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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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London Stock Exchange Group said its index business - the combination of FTSE and the newly acquired Russell - is making good progress. In a statement, the group said that FTSE total exchange traded fund assets under management benchmarked increased by 14% to USD236 billion and Russell ETF AUM by 22% to USD157 billion, both as of the end of May and measured year-on-year. The news came as the group said it performed well in the five months ended May 31.
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Standard Life said it will close its insurance business in Singapore, resulting in a non-operating loss of GBP45 million. The move means that the business is no longer accepting new applications or contributions to existing plans.
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Private equity houses Affinity Equity Partners, Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners are understood to be among the preliminary bidders for Tesco's South Korean business, Reuters reported. Reuters, citing a report in the Korea Economic Daily, said MBK Partners, Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area, TPG and snack maker Orion Corp also are involved in the bidding. The South Korean arm of the UK supermarket chain is expected to fetch around USD6 billion in the sale.
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The newly-appointed chief executive of emerging markets-focused bank Standard Chartered is planning to overhaul its structure in order to shift capital and power to new regional hubs amid a push to turnaround the bank's performance and to meet new regulatory demands, the Financial Times reported. Bill Winters is understood to be set to simplify and streamline the bank's operations. He is expected to hand more power to a handful of regional subsidiaries in key markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore, India, the United Arab Emirates and across Africa.
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Oil industry executives have held meetings with the Iranian government to discuss investing in the country's energy industry, the first public confirmation from oil groups of such talks ahead of a potential nuclear deal between the country and the West, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil and gas group Eni met with Iranian officials in May and June, the FT said. "We review our growth portfolio on a regular basis and do not exclude any countries that are open to foreign investment. Should future sanctions relief make that possible, we would be interested in exploring with the government of Iran what role Shell can play in developing its energy potential," a Shell spokesman told the FT.
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Transport operator Go-Ahead Group said its expectations for the year remain unchanged as it said it expects revenue growth across its rail and bus operations, despite a decline in passenger journeys in the latter business. Go-Ahead said it expects revenue for the financial year to June 27 in its regional bus operations to grow by 3%, despite expecting a 1% decline in passenger journeys on its services. For its London bus operation, the company is expecting revenue to grow by 1.5% but said its mileage is set to fall by 1%. The company's rail operations are all expected to show robust passenger revenue and journey growth in the year, Go-Ahead said.
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Packaging company DS Smith said its pretax profit rose in its financial year to the end of March as it managed to bring down its cost of sales sufficiently to offset lower revenue and said it has struck a EUR190 million deal to acquire a new corrugated packaging operation in Spain. Pretax profit for the company was up to GBP200 million in the year compared to GBP167 million a year earlier. Revenue was down to GBP3.82 billion from GBP4.04 billion but this was offset by a lower cost of sales which improved its operating margin in the year. The company will pay a final dividend of 7.7 pence, bringing its total dividend for the year to 11.4p, up from 10p per share a year earlier.
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John Wood Group said its first half results will be weaker year-on-year as challenging conditions in the oil and gas markets continues, but reiterated it expects to meet its full year earnings expectations and said it would increase its dividend. The FTSE 250-listed oil services company said the weaker first half performance will be partially offset by the company's ongoing cost cutting. John Wood said it was "delivering savings significantly in excess of original targets from our cost reduction initiatives".
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Debenhams said that group like-for-like sales in the 15 weeks to June 13 were flat, but said it is on track to meet full-year market expectations as it continues to refocus its promotional strategy and trial concessions within its department stores. The FTSE 250-listed department store operator said that while like-for-like sales were flat in the 15-week period, they were up 0.9% in the 41 weeks to June 13. The New Season Spectacular sale was brought forward into the first half of the year, which together with other promotional changes, diluted like-for-like sales by around 1%, it said.
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MARKETS
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UK shares are flat to higher mid-morning, as investors await the outcome of Greek debt negotiations, with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reportedly having been given a late-morning deadline to provide a new proposal.
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FTSE 100: flat at 6,845.20
FTSE 250: flat at 17,927.64
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.4% at 773.77
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GBP: down at USD1.5684
EUR: down at USD1.1164

GOLD: flat at USD1175.04 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD63.61 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Greece and its creditors continued marathon talks on how to avoid a bankruptcy in the country, just hours before an EU summit meant to bookend the crisis. "It is...now the final phase. Either there will be a deal or there will be nothing today," Nikos Filis, a senior official from Greece's ruling SYRIZA party, told the broadcaster MEGA. Greece is running out of money after having struggled for months to strike a deal with its creditors on economic reforms, needed to unlock EUR7.2 billion in aid remaining in the country's international bailout. The negotiations are now down to the wire, with the European part of the bailout package due to expire on Tuesday - the same day Greece owes a debt repayment of EUR1.6 billion to the International Monetary Fund
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Queen Elizabeth II called division in Europe "dangerous" as UK Prime Minister David Cameron joined her in Berlin as he campaigns for a renegotiation of the terms of Britain's EU membership. "We know that division in Europe is dangerous and that we must guard against it in the West as well as in the East of our continent," she said at a state banquet held on the first day of her fifth royal visit to Germany since World War II
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UK Chancellor George Osborne has been urged to cut the top rate of income tax in the UK to 40% in next month's Budget, amid signs that the Treasury is considering making such a move, the Financial Times reports. Lord Lawson, a former Tory Chancellor, is pushing Osborne to consider the move, saying he would "strongly support" it and adding that a cut would "significantly enhance the attractiveness of the UK as a place to do business, at no cost in terms of lost revenue."
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UK JUNE CBI RETAIL SALES BALANCE +29%, CONSENSUS +35%
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UK car production increased in May on strong domestic market demand, data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed. Production climbed 2.3% year-over-year to 119,338 units in May. Domestic sales surged 13.3% in May from a year ago, while foreign demand dropped slightly by 0.2%. "We have seen a steady performance in UK car manufacturing this year with volumes bolstered by a strong home market, while recovery in key European markets is helping to restore export production levels," Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said.
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A decision on the controversial application by Cuadrilla Resources to frack a site in Lancashire has been deferred to Monday at 1000 BST after an agreement was not reached Wednesday, despite a long day of proceedings. Earlier in the day, a vote to refuse Cuadrilla was defeated, although seven councillors voted in favour of the refusal and seven against it, with one abstention, as the chairman, Munsif Dad, voted against the refusal with the casting vote. The proceedings were then adjourned again, as the councillors had received legal advice in private that they then proposed to make public.
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German consumer confidence is set to fall in July as unresolved debt crisis in Greece weigh on the economic outlook. Nonetheless, it remains at an elevated level as income expectations reached a new post-reunification record. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index dropped to 10.1 in July from 10.2 in June, survey data from market research group GfK showed. The score was expected to remain at 10.2.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was possible that no agreement will be reached with Iran on its nuclear programme as talks enter their final days. "It may be that the Iranians will not fill out full measure of what was agreed on in Lausanne, in which case there will not be an agreement," Kerry told a press conference. Iran and the group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the US and Germany agreed on the outlines of a planned deal in April in Lausanne, which is to be completed by June 30.
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US President Barack Obama raised US concerns about China's cyber behaviour during a White House meeting with Chinese officials at the end of two days of talks on strategy and economy. A Chinese official indicated that China was willing to cooperate with the US on the issue. Cyber security has been at the top of the US agenda over past weeks amid revelations that hackers have stolen millions of files on current and former US government employees.
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President Obama told Francois Hollande that US intelligence services are not targeting the French president's communications after allegations that the US National Security Agency wiretapped three successive French leaders. Obama "reiterated that we have abided by the commitment we made to our French counterparts in late 2013 that we are not targeting and will not target the communications of the French president," a White House statement said after the phone call between the two leaders.
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The Islamic State terrorist militia has once again advancing into the town of Kobane in northern Syria after being driven from the area by Kurdish forces at the end of January. There was heavy fighting in several districts between Kurdish troops and the extremists during the night, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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