Northgate Share News (NTG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Saga, the provider of insurance and travel to over-50s, were on the rise early Friday, despite a stake of just short of one-third being sold by its private-equity backers.

Numis Securities said Acromas Bid Co sold its entire 32% stake through a placing to institutional investors. Acromas is owned by Charterhouse Capital Partners, CVC Capital Partners and Permira, the private equity firms behind floating Saga in London in May 2014.

Numis said the 352.7 million shares were placed at a price of 195.00 pence per share, giving the stake being sold a value of GBP687.7 million. The shares were placed at a discount to their closing price on Thursday of 201.40p. The stock was up 2.6% to 206.7p early Friday.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6,344.44
FTSE 250: down 0.4% at 16,915.92
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 734.16
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Hang Seng: down 0.9% at 21,421.57
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.2% at 17,572.49
DJIA: closed down 0.6% at 17,982.52
S&P 500: closed down 0.5% at 2,091.48
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GBP: flat at USD1.4335 (USD1.4330)
EUR: soft at USD1.1282 (USD1.1296)

GOLD: soft at USD1,245.14 per ounce (USD1,251.76)
OIL (Brent): soft at USD44.90 a barrel (USD45.13)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

EU EcoFin Meeting

08:30 Germany Markit manufacturing, services and composite PMI preliminary
09:00 Italy industrial sales and orders
09:00 EU Markit manufacturing, services and composite PMI preliminary
10:00 Italy retail sales
13:30 Canada retail sales
14:30 Canada consumer price index
14:45 US Markit manufacturing PMI preliminary
18:00 US Baker Hughes US oil rig count
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US President Barack Obama urged Britain to stay in the EU, saying the world needed the UK's influence within Europe. The president, who has arrived in Britain for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron and lunch with the Queen, said membership of the European Union magnified the UK's status on the global stage. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the president said:"The European Union doesn't moderate British influence - it magnifies it. A strong Europe is not a threat to Britain's global leadership; it enhances Britain's global leadership."
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Obama highlighted the level of cooperation between the US and its Gulf Arab allies during his visit to Saudi Arabia but acknowledged tactical differences with respect to Iran. Speaking to the press after a session of the US-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit on Thursday, Obama said the countries agree on the need to deter Iranian provocations but noted there have been concerns about the US negotiating with the Iranian government.
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EU member states made limited progress in providing places for Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey - a measure the EU has agreed to in return for Ankara's help in stemming migration flows to Europe. The 28-member bloc has been working to halt a migration surge that saw more than 1 million people arrive last year. Most of them crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the Greek islands, in the hope of reaching wealthy northern European states such as Germany and Sweden. At the core of the EU's approach is a controversial deal with Turkey under which new arrivals to Greece will be sent back. For each Syrian returned in this way, the bloc has agreed to take in one Syrian refugee living in Turkey, up to a total of 72,000.
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British households perceived that the value of their home increased in April, survey figures from Markit Economics and Knight Frank showed. The Knight Frank/Markit House Price Sentiment Index, or HPSI, dropped marginally to 60.1 in April from 60.5 in the previous month. However, a reading above 50 signals a rise in house prices. The future HPSI, a measure of expectations on house prices dipped to 68.8 in April from 71.6 in March. "The latest survey highlights another brake on the number of UK households intending to purchase a property over the next two years, with this index down appreciably from its peak in February 2015," Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, said.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: DEUTSCHE BANK RAISES J SAINSBURY TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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TRADERS: LIBERUM RAISES BARRATT DEVELOPMENTS TO 'HOLD' ('SELL')
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TRADERS: LIBERUM RAISES PERSIMMON TO 'HOLD' ('SELL')
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TRADERS: CITIGROUP INITIATES NORTHGATE WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 600 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Drugmaker AstraZeneca said it has created a genomics initiative with a group of research institutions in a bid to boost drug discovery and drug development across its MedImmune research and development business. The initiative will include work with the Human Longevity group in the US, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK and the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Finland. AstraZeneca also will create an in-house Centre for Genomics Research which will develop a bespoke database of genome samples donated by patients in clinical trials, along with clinical and drug response data.
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Property developer Hammerson said it has signed a GBP420.0 million revolving credit facility with a syndicate of eight banks, refinancing a GBP150.0 million facility that was set to mature in April 2017 and increasing its liquidity. Hammerson said that, following the signing of the new facility, the total committed financing available to it will be around GBP4.40 billion.
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Outsourcer Capita said it has secured GBP72.0 million customer services contract extension with FTSE 250 department store operator Debenhams. The extension will mean the contract will run to September 2022. Under the terms of the deal, Capita will continue to provide customer services on behalf of Debenhams, including managing its online and retail store ordering and delivery.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Events company UBM said it has acquired US fashion trade shows producer Business Journals for USD69.0 million in cash. Business Journals serves the men's apparel and women's apparel and accessories markets, running the AccessoriesTheShow, EDIT, FAME, Moda, MRket and Stitch trade show brands. UBM said Business Journals is "highly complementary" to its existing fashion trade show portfolio and will deliver synergies in areas such as event operations, property and cross-marketing opportunities.
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Insurer Hiscox said it has appointed Hamayou Akbar Hussain as its chief financial officer. He will join the FTSE 250-listed group after seven years at blue-chip life insurer Prudential, most recently as its chief financial officer for Prudential UK & Europe.
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Defence contractor Ultra Electronics Holdings said its Sonar Systems unit has won a GBP9.5 million contract extension with the UK's Royal Navy. Ultra said the contract will cover the supply of sonobuoys for the Royal Navy's Merlin Maritime Patrol Helicopter. The contract will be executed through 2017. Ultra said the deal will ensure the Royal Navy maintains a persistent anti-submarine warfare surveillance capability against hostile submarines.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Bisto gravy and Mr Kipling cakes maker Premier Foods said it has entered into a relationship agreement with Nissin Foods. Under the terms of the agreement, Nissin will have the right to appoint a non-executive director to Premier's board for so long as Nissin holds an interest of at least 15% in Premier. Japan's Nissin, which invented the instant noodle, last month bought a 17% stake in Premier from private equity group Warburg Pincus. Last week, US spices and flavourings company McCormick & Co said it had decided against making a takeover offer for Premier.
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African banking group Atlas Mara said it has placed another USD17.4 million in senior convertible notes. The company, co-founded by former Barclays chief Bob Diamond, said one of its subsidiaries subscribed for USD6.0 million of the bonds to facilitate an investment by African investors.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported an increase in profit for the first quarter, driven mostly by increase in search and advertising revenues. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter fell shy of Wall Street analysts' estimates, sending shares of Alphabet down by 6% in the after-hours trading. Alphabet's first-quarter profit rose to USD4.21 billion or USD6.02 per share from USD3.52 billion or USD5.10 per share. Revenue for the quarter grew 17% to USD20.26 billion from USD17.26 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of USD20.38 billion for the quarter. Google said aggregate paid clicks increased 29% year-over-year, while aggregate cost-per-click fell 9% year-over-year.
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Microsoft closed its fiscal third quarter with earnings of USD3.76 billion, a drop from USD4.98 billion for the same quarter a year before, the company said. The results, which fell short of analyst expectations, came despite progress toward Microsoft's restructuring goals, which hope to trade its PC business for profits from the cloud. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told Bloomberg that profits fell short due to a one-time tax payment.
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Starbucks, the world's largest specialty coffee retailer, reported an increase in profit for the second quarter, as revenue grew. Seattle, Washington-based Starbucks' second-quarter profit rose to USD575.1 million or USD0.39 per share from USD494.9 million or USD0.33 per share last year. Net revenue for the quarter grew 9.4% to USD4.99 billion from USD4.56 billion last year.
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Volkswagen has set aside EUR16.4 billion to cover costs associated with the company's diesel emissions scandal, sources told dpa Thursday, the same day a settlement was announced to compensate US owners of VW cars built with software designed to cheat US emissions tests. The cash reserve is an increase of almost EUR10 billion over the previous estimate the German carmaker had established for costs arising from the diesel emissions cheating revealed last year. The agreement, which requires VW to buy back or fix some 500,000 affected cars, was announced by a US judge in San Francisco. It also requires VW to pay substantial damages.
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German luxury car giant Daimler reported its first-quarter net profit attributable to the shareholders declined to EUR1.35 billion from last year's EUR1.96 billion. First-quarter revenue amounted to EUR35.05 billion, 2% higher than EUR34.24 billion a year before. Adjusted for the effects of currency translation, revenue grew by 4%. Looking ahead for 2016, Daimler said it expects significant growth in unit sales and slight revenue growth. In regional terms, the company anticipates the strongest revenue growth in Asia and Western Europe.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

HSBC Holdings
Senior
SEGRO
Molins
JPMorgan Senior Secured Loan Fund
Henderson Global Trust (re reconstruction and winding-up proposals)
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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