SpaceandPeople Share News (SAL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Bank of Scotland Group is planning a new sale of Citizens Financial Group Inc shares that could reduce the banking group's holding in the North American lender to 46.1% from its current stake of 70.3%.

Citizens, which is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, said that RBS is planning to sell 115 million shares in the US retail bank it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, a move which would reduce its stake to 49.3%. If the underwriters of the sale take up their rights to buy the maximum of up to an additional 17.3 million shares, RBS will see its stake in Citizens shrink to 46.1%, equivalent to 252.5 million shares.

RBS is looking to fully exit its investment in Citizens by 2016, as RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan continues to scale down the group's international operations in favour of a strategy based on lending to customers in the UK.

In the FTSE 250, FirstGroup shares are up after it retained the First Great Western rail franchise in the UK until at least April 2019, and pledged to add new and updated trains, faster services, more direct trains to Devon and Cornwall and improvements to infrastructure.

The transport operator said it will continue the franchise until April 1, 2019, and the deal could be extended for a further year at the UK government's discretion. It has already been running the franchise since 2006.

It's good news for the company's UK rail business after it lost out on the new rail franchise covering a swathe of southeast England to rival Go-Ahead. That deal meant it lost its Thameslink franchise, which was incorporated into the new super-franchise last September. It then subsequently lost out on bids for the East Coast Mainline and Scotrail franchises.

Last week, FirstGroup said it has agreed a deal with the Department for Transport to operate the First Transpennine Express rail franchise for a further year to April 1, 2016.

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Markets: London share prices are lower, with the FTSE 100 hovering just above the 7,000 point level that it exceeded on Friday, as markets focus on the outcome of a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

US stock futures point to a slightly lower open, with the DJIA and S&P 500 set to open down 0.1% and the Nasdaq 100 slightly lower.

FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 7,016.70
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 17,527.48
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 715.44
GBP-USD: down at 1.4909
EUR-USD: up at 1.0884
GOLD: up at USD1,183.39 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD55.34 a barrel
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Other Top Corporate News
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Centamin reported a sharp drop in pretax profit for 2014 as the falling gold price offset a rise in production, but the Egypt-focused miner still declared a dividend for the year. Centamin said its pretax profit for the year was USD81.6 million, less than half the USD184 million it posted a year earlier. Revenue dropped to USD472.6 million from USD503.8 million. The company said its gold production increased in the year to 377,261 ounces, up from 356,943 ounces a year earlier. Its gold production guidance for 2015 is 420,000 ounces. Centamin proposed a final dividend of 1.99 US cents per share, giving it a total payout of 2.86 cents per share for the year. Centamin paid no dividend in 2013.
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Interserve said it and joint venture partner Kajima Corp, a Japanese construction company, have reached financial close on a project to design and build seven secondary schools across Hertfordshire and in Luton and Reading. The scheme, procured under the UK government's Priority Schools Building Programme, has a capital value in excess of GBP135 million, Interserve said.
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Halfords Group said that McDonald's Corp's current head of UK and Northwest European operations, Jill McDonald, will become the car parts and bicycle retailer's chief executive from May 11, after its current CEO previously resigned after being poached by Tesco PLC.
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SVG Capital, the private equity investor, said the economic recovery around the world is uneven and could result in volatility that may prompt investment opportunities. "While this volatility may impact the exit and financing markets, a period of dislocation could translate subsequently into an attractive investment environment," Chairman Andrew Sykes said in a statement. "We expect to make at least one, if not two further fund commitments and to make further co-investments this year." SVG said its net asset value, or book value, rose by 14% to 588 pence per share in the 13 months ended January 31, citing strong investment returns and realisations in its investment portfolio.
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High-performance polymers company Victrex said it has appointed Martin Court as an executive director, effective from April 1. Court joined the company in February 2013 and is the managing director of Invibio, the FTSE 250-listed company's medical division.
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Pennon Group said trading remains in line with expectations for its financial year to the end of March, with its South West Water business performing well and its Viridor waste management division making progress, leading the company to reiterate its dividend growth plans. Pennon said it is well placed to generate increasing operating cashflows over the 2015-2020 regulatory period and, as a result, intends to continue with its current dividend policy of year-on-year growth of 4% above UK retail prices index inflation over that period.
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US cable group Liberty Global wants to distribute ITV’s best programmes across Europe, but sees the British broadcaster as too “pricey” to acquire outright, its chief financial officer has suggested in an interview with the Financial Times. “ITV looks awfully pricey,” CFO Charlie Bracken told the newspaper. “We’re not going to invest billions of dollars in content — that’s not our game.” Bracken also told the FT that Sky “is in trouble” over the next five to 10 years due to its reliance on satellite technology.
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CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings has complained to the UK antitrust regulator about the potential impact of BT Group's acquisition of EE, the Financial Times reported. In response to a call for comments on the merger from the Competition and Markets Authority, CityFibre has claimed BT buying EE could be harmful to competition, citing its concerns over the future of its deal to supply fibre connections to EE.
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AIM Movers
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Silence Therapeutics shares are up a fifth after it said it had seen an "excellent outcome" in its Phase IIa trial of compound Atu027 in pancreatic cancer. Verona Pharma is also doing well after it got "very encouraging" initial interim results from its ongoing phase I/II clinical trial with a new nebulised formulation of its RPL554 compound. Metal Tiger is up after it said it has now implemented its divisional restructuring and is in the position to self-finance its activities. Premaitha Health is another gainer after it was awarded a three-year contract to provide its non-invasive prenatal test, known as IONA, to St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Clean Air Power shares have fallen sharply after it reported a sharp drop in revenue and an increase in cash consumption in 2014 and warned that 2015 would also be challenging as it seeks fresh funding to shore up an uncertain financial future. It said it faces significant doubt over whether it can continue in business unless it secures additional funding. SpaceandPeople is down after its pretax profit dropped in 2014 as it reported tougher trading conditions in the UK and Germany and a rise in its cost of sales outpaced revenue growth and it said it would slash its dividend. Egdon Resources and Europa Oil & Gas are both down after Europa said it has plugged and abandoned the Kiln Lane-1 exploration well in the East Midlands of England and will return the site to farmland after drilling encountered sandstones with too much water.
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Top Economics And General
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Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will on Monday present German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a list of reforms, hoping to unlock bailout out funds to prevent Greece from running out of cash next month, Greek government sources said. The leftist leader's first visit to Berlin as Greek prime minister comes at a time of concern that Greece could run out of cash and be forced to exit the eurozone. The reform list includes raising the retirement age to 67 and limiting retirement at 62 to those who worked at least 40 years, the sources said. The measures also include a crackdown on money laundering and tax evasion, as well as raising a tourism tax and value added tax for the hospitality industry.
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The conservative party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to win Sunday's first round of French regional elections, according to the first projections. The Union for a Popular Movement is taking 29 to 32% of the votes, according to the projections by the CSA polling agency. The far-right National Front followed with an expected 25% of the ballots, it said. President Francois Hollande's Socialists could expect a hammering with about 20% support, the institute said.
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Singapore began seven days of national mourning after the death of its first premier and dominant statesman, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee died in hospital early Monday aged 91, the government said. "The prime minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore," said a statement from the office of Premier Lee Hsien Loong, Lee's son. Lee was hospitalized in early February with severe pneumonia, and had been on mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit since then.
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Influential US Senator John McCain threatened to block a potential nuclear deal with Iran. "We will do everything in our power to make sure we do play a role," McCain, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN. McCain was one of 47 Republican senators who sent a letter to the Iranian leadership saying the Senate must approve any nuclear deal. "We will insist on approval," McCain said. "I don't think that they will reach a deal that we can live with."
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Israeli President Reuven Rivlin criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for having warned on election day that Israel's Arab citizens were being bused "in droves" to polling stations to strengthen Israel's left. Analysts said the statement helped turn out the vote for Netanyahu's nationalist Likud party and played a major role in its victory in Tuesday's parliamentary elections. But Rivlin, who opened consultations with the 10 factions elected to the Knesset, called the statement "hurtful."
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US Senator Ted Cruz will run for president in 2016. "I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!" the Republican wrote on Twitter. The Texas senator and champion of the Tea Party small government movement became the first major candidate to formally declare a run for the White House. Others Republicans expected to seek the nomination are former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, among others. Hillary Rodham Clinton is widely expected to run for the Democratic Party nomination.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

12:30 US Chicago Fed National Activity Index
14:00 US Existing Home Sales
14:00 US FOMC Member Williams speech
15:00 EU Consumer Confidence Preliminary
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Tuesday's Key UK Corporate Events

T Clarke - Full Year Results
888 Holdings - Full Year Results
AG Barr - Full Year Results
Wolseley - Half Year Results
Spire Healthcare Group - Full Year Results
John Laing Infrastructure Fund - Full Year Results
IQE - Full Year Results
GAME Digital - Half Year Results
Skyepharma - Full Year Results
7digital Group - Full Year Results
Faroe Petroleum - Full Year Results
S&U - Full Year Results
Vislink - Full Year Results
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

01:35 Japan Nomura/ JMMA Manufacturing PMI Preliminary
01:45 China HSBC Manufacturing PMI Preliminary
08:00 France Markit PMI Composite Preliminary
08:30 Germany Markit PMI Composite Preliminary
09:00 EU Markit PMI Composite Preliminary
09:00 Italy Wage Inflation
09:30 UK Consumer Price Index
09:30 UK DCLG House Price Index
09:30 UK Producer Price Index
09:30 UK Retail Price Index
10:05 US Fed's Bullard speech
12:30 US Consumer Price Index
12:55 US Redbook index
13:00 US Housing Price Index
13:45 US Markit Manufacturing PMI Preliminary
14:00 US New Home Sales
23:50 Japan Corporate Service Price
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