Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Friday.
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COMPANIES
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Anglo American said it swung to a pretax loss in the first half of 2015 after recording a substantial USD3.5 billion impairment, driven by the fall in commodity prices, and said it is aiming to cut 35% of its workforce as part of its cost-saving initiative. The FTSE 100-listed multi-commodity miner reported a USD1.9 billion pretax loss in the six months ended June 30, swinging from a USD2.94 billion profit a year earlier, as revenue tanked 17% to USD13.34 billion from USD16.14 billion due to falling commodity prices. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at USD3.28 billion, a drop of 24% from USD4.32 billion a year before. The company said it would reduce costs through the reduction of its 6,000 overhead and indirect job roles. It said it will cut those jobs by 46%, some of which will come as a result of it selling its assets.
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Pearson reiterated its outlook for 2015 and posted a widened pretax loss for the first half of 2015, a day after it announced the sale of the Financial Times. The business and education publisher agreed Thursday to sell the FT Group to Japanese media group Nikkei Inc for GBP844 million in cash, as it moves to focus on its education businesses. The deal doesn't include the sale of property at One Southwark Bridge in London - the home of the FT newspaper - nor Pearson's 50% stake in the Economist Group, which publishes the Economist magazine. Pearson posted a pretax loss of GBP115 million for the half year to end-June, widened from a pretax loss of GBP36 million a year before, as a rise in sales to GBP2.16 billion from GBP2.05 billion was offset by higher cost of goods sold and operating expenses.
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Vodafone Group confirmed its guidance for its current financial year, as it saw revenue fall 0.9% on a reported basis, saying it made a "good start to the year." It attributed the decline in revenue to a 7.3 percentage point hit from foreign exchange movements offset by a 3.1 percentage point boost from merger and acquisition activity. On an organic basis, which Vodafone defines as being on a comparable basis, including merger and acquisition activity and movements in foreign exchange rates, revenue rose 3.3%.
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British American Tobacco said the Quebec Court of Appeal has granted the application that it and two other tobacco companies made to cancel a CAD1.1 billion provision execution order. The provisional execution was imposed on BAT's Imperial Tobacco Canada unit and the Canadian subsidiaries of Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International as part of a CAD15.6 billion judgement made against the three companies in two class action cases in June.
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Property developer Hammerson said its pretax profit fell in the first half of 2015 thanks to lower revenue from its joint ventures, even as its rental income improved over the period. Hammerson said its pretax profit for the half to the end of June was GBP329.4 million, down from GBP362.5 million, primarily due to a fall in the FTSE 100-listed company's share of results from its joint ventures, which declined to GBP121.1 million from GBP183 million. Hammerson said it will pay an interim dividend of 9.5 pence, up 8% from the 8.8p it paid a year earlier.
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Diageo is facing scrutiny in the US over claims it has artificially boosted its sales in the country, The Daily Telegraph reports. The drinks companies, which owns the Guinness and Smirnoff vodka brands, has been contacted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, for information on how it has shipped stock to distributors. Diageo is alleged to have been sending more cases of alcohol to its clients than they required, allowing the company to report higher sales and shipments.
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US authorities have ramped up investigations into whether banks should have raised concerns about money flows linked to alleged corruption at football governing body FIFA, The Wall Street Journal reports. In separate probes, the Brooklyn US Attorney's office and the New York State Department of Financial Services have contacted more than half a dozen banks in connection with FIFA corruption, including HSBC Holdings, Standard Chartered and Barclays. The probes are understood to be focused on the banks' money-laundering controls, which have increasingly come under regulatory scrutiny in recent years.
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Shire said the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has given a positive opinion for Intuniv in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. The European Commission will now consider the committee's positive opinion in making a decision on whether or not to grant marketing authorisation for the product.
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Agenus announced that GlaxoSmithKline received a positive opinion for its Malaria vaccine candidate from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use or CHMP of the European Medicines Agency or EMA. The vaccine candidate, named Mosquirix (RTS,S) is the first QS-21 Stimulon containing product to receive a positive regulatory decision.
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Ladbrokes and Gala Coral Group said they have agreed to merge to create a gambling company with a market capitalisation of around GBP2.1 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Ladbrokes will issue new shares to Gala Coral shareholders representing 48.25% of the enlarged group, with Ladbrokes shareholders to own the other 51.75% of the business. Ladbrokes said it will launch a share placing, issuing 92.4 million shares, 9.99% of its existing total, via an accelerated bookbuild run by UBS and Deutsche Bank in order to strengthen the balance sheet of the new business. The new company will be called Ladbrokes Coral PLC and will be headed by Ladbrokes Chief Executive Jim Mullen.
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In a separate announcement, gaming technology company Playtech said it has struck a deal with Ladbrokes on an early determination on the funds it is owed under its marketing services agreement with the bookmaker. Playtech will receive GBP75 million following the Ladbrokes-Coral merger, with GBP40 million of this to be satisfied in Ladbrokes shares and GBP35 million to be paid in cash.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices are mixed Friday mid-morning, with Vodafone leading the FTSE 100 followed by Pearson.
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6,666.01
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 17,599.44aim
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 756.66
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Gold slid back below USD1,100 per ounce.
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GBP: down at USD1.5483
EUR: down at USD1.0943

GOLD: down at USD1082.69 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD54.90 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK mortgage approvals increased for the sixth straight month to a 15-month high in June and came in above economist expectations, data from the British Bankers' Association showed. The number of mortgage approvals rose to a seasonally adjusted 44,488 in June from 42,876 in April. It was forecast to rise to 43,300. The latest figure was the highest since March 2014, when approvals totaled 45,574.
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The International Monetary Fund has insisted on separate assurances from the Greek government on its role in bailout talks, delaying its arrival in Greece where European creditor delegations were due to arrive on Friday, media reports said. Financial papers in Athens reported that the IMF wants to have laid out clearly the conditions under which the talks will take place and has insisted that it carry out checks according to its own agenda separate from European delegations. The IMF says Greece's public debt must be restructured if the bailout is to have any chance of success, but European creditors have failed to give definitive pledges thus far.
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Representatives of Greece's creditor institutions travel to Athens on Friday to hold formal negotiations on a new bailout, which are set to start now that the country's parliament has passed two reform bills, a Greek government official said. EU Economy Commissioner Pierre Moscovici announced on Wednesday that the negotiations had started, but face-to-face meetings between negotiators do not yet appear to have taken place. The Greek government official said negotiators hope to complete the bailout memorandum by August 18. The technical talks are expected to be completed around August 12.
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Eurozone economic growth slowed slightly in July but the pace of expansion remained one of the strongest seen over the last four years, flash survey data from Markit Economics showed. The composite Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 53.7 in July from June's four-year high of 54.2. But it remained slightly above the average seen over the first half of the year. The expected score was 54. The latest reading was the sixth-highest since mid-2011. Growth moderated in manufacturing and services, sliding from the recent highs seen in June, but remaining robust in both cases.
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Germany's private sector expanded at a slower pace in July, flash survey data from Markit Economics showed. The flash composite output index fell to 53.4 in July from 53.7 in June. The reading above 50 indicates expansion. Service providers continued to report stronger output growth than manufacturers. The services Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 53.7, down from 53.8 in June. It was forecast to rise to 54.
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Eurozone consumer confidence deteriorated for a fourth straight month in July and at a faster-than-expected pace, preliminary estimates from the European Commission showed. The flash consumer confidence index dropped to -7.1 from -5.6 in June. Economists had forecast a score of -5.8.
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China's manufacturing sector contracted again in July and at an accelerated pace, the latest survey from Caixin revealed, with a flash PMI score of 48.2. That marked a 15-month low score, and it was well shy of forecasts for a score of 49.7. It was down sharply from 49.4 in June, and it moves further beneath the line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
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China's urban registered jobless rate came in at 4.04% at the end of second quarter, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said. In March, the unemployment rate was 4.05%. The economy created around 7.18 million jobs in urban areas during the first half of 2015, the ministry said. The government aims to add 10 million jobs in the urban area this year in order to ensure that the jobless rate does not exceed 4.5% in 2015.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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