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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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The US conditionally approved Shell Gulf of Mexico's controversial plan to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean this summer, the US Department of the Interior said. Shell, part of Royal Dutch Shell, plans to drill up to six offshore wells in relatively shallow water in the Chukchi Sea 112 kilometres north-west of the village of Wainwright, Alaska. The go-ahead is contingent upon Shell obtaining a further series of permits and approvals regarding drilling safety and federal laws protecting marine mammals and endangered species.
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Low-cost airline easyJet said it swung to a profit in the first half of its financial year as it flew more passengers and it benefited from lower fuel prices and favourable exchange rate movements, and it said it is still on track to grow revenue and profit in the year as a whole despite a hit in April from an air traffic control strike in France. Airlines traditionally make little or no money in the winter months when travel demand is lower and they face higher costs due to travel disruptions and items like de-icing of planes. However, this year they are getting a benefit from lower fuel prices. EasyJet said it made a pretax profit of GBP5 million in the six months to end-March, compared with a loss of GBP53 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP1.77 billion from GBP1.70 billion.
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Lloyds Banking Group is continuing its gradual return to full private ownership, as stock exchange documents on Tuesday confirmed that the UK taxpayer's stake has fallen yet again. The documents confirmed that the taxpayer's stake in the bank has fallen to 19.93% from 20.95% previously. Following its GBP20 billion state rescue in the financial crisis of 2008-09, the government had owned as much as 43% of the banking group.
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Experian said earnings in its recently completed financial year were hurt by unwelcome foreign exchange movements and cautioned that it expects earnings to be affected in its current financial year. In a statement, the information services and credit report company said it made a USD1.01 billion pretax profit in the year ended March 31, compared with USD1.05 billion in the prior year. Experian said its margins were hurt by the weakening of the Brazilian real and the euro relative to the dollar.
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Nomura and Royal Bank of Scotland misled investors in mortgage backed securities, a US judge has ruled, according to a Financial Times report. According to the report, the ruling found that "offering documents did not correctly describe the mortgage loans". Denise Cote, the judge in question, ruled in favour of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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Capita said it is on track to meet analysts' expectations for 2015, delivering low-double-digit revenue growth, after securing a larger amount of contracts in the year so far. The support services giant said it has secured GBP1.2 billion of contracts so far in 2015, up from GBP1.1 billion a year earlier, and bought seven businesses for a combined GBP215 million. It added that its bid pipeline, which stood at GBP5.1 billion on February 26, remains buoyant in both the public and private sector.Capita also said it has been made preferred bidder to form a strategic partnership to deliver corporate services for the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, a deal it says will be worth GBP80 million to the company over the next 10 years.
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Prudential said its group chief risk officer is stepping down after almost two years in the role. In a statement, the life insurance company and FTSE 100 constituent said Pierre-Olivier Bouée will step down as group chief risk officer on June 30, though he will cease to be a member of the board one month before that. He joined Prudential in 2008 and became chief risk officer in August 2013. Prudential is yet to name Bouée's successor but said a replacement will be announced in due course. The news means that Mike Wells, who is set to become chief executive in June as Tidjane Thiam departs for Credit Suisse, will work with a new risk chief when he takes the helm
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Mondi said Standard & Poor's has upgraded the company's credit rating to BBB Stable Outlook from BBB-. "We are pleased to confirm that S&P have upgraded our credit rating in recognition of the group's strong cash flows and profitability from our high quality, low cost and well diversified asset base," Mondi Chief Financial Officer Andrew King said.
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Enterprise Inns reported a huge drop in profit in the first half of its financial year, which it blamed on costs associated with debt refinancing and property charges, but said it will optimise returns from its assets under its strategic review of its property portfolio. The pub operator reported a pretax profit of GBP10 million in the six months to March 31, down from GBP47 million in the same period a year earlier. It booked GBP47 million in charges, compared with GBP8 million in charges the year before, which it said was largely due to a GBP26 million cost in respect of debt refinancing and property charges of GBP21 million.
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Hiscox said first-quarter gross written premiums increased by 12% to GBP561.7 million, driven by several of its operations within its retail underwriting division, as well as its London Market and reinsurance divisions.
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Al Noor Hospitals Group said it had continued to perform in line with its expectations in the first quarter of 2015, with revenue growth of 12%, and announced the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Pramod Balakrishnan. The United Arab Emirates-focused private healthcare service provider said that Balakrishnan has resigned to pursue an unspecified alternative opportunity, and will leave the company at the end of July. The search for a successor has begun, it said.
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JP Morgan Securities said that Estorn Ltd has agreed to sell 30 million Regus shares at 245 pence each, raising gross proceeds of about GBP73.5 million for the vehicle controlled by the serviced office provider's founder Mark Dixon. Dixon will still hold about 294.3 million Regus shares after the deal, or about a 31.4% stake in the business.
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MARKETS
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London equity markets continue to fall with the FTSE 100 erasing almost all of the gains it made on Friday following the UK general election results, as easyJet leads the blue-chip decliners after giving a weak outlook for the year ahead.
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FTSE 100: down 1.5% at 6,922.30
FTSE 250: down 1.2% at 17,644.49
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.4% at 756.41
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The pound strengthened against the dollar after data showed that UK industrial production grew more-than-expected in March.
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GBP: up at USD1.5680
EUR: up at USD1.1269

GOLD: up at USD1184.57 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD66.03 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK industrial production grew more-than-expected in March and for a second straight month, led by a strong gain in manufacturing output, data from the Office for National Statistics revealed. Industrial production rose 0.5% from February, when it edged up 0.1%. Economists had forecast stagnation for the month. The latest growth rate was the strongest since September last year, when production grew 0.6%. Manufacturing output increased 0.4% following 0.5% gain in the previous month. It was also a second consecutive month of growth. Economists had forecast 0.3% rise.
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Like-for-like retail sales in the UK were down 2.4% on year in April, the British Retail Consortium said. That followed the 3.2% annual increase in March, although the BRC cautioned that the data was somewhat skewed for both months by this year's early Easter holiday.
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Britain will be "constructive and engaged but also resolute and firm" in negotiations with the EU on their future relationship, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne vowed after the Conservatives' election win. "We come here with a very clear mandate to improve Britain's relationship with the rest of the EU and to reform the EU so that it creates jobs and increases living standards for all its citizens," Osborne said during his first visit to Brussels since Thursday's election.
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Britain opposed plans to set national quotas for refugees who seek asylum in the EU, while France supported the expected proposal by the bloc's executive. The European Commission plans to propose an EU-wide quota system for migrants as part of its strategy on migration, due to be unveiled on Wednesday, commission president Jean-Claude Juncker announced last month.
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Eurozone finance ministers told Greece to speed up work aimed at reaching an agreement with its creditors on the country's reform plans, amid fears that Athens could soon run out of money. The Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers welcomed recent progress, but warned in a joint statement that "more time and effort are needed to bridge the gaps on the remaining open issues."  An agreement must be reached within the next two to three weeks in order to meet a June 30 deadline, an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity. The extra time is necessary to seek parliamentary approval from some countries, including Germany. Athens made a EUR756 milion loan repayment to the IMF on Monday, hours ahead of a Tuesday deadline, Greek state radio reported.
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Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem welcomed the progress in Greece talks but he said more time is needed to bridge the remaining gaps and to reach a comprehensive agreement. "We will continue to monitor the situation and we stand ready to meet as soon as the institutions confirm that there is a basis for a successful conclusion," Dijsselbloem said in a statement on Monday in Brussels after the meeting of Eurozone finance ministers. "There are time constraints and liquidity constraints, hopefully we will reach an agreement before time runs out and before money runs out," he said.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday arrived in the southern Russian city of Sochi, where he is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian state media reported. It is Kerry's first visit to Russia since May 2013. The top US diplomat reportedly canceled several visits since then as relations with Russia plummeted amid the Ukraine crisis to their lowest point since the Cold War. Tuesday's talks are expected to focus on issues concerning Ukraine, Yemen, Syria and Iran, while tit-for-tat sanctions between Russia and the West are not on the agenda, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency RIA Novosti.
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An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck Nepal, prompting several buildings to collapse and injuring at least 20, officials said. The tremor comes 17 days after a 7.8 quake in the country last month left more than 8,000 dead and almost half a million houses unusable. "We do not know about the casualties since it is too early," said Laxmi Dhakal, Interior Ministry spokesman. "But we expect more devastation."
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A powerful typhoon slammed into southern Japanese islands early Tuesday, bringing heavy rains, strong winds and high waves in the region, news reports said. Typhoon Noul caused power outages on the island of Miyako and authorities advised thousands of residents to evacuate their homes on the island of Yoron, broadcaster NHK reported.
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