Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Share News (MLC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets reported a drop in sales in its first quarter but said the company's financial position remains "strong" as it predicted higher profit in the second half of its financial year than in the first. The grocer said total sales in the 13 weeks to May 3 were down 5.1% on the same period a year earlier, while like-for-like sales were down 6.6%. It said more stores were closed in the period than opened, as part of its restructuring plans under new boss David Potts, leading to a net reduction in selling space of over 50,000 square feet. Steps to "simplify" the head office, which is resulting in a number of job cuts, is anticipated to incur costs of GBP30 million to GBP40 million during the financial year.
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BT Group posted results in line with expectations for its recently ended financial year, and said it expects to achieve "modest" growth in earnings for the current year, despite some additional costs from the launch of its UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League content in the year. BT reported pretax profit of GBP2.65 billion for the year to the end of March, up from GBP2.31 billion a year before, as a decline in revenue to GBP17.98 billion from GBP18.29 billion was offset by a reduction in operating costs of 7%. According to broker forecasts provided by the company, BT was expected to post a pretax profit of GBP2.65 billion on revenue of GBP17.90 billion. The company proposed a final dividend of 8.5 pence, giving it a total dividend for the year of 12.4p, up 14% from 10.9 pence the year before.
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BAE Systems said its outlook remains unchanged and trading so far in 2015 has been in line with management expectations. In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting, the defence contractor reiterated that it expects its underlying earnings per share to be marginally higher in 2015 than 2014, "including some reliance on anticipated naval and aircraft orders".
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Aviva reported higher levels of new business, bolstered by operations in the UK & Ireland, Europe and Asia. The group said its integration of Friends Life is ahead of schedule, following the GBP5.6 billion acquisition of its former rival. In a statement, the life insurer and FTSE 100 constituent said value of new business increased to GBP247 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP224 million in the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
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RSA Insurance Group cautioned that lower interest rates and currency moves in its vital areas of business are having an unwelcome effect on business, but the insurer said its net profit in the first quarter of 2015 was "a little ahead" of plans and included gains it is expecting to make on asset sales. In a statement, RSA said net written premiums decreased to GBP1.59 billion in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP1.73 billion in the corresponding period of the prior year. Excluding the group's new reinsurance coverage programme, discontinued and non-core operations, core group net written premium fell to GBP1.58 billion from GBP1.62 billion.
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Randgold Resources reported a steep drop in profit for the first quarter of 2015, as cost cutting only partially offset an impact from the fall in the gold price and the rise in the dollar against currencies including the euro, South African rand and Canadian dollar. The gold producer reported a net profit of USD48.2 million for the three months to end-March, down from USD74.3 million a year earlier. Gold sales declined to USD344.6 million from USD362.9 million, as the average gold price it received dropped to USD1,215 an ounce from USD1,296 an ounce.
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Low-cost airline easyJet joined the African airline backed by its founder, fastjet, in reporting another increase in passenger numbers in April, while traffic at Irish airline Aer Lingus fell in the month as a drop in its short-haul operations more than offset growth in long-haul. EasyJet said it flew 6.0 million passengers in April, up from 5.8 million a year earlier, while its load factor, a measure of how many paid seats are filled on its planes, rose to 90.8% from 89.8%.
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Four big banks are expected to plead guilty to rigging foreign-currency exchange rates and pay billions in combined penalties as part of settlement agreements expected to be announced as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. The report indicated that US prosecutors are preparing to announce separate settlements simultaneously with Citigroup, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The banks are expected to plead guilty to criminal antitrust charges for alleged collusion by traders in foreign-currency markets. UBS also is expected to reach a settlement but will receive immunity from prosecution.
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Production workers at ITV and other staff at the broadcaster have voted to strike on May 14 in a dispute over pay, the BBC reported. The 24-hour strike by members of the Bectu union could impact ITV's live programmes, including Good Morning Britain and ITV News bulletins. Bectu said staff had voted in favour of the strike in protest over ITV's offer of a 2% pay rise, which the union described at "miserly".
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Shares in TeleCity Group soared after it received a GBP2.32 billion takeover approach from American data-centre provider Equinix, a few months after agreeing an all-share deal to acquire data-centre services provider Interxion Holding. TeleCity also reiterated its guidance for 2015, despite a slight decline in revenue due to the strength of sterling in the first quarter of 2015. Equinix has approached with a potential offer of 1,145 pence per share, payable in a mixture of cash and stock in Equinix. Around 54% of the consideration would be payable in cash, and 46% in Equinix stock. TeleCity shares are trading up 18% at 1,065.00 pence Thursday morning.
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esure Group said it increased motor gross written premiums in the first quarter of 2015 and made some progress on its pricing. esure said total gross written premiums increased to GBP130.7 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP123.5 million in the corresponding quarter of the prior year. In-force policies increased to 1.971 million from 1.962 million at the same stage of the prior year. Additional services revenue was down 1.2% to GBP23.4 million.
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Millennium & Copthorne Hotels reported lower profit in its first quarter, despite a rise in revenue and in revenue per available room, as profit was hit by labour cost pressures and a tough comparative in 2014. The hotels operator said pretax profit in the three months to March 31 declined to GBP19 million from GBP20 million the year before. This was despite an increase in revenue to GBP189 million from GBP175 million and a rise in revenue per available room to GBP61.60 from GBP58.23.
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Asia Coal Energy Ventures, the vehicle backed by hedge fund Argyle Street Management Ltd and Indonesia-based Sinarmas Group, finally confirmed a GBP98.8 million takeover offer for Asia Resource Minerals, and it also secured a deal with Austria's Raiffeisen Bank that puts it in a strong position as it battles for control of the company with founder Nat Rothschild. Asia Coal Energy said it is offering 41.0 pence a share for the shares in Asia Resource Minerals it doesn't currently own, a 173.3% premium to the closing price on April 13, the day before it said it would make a bid, and a 198.0% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price leading up to that date.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are lower mid-morning in a busy day for corporate news, as the uncertainty of the UK General Election's outcome reduces the risk appetite amongst investors.
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FTSE 100: down 1.6% at 6,823.80
FTSE 250: down 1.0% at 17,232.25
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 749.08
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As UK voiting gets underway, analysts say volatility is starting to hit the pound, which touched an intraday low of USD1.5162 against the dollar.
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GBP: flat at USD1.5239
EUR: up at USD1.1379

GOLD: down at USD1183.19 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD68.24 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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New car registrations in the UK increased for the thirty-eighth consecutive month in April, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed. Total new car registrations rose 5.1% year-over-year in April to 185,778 units, marking the strongest April result in ten years. In the same month of the previous year, it was 176,820 units. Ford Fiesta topped the best sellers list in April with 10,294 units. This was followed by Focus with the sale of 6,437 units
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German factory orders recovered in March after falling for two straight months, data from Destatis showed. Factory orders grew 0.9% month-on-month in March, offsetting February's 0.9% fall. Domestic orders increased 4.3%, while foreign orders declined 1.6%.
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French industrial production dropped unexpectedly in March, figures from the statistical office Insee showed. Industrial production dropped 0.3% month-on-month in March, defying economists' expectations for a 0.1% slight increase. In February, production had risen a revised 0.5%.
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Although growth in Asia Pacific is set to continue on domestic demand, the International Monetary Fund said a slower-than-expected growth in China and stronger dollar pose risks to the outlook. Growth in the Asia and Pacific region is forecast to remain at 5.6% this year before easing slightly to 5.5% in 2016, the IMF said in the Regional Economic Outlook: Asia and Pacific.
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Six weeks after his conservative Likud party won parliamentary elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Wednesday - in the 11th hour - finalized a right-wing, religious coalition with a majority of just one seat. The coalition of the Likud, the centre-right Kulanu party of Finance Minister-designate Moshe Kahlon, two ultra-Orthodox parties, and - finally - the pro-settler Jewish Home party has 61 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament.
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