Savills Share News (SVS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened firmly Friday, with some individual company news taking precedence as investors continue to monitor talks between EU leaders and Greece.

Irish building materials giant CRH leads FTSE 100 gainers after the on-again, off-again merger between Switzerland's Holcim and France's Lafarge appeared to be back on. CRH will acquire a large set of assets from the merged companies. Shares are up 3.9%.

In the FTSE 250, TSB Banking shares are up 2.0% after it confirmed agreement on a deal that will see Spain's Banco de Sabadell buy the UK lender for about GBP1.7 billion. Lloyds Banking also confirmed its agreement to sell its 50% stake in TSB.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,968.42
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 17,459.69
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 715.97
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.4% at 24,375.24
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.4% at 19,560.22
DJIA: closed down 0.7% at 17,959.03
S&P 500: closed down 0.5% at 2,089.27
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.4734
EUR-USD: up at USD1.0666

GOLD: down at USD1,169.45 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD54.23 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

09:00 EU Current Account
09:30 UK Public Sector Net Borrowing
12:30 Canada Consumer Price Index
13:30 Canada Retail Sales
14:20 US Fed's Lockhart speech
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Greece will submit a "full list of specific reforms" within days, top European officials said early Friday, after talks on how to let bailout funds flow to the cash-strapped country. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he was "more optimistic" after the meeting in Brussels. "All the sides confirmed their intention to try to do their best to overcome the difficulties of the Greek economy as soon as possible," he said. "Today we put the process back on its rails," he added. "Greece will propose its own reforms, which it will implement." The three-hour talks held late Thursday and early Friday came amid reports that the reform negotiations had hit an impasse at the expert level. An EU source speaking on condition of anonymity said progress was made in Brussels on "building bridges" between the participants.
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EU leaders agreed to maintain economic sanctions against Russia until a ceasefire deal for eastern Ukraine is fully implemented - a move not expected before the end of 2015. The measures, which aim to hamper Russian imports and Russian banks' access to European capital markets, are among the most controversial steps taken to influence Moscow's course in Ukraine, as they inflict economic pain not only on Russia but also on the EU. Thursday's decision in Brussels prepares the ground for the EU to extend its economic sanctions beyond July, when they are currently set to start lapsing.
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A majority of the households in the UK perceived that the value of their houses increased in March, after moderating in the previous month, results of a survey conducted by Knight Frank and Markit Economics showed Friday. The house price sentiment index, or HPSI, rose to 57.5 in March from 56.5 in February. This marked the twenty-fourth consecutive month of the index remaining above 50. A reading above 50 signals a rise in house prices, while a figure below 50 indicates a decline. The overall reading remains well below its record high of 63.2 achieved in May last year.
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Germany's producer prices dropped more-than-expected in February, figures from Destatis showed. The producer price index fell 2.1% year-over-year in February, exceeding economists' expectations for a 2.0% drop. In January, prices had fallen 2.2%, which was the sharpest decline since February 2010, when the prices declined 3.0%. Prices have been falling since August 2013.
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OECD: CHINA'S GDP TO GROW BY 7% THIS YEAR, 6.9% IN 2016
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Members of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy board believe that the country's economic recovery is continuing at a moderate pace, minutes from the board's meeting on February 17 and 18 revealed. The members added that the quantitative easing in place is having the desired effects - although it cautioned that the rate of inflation has slowed due to falling energy prices.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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N+1 Singer Downgrades Debenhams To Hold From Buy, Raises Price Target To 78p From 75p
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Numis Downgrades Savills To Add From Buy, Raises Price Target To 944p
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JPMORGAN RAISES WILLIAM HILL TO 'NEUTRAL' ('UNDERWEIGHT') - TARGET 400 (355) P.
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Numis Upgrades MyCelx Technologies To Buy From Add, Retains Price Target At 207p
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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TSB Banking Group has agreed a deal that will see Spain's Banco de Sabadell buy the UK lender for about GBP1.7 billion. In a statement Friday morning, the two banks said they have agreed a deal that values TSB at 340 pence per share. The stock closed Thursday at 327.00p. The acquisition has the approval of Lloyds Banking Group, which must sell its 50% stake in TSB by the end of 2015 to comply with European state aid rules after it required a government bailout in the financial crisis of 2007-09. TSB Chairman Will Samuel said that Sabdell's offer is a "vote of confidence" in the bank.
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British Land Co said it has completed a GBP733 million property exchange deal with fellow FTSE 100 constituent Tesco. Under the terms of the deal, British Land has sold its 50% stake in a joint venture portfolio of 21 standalone food stores to supermarket chain Tesco and has acquired Tesco's 50% interest in two joint venture portfolios, which primarily comprise Tesco-anchored shopping centres and retail parks. As part of the deal, Tesco will get GBP96 million from British Land.
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In a first move for any alcohol company, Diageo plans to display calorie counts and other content information on many of its biggest-selling products, including Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, Smirnoff vodka, Guinness and Tanqueray gin. The world's biggest distiller said Thursday in an e-mailed statement that it will disclose alcoholic content and nutritional information per serving on its responsible drinking website or on product packaging as soon as possible.
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An asthma treatment co-developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Theravance has been found safe and effective by a FDA review panel in treating adults but not adolescents. The FDA panel voted in favor of Breo Ellipta (fluticasone furoate/vilanterol [FF/VI]) as an once-daily inhaled treatment for asthma in patients aged 18 years and older by a 16-4 vote. However, the panel voted against the asthma drug for treating patients aged between 12 and 17 years, with the panel voting 2 for and 18 against.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Housebuilder Berkeley Group Holdings said it is continuing to see good demand for new homes in London and the South East, is making progress on its land holdings, and reiterated its earnings guidance for the current financial year, along with the following two. Berkeley said that as trading conditions returned to normal in the housing market, following the highs seen in 2013, it is still seeing good demand for new homes in London and the South East of England. The company is in construction on 64 sites across the two regions and said all of its sites with implementable planning consent are in construction.
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Saga is to speed up the sale of the public sector operations of Allied ‎Healthcare due to the prospect of local authority budgets being made smaller after the UK's general election in May, Sky News reported. According to Sky News, which did not cite the source of the information, investment bank Greenhill will help Saga to sell Allied Healthcare's public sector operations.
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Alliance Trust struck back in the battle against Elliot Advisors (UK), calling the activist investor's move to make changes to its board "completely unacceptable" and advising other shareholders to vote against the proposals. Elliot, which has built up a 12% stake in Alliance Trust, wants the company to appoint former SG Warburg executive Anthony Brooke, ex-CEO of Legal & General Investment Management Peter Chambers, and Rory Macnamara, previously of Morgan Grenfell, to the board of Alliance Trust.
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Vedanta Resources said it has cut its 2015 capital expenditure budget by USD400 million and halved its budget for 2016 in order to reach its desired gearing of 25% and to ensure it can maintain a "progressive dividend policy". The mining company said it has slashed its capital expenditure budget for 2015 to USD1.5 billion from the previous USD1.9 billion budget, while its capital expenditure budget for 2016 has been halved to USD1.0 billion from USD2.0 billion. Vedanta is aiming to increase copper equivalent production from its assets by 59% in the near-term.
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International Public Partnerships said the Amber Consortium has reached financial close on the second privately-financed batch of schools delivered under the Priority Schools Building Programme. The consortium comprises INPP alongside Aviva Investors, the investment management arm of insurer Aviva, with senior debt financing provided by the European Investment Bank. The second tranche of funding will support the development of seven secondary schools on existing sites in Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading. INPP will fund around GBP10.2 million of the GBP137 million in funding the consortium will provide for the batch.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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PetroNeft Resources said it will double production before the end of 2015 by conducting a drilling programme on its Russian assets. The oil and gas exploration and production company operating in Russia said production is currently running at 2,000 barrels of oil per day, but is expecting this to rise to between 3,500 to 4,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of 2015 after it conducts its drilling programme.
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Bacanora Minerals said David Lenigas, chairman of Rare Earth Minerals, has been appointed as a non-executive director on its board. Rare Earth holds a 15% stake in Bacanora.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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The boards of Holcim and Lafarge said they have reached an agreement on revised terms of their proposed USD41 billion merger, with Holcim getting a more favourable exchange ratio and the heads of both cement companies to be co-chairmen of the merged entity, in news likely to give a boost to FTSE 100 members CRH and Anglo American. Holcim and Lafarge said they had reached an agreement on revised terms, including a new exchange ratio of 9 Holcim shares for 10 Lafarge shares. A new chief executive for the combined group, which will be proposed by Lafarge and accepted by Holcim, will be appointed following the closing of the transaction. Holcim Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle and Lafarge Chairman and Chief Executive Bruno Lafont will be non-executive co-chairmen of the combined company.
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Bank Of New York Mellon said it reached a USD714 million settlement with the US and the New York state to resolve charges of foreign exchange rate rigging. BNY Mellon said the settlements will be fully covered by its existing legal reserves.
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The US Federal Aviation Administration issued an experimental airworthiness certificate to Amazon's unmanned aircraft-drones-design that the company will use for research and development and crew training. Under the provisions of the certificate, all flight operations must be conducted at 400 feet or below during daylight hours in visual meteorological conditions. The drones must always remain within visual line-of-sight of the pilot and observer. The pilot actually flying the aircraft must have at least a private pilot's certificate and current medical certification.
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Starbucks is planning a trial launch to deliver food and beverages in certain parts of Seattle and New York City in the second half of 2015, reports said. The delivery service envisages a two-pronged model, the Seattle Times reported, and would include a third party or its own employees. Under the first delivery model, Starbucks has teamed up with Postmates, the on-demand delivery service, to deliver in select areas of Seattle items such as coffee and pastries using cars and bicycles. In the second model, Starbucks will deliver food and beverages in specified office-buildings in New York City, reportedly starting with the Empire State Building.
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Nike, the world's largest athletic shoes and apparel maker, said its third quarter profit rose 16% from last year, helped by higher revenue and improved gross margin. The company's quarterly earnings per share also came in above analysts' expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell short of analysts' forecast. For the third quarter ended February 28, 2015, the Beaverton, Oregon-based company reported net income of USD791 million or USD0.89 per share, compared to USD682 million or USD0.75 per share for the year-ago quarter.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

React Energy
Providence Resources
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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