal International said revenue in the first half inched up, but it swung to a net profit after impairment charges and foreign exchange losses that hit its results last year weren't repeated. The gold, silver and copper-mining exploration and production company, with operations in Russia and Kazakhstan, said a sharp fall in gold and silver prices year-on-year was offset by strong growth in gold sales volumes. It said its performance was also driven by a strong cost control and production growth. Polymetal reported net earnings in the six months to June 30 of USD100 million, compared with a net loss of USD255 million in the first half of 2013. The company declared an interim dividend of USD0.08 per share, compared with a dividend of USD0.01 per share last year. Revenue in the first half rose only 0.8% to USD727 million, from USD721 million last year.
----------
Balfour Beatty looked to appease disgruntled shareholders following the collapse of its merger talks with Carillion, as it revealed that the value of its public-private partnership portfolio is now worth GBP1.05 billion. Balfour Beatty said a review of its private-public partnership portfolio has resulted in an increase in the total directors' valuation to GBP1.05 billion as at the end of June. This compared with GBP766 million at the end of December.
----------
Building merchants Grafton Group said it delivered a strong underlying performance in the first half, despite a drop in profit after its results in the previous year were boosted by a pension credit of GBP27.1 million. The Dublin-based, FTSE 250-listed DIY group posted pretax profit of GBP45.9 million for the six months ended June 30, down from GBP51.5 million a year earlier, even though revenue crept up to GBP1.02 billion, from GBP912.2 million. Underlying pretax profit, which excludes a non-recurring pension credit of GBP27.1 million, rose to GBP45.9 million, from GBP24.5 million a year earlier.
----------
Property investment group Hansteen Holdings reported a big increase in interim profit, boosted in part by valuation gains. The company, which invests in UK and continental European industrial property, posted pretax profit of GBP66.7 million in the six months to June 30 from GBP14.9 million in the same period a year earlier, after posting a GBP28.8 million valuation gain on investment properties compared with a GBP2.4 million loss a year earlier. Revenue rose to GBP43.7 million from GBP41.9 million. In turn, Hansteen said its EPRA net asset value per share rose to 96 pence from 91 pence in December.
----------
AIM MOVERS
----------
David Lenigas, who is involved with several AIM-listed natural resources companies, has decided to step away from two of them to focus on the others. He's stepping down as chairman of both Leni Gas & Oil, which he founded, and Polemos, focusing instead on his roles at Rare Earth Minerals, AfriAg and UK Oil & Gas Investments. The news caused Polemos to drop sharply, although Leni Gas & Oil, a more developed company, is a touch higher. Donald Strang, who is also involved in several AIM-listed companies, including AfriAg, Rare Earth Minerals and UK Oil & Gas Investments, will takeover as chairman of Polemos having been finance director. There was good news from two of Lenigas' remaining companies: Afriag is one of the top gainers on AIM after its new agri-marketing division sold its first refrigerated 40-foot sea container, containing about 20 metric tons of South African-sourced frozen fish products, to clients in China. Rare Earth Minerals is also doing well after it said it had continued to make progress on each of its principal investments in Mexico, Greenland and Australia in the half year to end-June. The company posted a pretax loss of GBP647,000, widened from GBP323,000 in the previous year, as administrative expenses rose to GBP641,000 from GBP275,000. It is not revenue producing. Aside from the Lenigas portfolio, Monitise is up after it agreed a global digital commerce and resourcing alliance with International Business Machines Corp.
----------
Other Top Economics And General
----------
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has been charged with "negligence" over a colossal state payout to a businessman when she was French finance minister, Mediapart news website and AFP news agency reported. The charges came after Lagarde was questioned for a fourth time Tuesday by the Court of Justice of the Republic, which investigates and prosecutes allegations of wrongdoing by ministers in the course of their duties. AFP quoted Lagarde as saying she would not resign her IMF post over the charges.
----------
Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold military consultations over the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said late Tuesday after two hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The consultations between members of both countries' general staff and border guard commands are meant to fulfil Ukraine's demand to reestablish government control of the border with Russia, Poroshenko told reporters in Minsk, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported. Putin said after the Poroshenko meeting that both sides had agreed to swiftly revive so-called contact group talks between Russia, Ukraine and the Organization of Security and Co-Operation in Europe.
----------
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reshuffled his Socialist government Tuesday, a day after dissolving his five-month-old cabinet following an internal dispute over austerity measures. Most leading ministers survived the reshuffle. Finance Minister Michel Sapin, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and President Francois Hollande's ex-partner, Environment and Energy Minister Segolene Royal, all kept their jobs. Two ministers who publicly criticized Hollande's belt-tightening agenda, Arnaud Montebourg and Benoit Hamon, were shown the door. Montebourg was replaced as economy and industry minister by Emmanuel Macron, a 36-year-old former Rothschild investment banker, who was an economic advisor to Hollande for two years.
----------
Germany's import prices declined at a faster rate in July, more than the consensus estimate, a report from the statistical office Destatis showed. The import price index fell 1.7% year-over-year in July following the 1.2% drop in June. Economists had expected a 1.4% decline. On a month-over-month basis, import prices fell 0.4%, after the 0.2% increase in June. This was more than the 0.1% fall expected by economists.
----------
German consumer sentiment is set to drop in September, according to a survey conducted by the market research group GfK. The forward-looking consumer confidence index fell to 8.6 from a revised score of 8.9 in August, data showed Wednesday. The index was expected to drop marginally to 8.9 from August's initially estimated value of 9.
----------
The latest ceasefire agreed between Israel and the Palestinians in the seven-week conflict in the Gaza Strip was holding, the Israeli military said. There were no Israeli airstrikes on Gaza after the ceasefire - described as indefinite - came into force on Tuesday evening. Palestinian militants did not fire any rockets at Israel, an army spokeswoman said. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, on Tuesday welcomed the deal reached in Cairo as a "victory." In Israel, however, the Ynet news website said that the Israeli cabinet "appeared to be split" on the deal, with several ministers opposing the decision, and supporting further military action in Gaza.
----------
Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

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

Office2Office Half Year Results
Hays Half Year Results
Hunting Half Year Results
Lamprell Half Year Results
Xaar Half Year Results
Servelec Group Half Year Results
International Public Partnerships Half Year Results
Macfarlane Group Half Year Results
Melrose Industries Half Year Results
Nostrum Oil & Gas Half Year Results
Molins Half Year Results
Gulf Keystone Petroleum Half Year Results
STV Group Half Year Results
Arrow Global Half Year Results
Anglo Pacific Group Half Year Results
IP Group Half Year Results
DRS Data & Research Services Half Year Results
Asia Resource Mineral Half Year Results
Camellia Half Year Results
Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust Half Year Results
IFG Group Half Year Results
Irish Continental Group Half Year Results
Stock Spirits Group Half Year Results
Unite Group Half Year Results
BlueCrest AllBlue Fund Half Year Results
Oxford Biomedica Half Year Results
Petropavlovsk Half Year Results
Playtech Half Year Results
SOCO International Half Year Results
Marshalls Half Year Results
Paddy Power Half Year Results
---------
Thursday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)

00:50 Japan Foreign stock/bond investment
08:55 Germany Unemployment Rate
09:00 Italy Retail Sales
10:00 Italy Business Confidence
10:00 EU Economic Sentiment Indicator
11:00 UK CBI Distributive Trades Survey
11:00 Italy Wage Inflation
13:00 Germany Consumer Price Index
13:30 US Core Personal Consumption Expenditure
13:30 US Gross Domestic Product Price Index Preliminary
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:00 US Pending Home Sales
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
---------
Contact: +44 203 668 7440; newsroom@alliancenews.com; @AllNewsTeam

Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.