Sports Direct Share News (SPD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower on Thursday after the pound strengthened overnight as UK Parliament voted to take a no-deal Brexit off the table and prepares to decide this evening whether to extend Article 50.In company news, insurer Just Group set out plans to place just under 10% of its share capital and decided against paying a dividend for 2018. Capita reported a swing to profit after the first year of the outsourcer's transformation plan, and retailer Debenhams will consider Sports Direct International's loan offer.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 22.99 points lower at 7,136.20 on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 8.04 points, or 0.1%, at 7,159.19 on Wednesday.Members of Parliament are set to vote on whether to keep Britain in the EU longer than planned after UK Prime Minister Theresa May's authority over Brexit sustained another major blow.The vote on extending Article 50 comes after MPs defied the government and dramatically decided to rule out a no-deal withdrawal from the EU in scenes some Tory Brexiteers described as "chaotic".After the 149-vote rejection of her Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday, May suffered a second defeat in as many days when MPs backed the cross-party amendment rejecting a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances.In a surprise move, the Commons voted 312 to 308 - a majority of four - in favour of the proposal tabled by former Conservative Party chairman Dame Caroline Spelman.The vote was later confirmed by a more emphatic 321 votes to 278, overriding a government motion that would have rejected no-deal on the scheduled date of March 29 but left it on the table for other times.After the defeat, May made it clear that she intends to put a third "meaningful vote" on her Brexit deal to the Commons within days.Following the Commons move on no deal, the government put down a motion for debate on Thursday that offers to seek a one-off extension of Article 50, delaying the scheduled Brexit date of March 29 to June 30 if MPs approve the deal negotiated with the EU by next Wednesday.However, the PM warned if the deal - which has already been twice rejected by overwhelming majorities - is not approved, a longer extension will be needed, requiring Britain to take part in the European Parliament elections in May.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3286 early Thursday, up from USD1.3215 at the London equities close on Wednesday and having hit a nine-month high of USD1.3381 overnight.In UK company news, life insurer Just Group said it is looking to place just under 10% of its current issued share capital, as it separately revealed it sank to a loss in 2018. Just Group said it is raising the funds in order to strengthen its capital base to "support its new business franchise and maintain its focus on growing profits".Just Group is looking to conduct an underwritten placing to institutional investors of 94.0 million shares via an accelerated bookbuild. Turning to results for 2018, Just Group's net premium revenue rose to GBP2.71 billion from GBP2.43 billion, but the company sank to a loss of GBP85.5 million from GBP181.3 million the year before.The loss was driven by changes to property assumptions "in light of the economic and financial uncertainty caused by Brexit", the company said. The FTSE 250 constituent added that it has considered it "appropriate" not to pay a dividend for 2018, and will look to recommence payouts in 2019 at a "rebased" level of approximately one third of the 3.72p paid out in 2017.Outsourcer Capita said it swung to a profit as it completed the first year of its transformation programme, with adjusted profit slightly ahead of expectations despite being lower than 2017. Pretax profit came in at GBP272.6 million for 2018, swinging from a loss of GBP513.1 million. On an adjusted basis, Capita's pretax profit fell to GBP282.1 million from GBP383.1 million the year before, the the company noted this was still "slightly ahead" of guidance.In 2019, the company expects to generate an adjusted pretax profit between GBP265 million to GBP295 million. "Our transformation still has some way to go. But I am very pleased with our progress. Our targets remain on track, and I'm excited about the prospects for a simplified and strengthened Capita," said Chief Executive Jon Lewis.Mid-cap lenders OneSavings and Charter Court Financial Services said they have agreed to the terms of an all-share merger.The agreement, with OneSavings offering 0.8253 of a share for each Charter Court share, is the same as that first announced at the start of the week. Under the deal, Charter Court shareholders would own 45% of the group and OneSavings the rest. Cineworld's profit and revenue in 2018 soared, boosted by its acquisition of US cinema chain Regal Entertainment.Revenue for 2018 on a proforma basis was up 7.2% to USD4.71 billion, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation up 9.4% to USD1.07 billion. On a statutory basis, revenue more than tripled to USD4.12 billion from USD1.14 billion in 2017, as pretax profit climbed more than two-fold to USD349.0 million from USD155.1 million.Cineworld completed its acquisition of US cinema chain Regal Entertainment in February 2018. Cineworld declared a full-year dividend of 15 cents, up 18% on the year before. "We are pleased to announce strong full year results following the successful acquisition of Regal. We are well on our way to achieving the successful business integration following a strong performance and record box office results in the US," said Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger.Greidinger added: "The combination with Regal has exceeded our expectations - we have incorporated the best of both companies by bringing together world-class talent, integrating best practice from both sides of the Atlantic and deepened our understanding of the US market."FTSE 100-listed John Wood Group said it has won a contract from Siemens to install a new Siemens HL-class gas turbine at a power generating station in North Carolina. The oilfield services provider said the contract will see it utilise a team of around 400 people to deliver the project over a period of 11 months.Debenhams noted Sports Direct International's GBP150 million loan offer, and said it would give the proposal "careful consideration".Late Wednesday, FTSE 250-listed retailer Sports Direct said it will make a GBP150 million unsecured term loan for 12 months to Debenhams. Of the total amount of the lending, GBP40 million would be used to repay Debenhams' bridge facility, while the remaining GBP110 million would be available for general working capital. However, the department store warned that any third party loan offer on these terms would require both the consent of its revolving credit facility lenders and noteholders, and "material amendments" to existing facilities.In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 0.6%, the S&P 500 up 0.7% and Nasdaq Composite also rising 0.7%.US President Donald Trump and the Federal Aviation Administration issued an order on Wednesday grounding all Boeing 737 Max jets in the US.The FAA, in a statement issued, said: "The agency made this decision as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site and analyzed today. This evidence, together with newly refined satellite data available to FAA this morning, led to this decision."The EU had earlier announced that it was grounding the planes after the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday, which killed 157 people. The same plane, operated by Indonesia's Lion Air, crashed in October 2018, killing all 189 people.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed flat. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 1.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.1%."Asian markets were muted overnight as investors reacted to a mixed bag of data from China. It is questionable how much further this rally has to go, with global growth concerns still present and Trump in no rush to complete a trade agreement with China," commented Jasper Lawler at London Capital Group.China's industrial output grew at the slowest pace in 17 years at the start of 2019, suggesting further weakness in the world's second-largest economy. China's industrial output grew an annual 5.3% in the first two months of 2019, a government report showed. This fell short of expectations for a score of 5.6%.The economic events calendar on Thursday has Ireland GDP at 1100 GMT and US import and export numbers at 1230 GMT.