Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Marks & Spencer Group reported growth in sales in the fourth quarter of its financial year, as a rise in food sales offset a decline in general merchandise. M&S said group sales in the 13 weeks ended March 26 were up 1.9% on the same period the year before. The food division achieved sales growth of 4.0% while the struggling general merchandise business saw sales fall by 1.9%, although this decline was slower than in the previous quarter. On a like-for-like basis, food sales were flat and general merchandise sales were down 2.7%. "Although the sales decline in Clothing and Home was lower than last quarter, our performance remains unsatisfactory," said Chief Executive Steve Rowe. "Turning around our Clothing and Home business by improving our customer offer is our number one priority," he added.
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Dunelm Group reported growth in revenue in the third quarter of its financial year, driven by like-for-like growth and a rise in online home delivery sales. The homewares retailer said total revenue in the 13 weeks ended April 2 grew by 5.9% to GBP229.0 million on the same period the year before. Total like-for-like sales increased by 1.1%, but Dunelm said growth was reduced by around 4.9%, or GBP10 million, due to it having six days fewer of winter sales as result of the prior year including a 53rd week. This was partially offset, however, by the timing of Easter this year which contributed 1.0% towards like-for-like growth.
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ASOS said it has decided to shut down its local operations in China. ASOS said it will continue to serve its Chinese customer base through its ASOS.com website. The company said it expects to book a GBP10.0 million one-off cost related to the discontinuation of the local Chinese business, with operating losses of GBP4.0 million in the current financial year to the end of August.
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch said two private equity firms that are invested in Worldpay Group have sold all of the shares they put up for sale under a placing, selling a 13.8% stake in the company for GBP740.0 million. Advent International and Bain Capital made 275.0 million shares that they held in Worldpay available for sale under a placing launched on Wednesday, with Barclays Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Merrill Lynch International and Morgan Stanley & Co International acting as joint bookrunners. Early Thursday, it was revealed that all of those shares were sold at a price of 269.0 pence per share, raising GBP740.0 million in total. None of those proceeds will be going to Worldpay.
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Shire reiterated its expectations that its acquisition of Chicago-based Baxalta will proceed as it originally announced in January, as it acknowledged a notice from the US Treasure regarding new steps taken to curb so called 'tax inversions'. The Dublin-based company expects the deal to be completed by mid-2016. The US Treasury on Monday outlined new steps to curb so called 'tax inversions', where US companies have looked to cut their tax rate by redomiciling overseas, and these new measures have already claimed their first casualty as Pfizer terminated its USD10 billion merger with botox maker Allergan on Wednesday.
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Three major UK banks are planning to shut around 400 branches over the course of 2016, according to a Reuters report citing people familiar with the situation. HSBC Holdings is expected to close the largest number, at around 200, with Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Barclays set to close about 100 apiece.
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Go-Ahead Group said its joint venture with French peer Keolis has been shortlisted for the contract running the West Midlands rail franchise. The Govia joint venture between the two has handled the franchise since 2007 and will be looking to renew the deal to keep running the service, which will expire in October 2017, Go-Ahead said. The UK Department for Transport said the other bidders shortlisted for the franchise are West Midlands Trains, headed by Dutch group Abellio, and MTR, a Hong Kong-listed transport operator.
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Fellow transport operator FirstGroup said it will cut the frequency of its trading updates as it said its fourth-quarter results met expectations. FirstGroup said it will decrease the number of trading updates its issues per financial year to four from six previously, starting with the year to the end of March 2017. The group said there have been no significant developments since its last update at the end of January.
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Student accommodation developer Unite Group said its chief executive will leave to join regeneration company St Modwen Properties. Mark Allan will take over at St Modwen from December 1, after joining as CEO designate on November 1. He will take over from Bill Oliver, who will retire at the end of November. Unite has appointed Richard Smith, its managing director of operations, to chief executive to replace Allan, who has been CEO at Unite for a decade and has worked for the company for 17 years.
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Victrex indicated that a further deterioration in volumes in the second quarter will make the company more reliant on an upturn in the second half, and said revenue in the first half will be lower. The polymer products company said revenue fell 11% in the six months to the end of March to GBP117.0 million from GBP131.6 million a year earlier, while volumes declined 13%. Victrex said the first half had been hit by the re-phasing of volumes in its consumer electronics business to the second half, tough year-before comparatives, and difficult conditions in oil and gas end markets. Industrial markets outside of oil and gas performed well, the company said, with growth in its transport sales and broadly flat revenue for its medical division.
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Centamin said gold production increased during the first quarter of 2016 as the company remains on track to deliver on its full-year guidance. The company, which derives all of its production from the Sukari mine in Egypt, said total gold production in the first quarter amounted to 125,268 ounces of gold, which is 6.5% higher than the previous quarter and a 16% increase from the same period a year earlier.
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MARKETS
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The main UK stock indices were down with Worldpay and a raft of companies going ex-dividend among the fallers. The euro rose to its highest level of the year. Wall Street was pointed to a higher open.
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,157.04
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 16,841.66
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 716.73

GBP: down at USD1.4071 (USD1.4103)
EUR: up at USD1.1400 (USD1.1388)

GOLD: up at USD1,237.70 per ounce (USD1,221.73)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD39.72 a barrel (USD39.38)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK house prices increased by more than expected in the first quarter, survey data from the mortgage lender Halifax revealed. House prices advanced 10.1% in three months to March from last year after rising 9.7% in three months to February. Economists had forecast the pace to ease slightly to 9.5%. The annual rate has been within the 8%-10% range for nearly the whole period since the start of 2015. Month-on-month, house prices grew 2.6% reversing a 1.5% fall in February. Prices were expected to grow only 0.9%.
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US monetary policy makers remain concerned about low inflation and lingering economic problems overseas, minutes of the Federal Reserve March 15-16 revealed. A number of Fed officials argued against an April rate hike, thinking this would signal a sense of urgency they did not think appropriate. This is in line with last week's dovish remarks from Fed Chair Janet Yellen, who noted downside risks to the US economy. "Several participants expressed the view that the underlying factors abroad that led to a sharp, though temporary, deterioration in global financial conditions earlier this year had not been fully resolved," the minutes read.
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UK Prime Minister David Cameron will warn young people they would be the hardest hit if Britain leaves the European Union as he seeks to bolster support for the "remain" camp. The prime minister will issue the stark caution at the launch of a drive to recruit younger voters - who are generally less likely to vote than more anti-EU older generations. His intervention - at a question and answer session in Devon - comes as he faced criticism from pro-Brexit campaigners for spending GBP9.3 million of taxpayers' money on a pro-EU publicity drive.
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The UK business secretary is flying back to the UK after meeting officials of Indian conglomerate Tata to press for time to sell its steel plants in this country. Sajid Javid said the sale process will start by Monday, although there was no set timeframe for it to be completed. Unions had been pressing for Tata to give an assurance that it will allow enough time for potential buyers to come forward. Sanjeev Gupta, the head of Liberty House, the only company to publicly express an interest in Tata's plants, told the Press Association the process would take months.
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Panama will establish a financial review committee in the wake of the leak that revealed the details of thousands of offshore accounts facilitated by a law firm based in the country, the president said. The independent committee of national and international experts will "evaluate our current practices and put forward the adoption of measures which we will share with other countries, to strengthen the transparency of our financial and legal systems," President Juan Carlos Varela said on Twitter. "We are a serious country, respectful of international law and cooperative with the efforts of the international community to seek solutions to this global problem," he tweeted.
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Iceland's centre-right coalition will remain in office, but with a new prime minister, leaders of the two governing parties said, adding that elections would be held earlier than scheduled. Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, who until now has been fisheries and agriculture minister, was to be new prime minister, replacing Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, said Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson. Gunnlaugsson of the Progressive Party was to formally hand in his resignation Thursday.
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FIFA president Gianni Infantino welcomes "any investigation" relating to a TV contract he signed while working for UEFA. "If my determination to restore football's reputation was already very strong, it is now even stronger," he said in a statement after Swiss police Wednesday searched the headquarters in Nyon of European football body UEFA. UEFA said it handed police "relevant documents" relating to a TV contract with an offshore marketing agency signed off by former UEFA general secretary Infantino, who at the time was UEFA's director of legal services. The contract emerged in the Panama Papers leaked data.
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The head of a committee weighing allegations that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff concealed budget deficits said he favoured her impeachment. Jovair Arantes, who heads the special committee of 65 legislators, said he believed there was enough evidence to proceed with the process to possibly remove Rousseff from office.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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