Pets at home Share News (PETS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
Brewer SABMiller reported a 1% drop in lager volume in the third quarter of its financial year, hit by weakness in China and lower US shipments, but its soft drink volumes continued to expand, rising 4%. In a trading update, SAB Miller said its net producer revenue for the three months to end-December grew 4% at constant currency rates. The figure declined by 5% at actual rates as it was hit by adverse currency movements. Net producer revenue per hectolitre grew in all regions, as it continued to sell a greater proportion of its premium lagers and drinks.
----------
Pearson said it expects to report 2014 results in line with its previous guidance, anticipating an adjusted operating profit of GBP720 million and adjusted earnings per share at the upper end of its guidance range at 66 pence. It is preliminarily guiding adjusted earnings per share of between 75 pence and 80 pence for 2015. The company did not detail how it is adjusting results. The Financial Times owner had guided adjusted earnings per share of between 62 to 67 pence for 2014.
----------
Mining giant BHP Billiton said its global iron ore production for the second quarter grew 16% year-over-year, but edged down 1% sequentially. Production of metallurgical coal grew 17%. Total iron ore production for the first half of 2015 increased 16%. The company also maintained its full-year production guidance for petroleum, copper, iron ore and coal businesses. "Our operational performance over the last six months has been strong. We are reducing costs and improving both operating and capital productivity across the group faster than originally planned. These improvements will help mitigate some of the impact of lower commodity prices and we remain alert to opportunities to further increase free cash flow," CEO Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement.
----------
BP argued in a New Orleans courtroom that it should not have to pay huge government fines because it worked hard to clean up after one of the worst oil spills the US had ever seen, according to media reports. BP faces up to USD13.7 billion in government fines under the US Clean Water Act over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. US District Judge Carl Barbier opened the penalty phase of the trial of BP, which discharged 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf waters, in a federal courtroom.
----------
Electronics retailer Dixons Carphone said trading over the key Christmas trading period was like a "roller-coaster", but said market share gains and good sales growth over the festive season have left it confident of delivering a full-year profit ahead of market expectations. The group, formed from a merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse in the summer last year, said UK and Ireland like-for-like sales were up 8% over the nine weeks to January 3 from the year before. Overall group like-for-like sales were up 7%, which the electronics retailer said was driven by further market shares gains across electrical and mobiles in the UK and Ireland, Nordics and Greece.
----------
Sports Direct International announced that founder Mike Ashley sold GBP110.9 million worth of shares in the sports retailer, roughly 2.6% of the entire share capital of the company. Ashley, which is embroiled in a battle for control of Scottish football club Rangers International Football Club, sold 15.4 million Sports Direct shares for 720 pence each on Tuesday, reducing his shareholding in the retailer to just over 55.1%. The shares were sold via his MASH Holdings Ltd investment vehicle, which is wholly owned by Ashley. Sports Direct did not state the reason for the sale of shares.
----------
UK gas and electricity regulator Ofgem said it is launching an investigation into whether SSE put its competitors at a disadvantage in the electricity connections market, as it announced reforms to try to increase competition within the sector. The focus of Ofgem's report on the electricity connection sector was on new housing developments and those not yet connected to the grid, who can choose from whom they get their electricity connection, whether it be from large companies or independent providers.
----------
FirstGroup saw its shares rise after it said overall trading is meeting its expectations, with weakness in its US Greyhound bus operations offset by growth in UK Rail and US First Transit, and its plan to turn around several of its units is continuing to make progress. In a trading update, the rail and bus operator said it has experienced robust volume and revenue growth in its UK rail operations and the unit's financial performance is towards the top end of its expectations, while its UK bus business has reported continued volume growth and is making progress with cost savings.
----------
Discount retail chain Poundland Group said sales rose by around 10% in the third quarter of its financial year, driven by both existing stores and new store openings, while it also said it saw a "record" Christmas trading period. However, the group's shares were sold off Wednesday as it said sales from its new stores were lower than the year before, due to delays in openings. The discount retailer said total revenue, excluding its five store trials in Spain, increased by 9.8% to GBP328.4 million in the 13 weeks to December 28. If exchange rates had stayed the same, it said sales in the period would have been up marginally more, at 10.2%.
----------
Pets at Home Group said it remains on track to meet its expectations for the full year on the back of another strong trading update. The FTSE 250-listed retailer said revenue in the 12 weeks to January 1 grew 7.8% to GBP182.2 million, buoyed by merchandise revenue growth of 6.5% to GBP168.2 million, with growth in its food segment continuing to outpace accessories, and services revenue growth of 26% to GBP14 million. It said its gross margin improvement remains in line with its guidance for the year and it is still trading in line with its full year expectations.
----------
Diploma shares were down after the company reported its revenue growth was held back by the strength of sterling again in the first quarter of its financial year. The FTSE 250-listed technical products and services company, which makes seals and controls, along with instrumentation and services for the life sciences market, said group revenue for the first quarter to the end of December rose 4% year-on-year, in line with its expectations and on track with its guidance for underlying growth. On a constant currency basis, revenue for the group rose 14% year-on-year.
----------
Bikes-to-car parts retailer Halfords Group said growth in its third quarter was driven by sales of car maintenance products and bikes, especially children's bikes bought as Christmas presents. The retail chain said like-for-like sales, which are sales from stores open more than a year, were up 6.7% in its 15-week third quarter to January 9, on the back of retail sales growth of 6.8% and an improved sales growth performance from its Autocentres, up 5.9%. Total revenue for the group in the quarter was up 6.5%, as was growth from its retail and autocentres divisions.
----------
Pub chain JD Wetherspoon said sales growth has slowed in recent weeks, while its operating margin for the first half of the year will be slightly lower than the year before, due to increases in staff pay and supplier costs. JD Wetherspoon said like-for-like sales for the first 12-weeks of its second quarter to January 18 were up 2.8%, while total sales grew by 6.8%. However, the group said like-for-like sales slowed to around 2% in December and and slowed even further in the past two weeks.
----------
Domino's Pizza Group said it has started looking for a new chief financial officer after Sean Wilkins resigned and stepped down with immediate effect, as it said that trading in the final quarter of its last financial year continued to be positive and pretax profit will be in line with, or even marginally ahead of, consensus forecasts.
----------
MARKETS
----------
London share prices are in positive territory building on four days of gains as minutes from the Bank of England's latest policy meeting showed a surprise unanimous decision to keep rates on hold and UK unemployment fell by more than expected.
----------
FTSE 100: up 0.8% at 6,670.89
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 16,167.56
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 697.47
----------
The pound fell sharply against the dollar in the wake of the BOE minutes.
----------
GBP-USD: down at USD1.5111
EUR-USD: up at USD1.1565

GOLD: up at USD1297.50 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD48.79 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
Policymakers of the Bank of England unanimously decided to leave the key rate unchanged for the first time in six months. The Monetary Policy Committee governed by Mark Carney voted 9-0 to retain the base rate at 0.50%, the minutes showed. Also, all members voted to maintain the size of quantitative easing at GBP 375 billion. The MPC said the outlook justified maintaining both the current level of Bank Rate and the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves. Ian McCafferty and Martin Weale sought a quarter point rate hike at the previous five consecutive meetings.
----------
The UK unemployment rate fell more than expected in the September to November period, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. The jobless rate fell to 5.8% during the September to November period from 6% in the June to August period. Economists had forecast a rate of 5.9%. During September to November, there were 1.914 million unemployed people compared with the 1.972 million people in the June to August period. In the same period of the previous year, there were 2.332 million unemployed people.
----------
The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged and lowered its near-term inflation forecast as falling oil prices hamper efforts to lift inflation. At the monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, the policy board of the bank decided by an 8-1 vote to maintain its target of raising the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY80 trillion. Citing lower crude oil prices, the BoJ downgraded its core inflation estimate for fiscal 2015 to 1% from 1.7%. But the central bank lifted the forecast for fiscal 2016 to 2.2% from 2.1%.
----------
Yemeni rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, whose fighters have surrounded President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi's personal residence and overrun parts of the presidential palace, warned Hadi to abandon a proposed division of the country into six federal regions. Al-Houthi denounced the plan, which would divide northern areas dominated by his Shiite movement between three regions, as an international conspiracy aimed at "tearing up the country."
----------
The Japanese government called on the US as well as European and Middle Eastern countries to help save two Japanese men held by the Islamic State militant group, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flew home to deal with the crisis. Japan will "send a message calling on an immediate release of the hostages through diplomatic channels and all kinds of media," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. The group threatened in a video posted on the internet Tuesday to kill the two captives unless a USD200 million ransom payment was made within three days.
----------
US President Barack Obama enters the last two years of his final term facing potentially bruising battles with the opposition Republicans who now control both chambers of Congress. In his annual State of the Union address to Congress, Obama sought to find common ground with Republicans on policies he declared were "practical, not partisan," while throwing down the gauntlet on taxes and climate change.
----------
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.