NSF.L Share News (NSF)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories on Friday.----------COMPANIES----------Cathedral City cheese maker Dairy Crest Group said Canadian firm Saputo will acquire the company in a deal valuing Dairy Crest at around GBP975 million. Saputo will pay 620 pence per share for Dairy Crest, a premium of around 12% to the FTSE 250-listed company's 555p closing price on Thursday and a 21% premium to its 30-day volume weighted average share price of 488p. Dairy Crest's directors will accept the deal and have "unanimously" recommended Dairy Crest shareholders do the same.----------Non-Standard Finance has made an all-share offer worth GBP1.3 billion to acquire bigger rival home credit provider Provident Financial. Non-Standard Finance, which provides home credit under the brands Loans at Home and Everyday Loans, will pay for each Provident Financial share with 8.88 new Non-Standard Finance shares. Based on Non-Standard Finance's Thursday closing share price of 58 pence, the offer values each Provident Financial share at 511 pence. Provident shareholders will own around 88% of the enlarged Non-Standard Finance company.----------Educational publisher Pearson hiked its dividend after annual profit performance improved significantly amid cost-cutting progress, slightly beating economist estimates. Pearson also provided upbeat guidance. In 2018, pretax profit widened 18% to GBP498 million despite reported revenue falling 8.4% to GBP4.13 billion. According to consensus, analysts had expected Pearson to report GBP496 million pretax profit on revenue of GBP4.19 billion, so it beat slightly on profit but missed a little on revenue. Profit performance in 2018 was helped by a sizeable fall in operating expenses to GBP1.91 billion from GBP2.20 billion the year prior. Although reported revenue saw a significant fall in 2018, on an underlying basis it fell a more modest 1%. This was driven by a 5% decline in its US Higher Education Courseware business and a 1% fall in US K12 Courseware unit, now sold. Pearson proposed a 13.0 pence per share final dividend, so for the full year the dividend grew 8.8% to 18.5p. ----------Challenger bank Metro Bank has received GBP120 million from Banking Competition Remedies, a fund set up by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The GBP775 million RBS fund, which was a UK government requirement for bailing out RBS during the financial crisis a decade ago, is to be used for UK small and medium-sized enterprise lending. Glasgow-headquartered CYBG was competing for a slice of the same fund but announced Friday it was unsuccessful. CYBG remains focused on "competing" in the sector and will "continue with its successful existing SME growth strategy".----------Kingspan said its profit rose in 2018 with its largest division, Insulated Panels, performing especially well despite a difficult UK climate. The Irish insulation firm posted a pretax profit of EUR404.9 million for the year to December 31, rising 17% from EUR346.5 million in 2017. Revenue grew 19% to EUR4.37 billion with Insulated Panels revenue up 21% to EUR2.82 billion. Kingspan's Light & Air business posted the strongest improvement to revenue, up 43% to EUR291.8 million. Insulation board revenue was up 12% at EUR864.1 million and Water & Energy was up 13% at EUR202.9 million. The performance from Data & Flooring Technology was more modest, up just 3% at EUR190.6 million. Kingspan has declared a final dividend of 30.0 EUR cents per share, increasing the total dividend for the year by 14% to 42.0 cents from 37.0 cents.----------MARKETS----------Markets in London were generally higher on Friday, with commodity firms gaining on the large cap FTSE 100 and the likes of Dairy Crest and Metro Bank helping the mid cap index. Wall Street is called for a lower open, as trade talks continue between the US and China ahead of the March 1 deadline for tariffs to kick in. ----------FTSE 100: 0.4% higher at 7,194.77FTSE 250: 0.4% higher at 19,313.24AIM ALL-SHARE: 0.1% lower at 907.87GBP: soft at USD1.3015 (USD1.3054)EUR: firm at USD1.1340 (USD1.1335)GOLD: lower at USD1,322.10 per ounce (USD1,330.61)OIL (Brent): higher at USD67.26 a barrel (USD66.99)(changes since previous London equities close)----------ECONOMICS AND GENERAL----------UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been warned she could face a mass revolt of Conservative members of Parliament if the country appears on course for a no-deal Brexit. The leaders of the 100-strong Brexit Delivery Group of moderate Conservatives wrote to Chief Whip Julian Smith setting out widespread discontent at the prospect of a no-deal departure. Andrew Percy, one of the group's leaders, said dozens of his colleagues would be prepared to vote for measures to delay the March 29 exit date if the "intransigence" of hard-line Brexiteers meant May's deal is again rejected by MPs.----------Fresh Brexit talks have been scheduled for early next week as May heads towards another Commons showdown on her EU withdrawal stance. The move comes amid the reports May is facing a major challenge from Tory MPs opposed to a no-deal exit from the EU.----------The UK will not be able to roll over the EU's trade deal with Japan in time for the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has confirmed. Japan was the most significant on a list of 27 EU trade agreements released by Fox's Department of International Trade on which discussions about possible roll-over are still ongoing just 36 days from the date of withdrawal. The department also confirmed that the EU's customs union agreement with Turkey, which covers 1.39% of UK trade, will not be transitioned on exit day.----------Germany's economy stagnated in the final three months of the year, thus narrowly avoiding a technical recession, latest data from the Federal Statistical Office confirmed. Gross domestic product was unchanged from the third quarter, when the economy shrunk 0.2%. That was in line with the preliminary estimate released on February 14. Two consecutive quarters of contraction would have meant the biggest euro area economy entered recession.----------Germany's business confidence fell for a sixth straight month in February to its lowest level in over four years, reports said on Friday, citing figures from the ifo Institute. The business confidence index dropped to 98.5 from an upwardly revised 99.3 in January. Economists had forecast a score of 98.9. The latest reading was the lowest since December 2014, when it was 98.2. The expectations index of the survey dropped to 93.8 from an upwardly revised 94.3. Economists had expected a score of 94.2. The current assessment index fell to 103.4 from an upwardly revised 104.5 in January. Economists were looking for a 103.9 reading.----------The US will not be able to share information or fully cooperate with countries that integrate technology of Chinese giant Huawei into their critical information systems, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday. "If a country adopts this and puts it in some of their critical information systems, we won't be able to share information with them, we won't be able to work alongside them," Pompeo told the Fox Business Channel. "In some cases, there's risk we won't even be able to co-locate American resources, an American embassy or an American military outpost," Pompeo added, saying he was sharing the details of this "real risk" with allies.----------