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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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AbbVie Inc retracted any statements that suggested it had the support of Shire PLC shareholders in its bid to acquire the UK-listed company for GBP30.1 billion, after potentially over-stepping the mark when it comes to UK takeover rules. In a pre-market statement Wednesday, AbbVie said it wished to clarify some press and newswire reports about its latest takeover bid for pharmaceuticals rival Shire. It said it had not received any written commitments of support from Shire's shareholders and "accordingly retracts the statements".
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Insurer Aviva PLC set out new cashflow targets for the next couple of years, continuing a turnaround aimed at driving up its profitability and simplifying its balance sheet. In a statement ahead of a capital markets day, the company said it now wants to double the annual excess cashflow booked by the holding company to GBP800 million by the end of 2016, from GBP400 million in 2013, and reduce the operating expense ratio to below 50% by the same time, from 54% in 2013.
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Admiral Group PLC said car insurance turnover in the UK decreased in its first half, despite customer numbers increasing, as the insurer was hit by declining in premiums, prompting it to lower its margin expectations. In a trading statement for the six months to June 30, 2014 the FTSE 100-listed company said UK car insurance turnover decreased to GBP0.85 billion, compared to GBP0.92 billion in the first-half 2013. Group turnover also decreased during the period, coming in at GBP1.0 billion, compared to GBP1.1 billion last year.
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HSBC Holdings PLC said its Cayman Islands subsidiary will sell most of its corporate and retail banking business to Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Ltd, and will also start to prepare to wind itself down. The bank didn't give any financial details for the asset sale, but said the wind-down preparation will include stopping taking any new business immediately and looking to minimise the impact on any remaining customers.
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UK food wholesaler Booker Group PLC said it has started its new financial year well, with sales in the first quarter in line with expectations, and its turnaround plans for recent acquisition Makro on track. Total sales in the 12 weeks to June 20 were up 3.8% including sales from Makro. Non-tobacco sales were up 5.4%, while tobacco sales rose 0.7%. Makro is a Netherlands-based wholesale business which Booker acquired in July 2012.
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Centamin PLC said its gold production rates fell in its second quarter compared to the previous year, as underground ore grades remained below forecast and open-pit ore production dropped. Despite its recent difficulties, the FTSE 250 miner reaffirmed its production forecast for the full-year and said it continues to move towards its long-term target of 450,000 to 500,000 ounces per year from 2015 onwards. Centamin said its gold production fell 13% to 81,281 ounces for the three months ended June 30 from 93,624 ounces in the same period the previous year, stating that grades realised from development ore were lower than the forecast annual average and open-pit ore production rates fell 39% to 1.8 million tonnes from 3.0 million tonnes.
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Housebuilding and construction business Galliford Try PLC said it has continued to make progress since publishing its interim management statement in May and expects pretax profit to be at the upper end of analysts' current range of GBP92.8 million to GBP95.2 million. On May 14, the company said it made a strong start to 2014 and expected to report pretax profit for its full-year to June 30 above analysts' consensus of GBP89.7 million and not less than GBP92.0 million.
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Providence Resources PLC said that the operator of its part-owned Spanish Point appraisal and exploration well off the coast of Ireland has postponed the well until 2015 due to rig refurbishment delays. The Irish oil and gas exploration company said operator Capricorn Ireland Ltd, a subsidiary of Cairn Energy PLC, said the Porcupine Basin site will not be drilled in 2014 as planned. Capricorn holds 38% of the site while Providence holds 32%. Providence said the decision was made following extensive delays in the refurbishment of the Blackford Dolphin drilling rig, which had been scheduled to drill the well. The refurbishment meant that drilling operations would not be able to start until at least October, which is in the difficult to drill winter period.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices are lower for a third consecutive day, ahead of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes due at 1900 BST Wednesday.
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FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6696.84
FTSE 250: down 1.0% at 15498.62
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 780.95
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The pound has retreated slightly against the dollar after a report showed UK house prices below forecast in June.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.7106
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3614

GOLD: up at USD1322.57 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD108.27 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK house prices fell by more than expected in June, after rising strongly in the previous month, latest survey figures from Halifax showed. The house price index dropped 0.6% from May, when it climbed 4%. Economists had forecast a 0.3% fall. The latest decline was the biggest since March, when prices decreased 1.2%. It was the fourth monthly decline since last December, the lender said. Year-on-year, house prices rose 8.8% in the three months to June, which was slightly faster than May's 8.7% increase. Economists were looking for an 8.9% gain. In June, the standardized average price of a UK house was GBP183,462 versus GBP184,566 in the previous month and GBP167,668 a year ago.
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Shop prices in the UK tumbled 1.8% on year in June, the British Retail Consortium said - falling for the 14th straight month. The headline figure follows the 1.4% contraction in May, and marks the sharpest rate of decline in eight years, the BRC said. Among the individual components of the survey, food prices were up 0.6% - also an eight-year low - while non-food prices fell 3.4%.
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The UK economy is estimated to expand at a faster pace in the second quarter, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said late Tuesday. Gross domestic product is estimated to expand 0.9% in the second quarter, faster than the 0.8% growth seen in the first quarter. The institute projected 2.9% growth in 2014 and 2.4% in 2015. The think tank said the month-on-month fall in industrial production would weigh only marginally on the wider economy. Moreover, it expects manufacturing to rebound in June. The UK Office for National Statistics is slated to publish preliminary GDP data for the second quarter on July 25.
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Chinese consumer prices inflation slowed in June from an 4-month high, as food prices increased at a slower rate, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The increase was slightly below the consensus estimate. Consumer prices increased 2.3% year-on-year in June following the 2.5% increase in May. Economists had expected prices to rise 2.4%.
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In a separate report, the statistics bureau said that producer prices in China fell 1.1% year-over-year in June. This was a faster rate of decline than the 1% drop expected by economists. In May, prices had decreased 1.4%. Producer prices for means of production dropped 1.5% while prices for means of subsistence rose 0.2% in June.
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Israel launched an air offensive in response to increasing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, conducting repeated strikes that killed at least 25 Palestinians Tuesday in the Gaza Strip. Among the dead were eight children and two women. The fatalities included several militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group, Gaza emergency services chief Ashraf al-Qedra said. Israel's cabinet, meanwhile, authorized the army to call up 40,000 reservists should it decide to expand the operation, possibly into a ground offensive. So far, only thousands of reserve soldiers have received orders.
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Rioters took to the streets in several areas across Brazil after the 7-1 defeat of Brazil in the World Championship semi-final against Germany, local media reported Wednesday. In Sao Paulo, 23 buses were set on fire, according to news portal UOL. Twenty of the buses were in a transportation authority depot for repairs. No one was injured in this incident. Two cars were also set ablaze and a shop selling electrical appliances were broken into and looted in Sao Paolo. Six people, including four minors, were arrested in the rioting.
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