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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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BP PLC announced it intends to halt refinery operations at its major Bulwer Island refinery in Brisbane, Australia by mid-2015, as the Australian operations of major commodities players continue to struggle. The oil and gas major said the growth of very large refineries in the Asia-Pacific region was driving structural change within the fuels supply chain in Australia and putting significant pressure on smaller scale plants.
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Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton said the company expects global growth in demand for both energy and metallurgical coal over the coming decades, with productivity key to generating acceptable returns. While discussing the global outlook for coal at CEDA's Energy and Resources series in Brisbane, President of BHP Billiton's global Coal business, Dean Dalla Valle, outlined the importance of productivity and a high-performing culture to ensure a long-term sustainable coal export industry in Australia.
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Tullow Oil PLC said it intends to offer USD500 million worth of senior notes that will be due in 2022 to raise funds to repay certain other existing debts. In a statement, the company said the interest rate, offer price and other terms on the notes will be determined when the offer is priced, but interest will be paid semi-annually and the notes will be guaranteed by some of its subsidiaries.
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G4S PLC said it has won a seven-year deal with Netherlands Railways to provide cash services like transporting cash to ticket offices and managing ticket machines. It didn't give any financial details apart from saying it was a multi-million pound deal. In a statement, G4S said that it will provide services to all 400 stations across the country’s rail network from August 1. It will transport cash to all manned and unmanned ticket offices, manage all ticket machines, and provide machine maintenance services.
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Online fashion retailer ASOS PLC reported a drop in profits for the first half of the year, as it invested in doubling its sales capacity. However, sales growth remained strong at the popular online clothing and accessories retailer, with retail sales in the first half rising by 34%. ASOS is pumping a large amount of money into its infrastructure, especially into IT and warehousing, which Chief Executive Officer Nick Robertson says is costly but necessary for future growth.
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Bus and rail company FirstGroup PLC said that its operating profit in its last financial year was in line with expectations, excluding a GBP14 million hit on its First Student and Greyhound bus operations from the severe winter weather in the US. In a trading update, the company said US dollar revenue is expected to be down 1.8% on the year at First Student and down 2.9% at Greyhound due to the severe winter weather that regularly swept across the US between December and March.
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GlaxoSmithKline PLC said it had chosen to stop the Phase III trial of its MAGE-A3 cancer immunotherapeutic in non-small cell lung cancer patients, as it said it would not be possible to identify a sub-population of MAGE-A3 positive patients with a specific gene signature that might benefit from the treatment. The trial of the immunotherapeutic missed its first and second co-primary endpoints, Glaxo said on March 20, as it did not significantly extend disease free survival compared to a placebo in either MAGE-A3 positive patients, or MAGE-A3 patients who did not receive chemotherapy.
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British retailer Marks and Spencer Group PLC is planning to open 250 new stores outside the UK over the next three years, as part of its global expansion plans. M&S, which held an investor day in Paris on Tuesday, said 60% of the new stores will be franchised. It said that it will be entering new territories with existing partners, and expects the global expansion to increase revenues by 25% and profits by 40% over the next three years.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices are making small gains after data revealed the UK construction sector continues to boom.
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6669.6
FTSE 250: up 0.2% at 16445.74
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 850.57
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The euro is flat against the dollar after Eurozone producer prices declined unexpectedly in February in its fastest fall since December 2009, raising fears of deflation.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6640
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.3792
GOLD: up at USD1283.55 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD105.41 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK house prices increased at the fastest pace since May 2010, data from Nationwide Building Society showed. House prices advanced 9.5% in March from last year, following a 9.4% rise in February. The increase was less than the 9.7% growth forecast by economists and was the biggest since May 2010, when prices rose 9.8%. A typical house now cost GBP180,264, the highest level since January 2008. On a monthly basis, house prices gained only 0.4% in March, which was slower than the 0.7% increase posted in February and 0.8% rise forecast by economists. Nonetheless, this was the fifteenth consecutive rise in prices.
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The UK construction sector expanded for the eleventh month in a row in March, survey data from Markit Economics showed. The Markit/Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply Purchasing Managers' Index fell marginally to 62.5 from 62.6 in February. The score was forecast to rise to 63 in March. The score for March was lower than the near six-and-a-half year high recorded during January.
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Eurozone producer prices declined unexpectedly in February reflecting lower energy prices, official data revealed. Producer prices dropped 0.2% month-on-month after easing 0.3% in January, Eurostat reported. Prices were expected to remain flat in February. On a yearly basis, producer prices were down 1.7% versus a 1.4% drop in the prior month. The decline also exceeded consensus forecast of 1.6% fall.
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British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is preparing to take on Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, in a second televised debate on Britain's membership of the EU. The two men clashed in a first debate last week, with opinion polls afterwards suggesting that Clegg, leader of the pro-European Liberal Democrat party, had lost to the eurosceptic Farage. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour party, have refused to take part in the debates, the first to see party leaders discuss the country's EU membership live on television.
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France's new prime minister, Manuel Valls, was meeting President Francois Hollande to discuss the formation of a new cabinet. The 51-year-old former interior minister replaced Jean-Marc Ayrault after voters punished his Socialist Party over the government's poor economic record by voting out scores of left-wing mayors. Valls, who is one of France's favourite politicians, is seen as a pragmatist.
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Politicians in Moscow criticized NATO for suspending all cooperation with Russia on civilian and military matters. The military alliance had lost all meaning with the end of the Cold War and was using the Ukraine crisis to pump fresh blood into its veins, said top foreign policy official Alexei Pushkov. This is an attempt to revive the alliance from its "half-dead" state, said Pushkov, the chairman of the Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, according to the Interfax news agency.
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Top diplomats from the US and EU explored ways to vary their energy sources, amid an effort to cut Europe's dependency on Russia. The international community has been outraged by Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the ensuing pressure it has been accused of applying on its neighbour. On Tuesday, the state-owned energy giant Gazprom announced that gas prices for Ukraine will rise by 30% because of 1.7 billion dollars in bills that have gone unpaid by Kiev. Russia has in the past been accused of using gas prices as a tool for political pressure.
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NATO is suspending all cooperation with Russia on civilian and military matters, the alliance's foreign ministers said Tuesday, raising also the possibility of deployments as part of their response to the Ukrainian crisis. "NATO's greatest responsibility is to protect and defend our territory and our people," Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after the ministers' talks. "Russia's aggression against Ukraine is the gravest threat to European security in a generation."
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Fears faded of a destructive tsunami on the western seaboard of South America, after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck about 100 kilometres off northern Chile. The Chilean navy said a 2-metre wave had reached the northern coast about 45 minutes after the quake. The tsunami alert had been lifted across much of the country by 0500 GMT, Chilean daily La Tercera reported. Landslides cut roads and there were reports of infrastructure damage, after authorities in Santiago issued an evacuation order for the whole coastline.
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President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he will press for Palestinian recognition at 15 United Nations bodies, a measure likely to jeopardize US efforts to save the faltering peace talks with Israel. The move comes after Palestinian outrage over Israel's refusal to release a fourth and final group of 26 Palestinian prisoners by a Saturday deadline.
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