LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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TUI Travel and German parent TUI AG revealed the details of their proposed merger, which will see TUI Travel shareholders own a 46% stake in the combined group that will have a fully-diluted equity value of around GBP5.2 billion. In a joint statement, the companies said that taking into consideration TUI AG's existing stake in TUI Travel, the merger is expected to result in existing TUI Travel shareholders owning 46% of the combined group and existing TUI AG shareholders owning 54%, on a fully-diluted basis. TUI AG currently owns 51% of TUI Travel. Under the merger, TUI Travel shareholders with receive 0.399 new TUI AG shares for each share they hold, and TUI Travel shareholders, including TUI AG, also will receive a second interim dividend.
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SABMiller is understood to have approached the owners of Dutch brewer Heineken over a possible bid for the company in an attempt to fend off a potential approach from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bloomberg reported Sunday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The preliminary offer by the FTSE 100 drinks company was rejected by the family that controls Heineken, according to the people. They said the offer would have given the Heineken family among the largest shareholders in the combined entity, Bloomberg reported.
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The US unit of HSBC Holdings PLC Friday agreed to pay USD550.0 million to settle claims over the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years leading up to the financial crisis. The settlement is lower than the maximum amount previously indicated by the bank holding company in its August 2014 half-year results statement.
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Enterprise software developer Micro Focus International confirmed it has agreed a reverse takeover of US-based The Attachmate Group Inc. Additionally, Micro Focus announced plans to return GBP83.9 million to shareholders at a rate of 60 pence per share, and simultaneously undertake a proportionate share consolidation. The share consolidation will give shareholders 0.9285 new shares for each existing share held. Under the agreement Micro Focus plans to acquire the entire issued share capital of Attachmate by issuing 86.60 million shares to Attachmate's parent company Wizard Parent LLC, equivalent to 40% of the new company's enlarged share capital.
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Investec said it has agreed to sell Irish intermediated mortgage business Start Mortgage Holdings Ltd, as well as certain other Irish mortgage assets, to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds, following on from last week's sale of specialist UK mortgage business Kensington Group PLC. Investec said the deal is part of its objective to simplify and reshape its specialist banking business, and reduce assets within its legacy non-core business.
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William Hill, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Gala Coral are creating a self-regulatory body to impose tougher standards on the industry as they seek to head off criticism about the rise of problem gambling, the Financial Times reports. Other gambling companies, including Betfred and Bet 365, have also been invited to sign up to the new watchdog, which will be launched in January, the FT says, adding that the new body has been dubbed the Senet Group, after a board game that was popular in ancient Egypt.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are trading lower morning, with the Scottish independence vote looming ahead and weak Chinese economic data reported over the weekend, but individual stock news is taking centre stage in the absence of fresh market-moving economic or political events. SABMiller leads FTSE 100 gainers, up 4.1%.
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FTSE 100: down 0.3% at 6,789.45
FTSE 250: down 0.5% at 15,633.89
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 774.26
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The euro is down against the dollar after the eurozone trade surplus decreased for the second straight month in July.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6247
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2924
GOLD: up at USD1255.10 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD97.58 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The average asking price for a house in the UK jumped 0.9% on month in September, property tracking website Rightmove said - standing at GBP264,875. That follows the 2.9% contraction in August. On a yearly basis, house prices spiked 7.9%, accelerating from the 5.3% gain in the previous month.
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The Eurozone trade surplus decreased for the second straight month in July, Eurostat reported. The trade surplus fell unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted EUR12.2 billion from EUR13.8 billion in June. The surplus was forecast to rise to EUR15.5 billion. Exports fell 0.2% from June after declining 0.3%. Meanwhile, growth in imports accelerated to 0.9% from 0.6%.
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Chinese industrial production and retail sales increased at slower than expected rates in August, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Saturday. The data has served to accentuate growth fears and expectations of additional stimulus as the world's second largest economy struggles to achieve the 7.5% growth target set for 2014. Industrial production rose 6.9% year-over-year in August following the 9% rise in July, with growth slowing for the second straight month and hitting its slowest pace in over 5 years. This was slower than the 8.8% growth estimated by economists. A separate report showed that Chinese retail sales expanded 11.9% year-over-year in August, which was slower than the 12.2% increase in July.
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UK Prime Minister David Cameron was set to hit the campaign trail in Scotland, in a last ditch attempt to persuade voters to say "no" to independence from the UK. With opinion polls showing that Thursday's referendum is on a knife-edge, Cameron is expected to tell Scots there will be "no going back" if they vote to end more than 300 years of union with the rest of the UK. Meanwhile Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond was also set to meet business leaders in a bid to highlight the economic opportunities independence could bring.He told the BBC at the weekend the vote was a "once in a generation opportunity for Scotland."
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Cameron vowed to "hunt down" the jihadists responsible for beheading a British aid worker, and France is hosting an international security conference on Iraq Monday as the US seeks more allies for a global coalition against the Islamic State. Cameron called 44-year-old David Haines a "British hero" and said his government would "hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes," after the extremist Sunni group released a video of the beheading.
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Ukraine and the EU are delaying the implementation of a much-touted free trade deal until the end of 2015, while Brussels and Washington on Friday slapped fresh sanctions against Moscow for its role in the crisis in eastern Ukraine. In announcing the trade deal delay, following concerns from Moscow that it will have negative repercussions, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said: "This is part and parcel of the comprehensive peace process in Ukraine." Moscow, which is wary of closer EU-Ukraine ties, has expressed fears that the trade pact could negatively impact Russia's economy.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
28 Aug 2014 10:36
