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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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Royal Dutch Shell said it has started oil production from the Gumusut-Kakap floating platform off the coast of Malaysia. The platform is expected to reach annual peak oil production of around 135,000 barrels per day once fully ramped up. The company said work on the gas-injection facilities at the platform is now underway following the start of production, with an expected start-up next year.
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Several big institutional investors in Tesco have signalled to the group that they would be willing to back a capital-raising plan of GBP1 billion to GBP2 billion in order to strengthen its balance sheet, The Times reported. A number of large investors in Tesco met informally on Tuesday, The Times said, and would support the company should it launch a rights issue in order to strengthen its position in the wake of the profit overstatement revealed last month.
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EE announced a foray into the television market, launching a set-top box and television service EE TV, in a move that challenges rivals BT Group PLC and TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC.
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Swisscom is considering a possible sale of its Fastweb Italian broadband unit, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the situation. Vodafone Group has been running the rule over the Fastweb business, which could fetch up to EUR5 billion, having made several takeover approaches for the business which have been rebuffed by Swisscom, Reuters said. Swisscom is now understood to have hired UBS AG, a long-term adviser to Vodafone, in order to facilitate a deal, the sources said.
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FTSE 100-listed Irish cement company CRH has teamed with Mexican cement maker Cemex in order to bid for all the assets that Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd will have to sell in order to secure the approval of European competition authorities for their proposed merger, Reuters reported on Tuesday. HeidelbergCement AG of Germany and Brazil's Votorantim Cimentos SA also are understood to be considering a joint bid for the assets, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.
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Barclays urged a New York court on Tuesday to throw out the fraud case levelled against the bank by the state attorney general regarding its 'dark pool' trading venue, claiming the case oversteps state securities laws and offers no proof that investors were harmed, Reuters reported. Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, filed a lawsuit in June against the bank, accusing it of giving an unfair edge to high-frequency traders and lying to other customers.
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Access Industries Group's takeover offer for Perform Group is now wholly unconditional it said, as it has received valid acceptances that, together with Perform shares owned by Access and persons acting "in concert" with Access, take its stake to 67.97%. Access Industries is a privately-held industrial group that focuses on investments in natural resources, chemicals, media, telecommunications and real estate. It is majority owned by chairman and founder Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born American businessman.
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Transport operator FirstGroup confirmed it has not been awarded the new ScotRail Franchise by the UK government, although it stressed that this does not alter its medium-term targets. FirstGroup will continue to operate First ScotRail until the new franchise begins on April 1, 2015. Separately FirstGroup said its trading in the first half to end-September had been in line with its expectations, and expressed confidence in seeing an improved performance in its second half.
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British brewer and pub owner Marston's said it expects to report an underlying operating profit "broadly" in line with expectations for its financial year just ended, buoyed by higher food sales and investment in new pub-restaurants. The owner of Pitcher & Piano bars, said like-for-like sales in its Destination and Premium division, its pub-restaurant unit, grew by 3.1% in the financial year ended October 4, driven by a 3.3% increase in food like-for-like sales, and 2% growth in drink sales.
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London Mining warned its investors that it thinks there will be little or no value left in its shares and other securities under the proposals currently being discussed for its refinancing. The iron ore miner had warned in late September that it had entered talks with a potential strategic investor for a dilutive financing package, after it ran out of money to continue trading. In a statement Wednesday, it said detailed talks with potential strategic investors and its bank lender group are continuing.
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Mike Ashley, founder and director of Sports Direct International and owner of Newcastle United football club, Wednesday demanded that two directors of Rangers International Football Club's board are removed, including Chief Executive Graham Wallace. In a statement, Rangers said it had received a notice dated October 7 from Ashley that stated his investment vehicle MASH Holdings Ltd holds nearly 4.3 million Rangers shares, equating to 5% of the voting rights. MASH "requires" that Rangers call a shareholder meeting for a vote on the removal of Wallace and Executive Director Philip Nash, it added.
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MARKETS
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UK indices trade firmly in the red as stocks fell amid concerns about global growth. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global growth forecast for this year and next, citing continued weakness in the Eurozone and broad slowdown in several major emerging markets.
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FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6,459.51
FTSE 250: down 1.3% at 14,910.62
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 1.1% at 728.47
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The pound slid against the dollar ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve's minutes of its September meeting at 1900 BST.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6076
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2656

GOLD: up at USD1216.44 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD91.22 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK house prices increased more than expected in September, survey data from Halifax showed. House prices rose 0.6% in September from August, when prices remained flat. Economists had forecast a 0.2% rise for September. During three months to September, house prices climbed 2.7% from the previous three months, following a 2.9% in three months to August. Annually, prices were 9.6% higher in the three months to September than in the same three months last year, similar to last month and in line with expectations.
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UK shop prices experienced deflation for the seventeenth consecutive month in September, a survey from the British Retail Consortium revealed. According to the Report on Jobs published jointly by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG, growth in permanent staff salaries slowed to a four-month low. Meanwhile, hourly pay rates for temporary workers increased at the fastest pace since November 2007. The BRC-Nielsen shop price index fell 1.8% year-on-year in September, faster than the 1.6% drop seen in August.
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China's services sector continued to expand in September, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from HSBC Bank showed on Wednesday with a PMI score of 53.5. That's down from 54.1 in August, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The composite index, which covers both manufacturing and services sectors, came in at 52.3 - expanding for the fifth straight month but down from the 17-month high of 52.8 in August.
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Japan posted a current account surplus of JPY287.1 billion in August, the Ministry of Finance said - up 83% on year. The headline figure beat forecasts for a surplus of JPY200 billion following the JPY416.7 billion surplus in July. The trade deficit came in at JPY831.8 billion, missing expectations for a shortfall of JPY770.7 billion following the JPY282.1 billion deficit in the previous month.
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The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast by 0.1 percentage points to 3.3% for 2014 and 0.2 points to 3.8% next year, according to Tuesday's quarterly update of its World Economic Outlook. "World growth is mediocre and a bit worse than forecast in July," IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said. Fizzling economic recoveries in Japan and the eurozone accounted for much of the 2014 reduction.
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Hong Kong was calm Wednesday morning, with only a few hundred pro-democracy protesters blocking major roads, after students and the government agreed to start talks this week. Government employees went to work unobstructed as only scattered dozens of demonstrators remained in the protest sites. Kindergartens remained closed in some districts on Hong Kong Island because of transport delays caused by some street blockades. Middle and primary schools were open. Students said they wanted to keep pressure on authorities, despite agreement Tuesday to start talks wih government officials Friday.
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The European Commission said Tuesday it would look into the first incidence of transmission of ebola on European soil, as US and EU officials stepped up efforts in West Africa to halt the spread of the virus. Europe's first transmitted case involved a 44-year-old Spanish nurse who helped care for a missionary transported to Madrid after contracting the Ebola virus in Liberia. The missionary died on September 25.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday warned that the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane was about to fall and criticized the US-led bombing campaign against Islamic State militants as an insufficient response. "You cannot bring this terror to an end only through airstrikes," said Erdogan in comments carried by the Anadolou news agency as he spoke to refugees in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. He renewed calls for the formation of a zone of protection and a no-fly zone over Syria, saying that moderate fighters in the Syrian opposition had to be strengthened. The Turkish leader's comments came as Kurdish fighters battled the jihadists in the streets of Kobane and a US-led coalition pounded Islamic State positions on the outskirts.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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