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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Vodafone Group said it is in early talks with cable company Liberty Global about a possible asset exchange, but said it is not discussing any potential merger with the company. Media reports on Thursday said that Vodafone and Liberty Global were holding merger talks. Vodafone confirmed Friday the pair are in early talks about the possible exchange of selected assets, but said it is not in talks with the company about a merger. Vodafone added there is no certainty a deal will be made.
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Lloyds Banking Group took action on bonuses for its executives after being fined GBP117 million by UK regulators over the way it handled complaints relating to the payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal. According to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, the fine was the largest retail fine that it has ever issued. In a statement, Lloyds said awarded but unvested bonuses amounting to about GBP2.65 million in total will be forfeited by executives, while its Remuneration Committee has decided to cut the bonus pool for 2015 by about GBP30 million.
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets saw a substantial shareholder rebellion against its remuneration report, with more than a third of the shareholders voting against. The FTSE 100 grocer said 38% of shareholders who voted did so against the remuneration report, which included a proposal to give David Potts, its newly-appointed chief executive, a long-term incentive plan for 2015 which will be 300% of his salary.
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Halfords Group reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year as sales performed strongly in both its Retail and Autocentres divisions. The car parts and bicycle retailer reported a pretax profit in the 53 weeks to April 3 of GBP83.8 million and GBP80.8 million in the 52 weeks to March 27, up from the GBP72.6 million reported in the 52-week period the prior year, as revenue rose to GBP1 billion from GBP939.7 million. Like-for-like sales grew 6.8%. Halfords will pay a dividend of 16.5 pence, up 15% from the 14.3p paid the year before.
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Bellway said it expects its housing completions to rise at the close of its financial year, with its operating margin set to improve year-on-year and its forward sales book strengthening as it said it had seen little impact from the General Election in the UK. The FTSE 250-listed housebuilder said it expects housing completions for the year to the end of July to be around 850 units higher than the 6,851 it reported a year earlier. Should that prove the case, it would mark an acceleration in sales for Bellway in the second half, with the group having posted 3,754 sales in the first half.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are trading lower Friday mid-morning, with the Greek debt negotiations in the background and with US unemployment data due at 1330 BST. Investors also are awaiting news from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting taking place in Vienna.
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FTSE 100: down 0.7% at 6,814.04
FTSE 250: down 0.7% at 17,960.75
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 776.19
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GBP: down at USD1.5316
EUR: up at USD1.1255

GOLD: down at USD1175.82 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD61.86 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The Greek government hardened its stance toward international creditors' reform proposals after high-level talks failed to produce a deal for the country to gain access to much-needed money to avoid default. A proposal presented by the International Monetary Fund and European institutions "contains extreme positions that cannot be accepted by the Greek government," the statement from Athens said late Thursday, a day after a Brussels meeting a day earlier with the international creditors. Greece said the creditors "have not taken a step back, independently of the fact that over the past four months the two sides had converged on reforms, which the Greek government included in its own proposal." The statement came after Greece delayed a key debt repayment of about EUR300 million due Friday to the IMF. The Washington-based crisis lender said Thursday that Greek authorities had declared their plans to bundle four payments due this month into a single EUR1.6 billion lump sum now due on June 30.
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The British Chambers of Commerce downgraded its UK growth projection for this year citing weaker than expected expansion in the first quarter. The business lobby expects the economy to expand 2.3% this year instead of 2.7%. Nonetheless, the slowdown is expected to be temporary. The prospects for the medium term remains steady with growth projected to be 2.6% next year and 2017.
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Permanent job placements in the UK increased further in May, although the rate of growth eased to a four-month low, the Report on Jobs produced by Markit Economics on behalf of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG showed. The number of people placed in permanent jobs continued to increase in May but the pace of expansion slowed, reflecting a weaker growth in demand for staff, with the latest rate of increase the slowest in 2015 so far.
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The Bundesbank raised its German economic growth outlook as the economy returned to a growth path from the cyclical lull in the middle of last year. Real gross domestic product is forecast to grow 1.7% this year, faster than the prior estimate of 1%. For next year, growth is expected to be 1.8% instead of 1.6%. Consumer price inflation is expected to accelerate, driven initially by the effect of the euro's depreciation against other major currencies, the bank said.
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Germany's factory order growth exceeded expectations in April helped by foreign demand, data from Destatis revealed. Factory orders increased 1.4% month-on-month, faster than a 0.5% rise forecast by economists. It was also the fastest growth since December, when it was 3.3%.
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The European Commission adopted an implementing act that will extend the transitional period for capital requirements for EU banking groups' exposures to central counterparties (CCPs) under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). CCPs are commercial entities interposed between the two counterparties to a transaction, becoming the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer. The main purpose of a CCP is to manage the risk that could arise if one counterparty is not able to make the required payments when they are due - i.e. defaults on the deal. The CRR introduced a capital requirement for the exposure of EU banks and their subsidiaries to a CCP. The current transitional period expires on June 15. The European Commission's implementing act will now extend the transitional phase to December 15.
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The EU said the heavy fighting around Mariyinka, near Donetsk, in Eastern Ukraine is the most serious violation of the ceasefire under the Minsk agreements since February. The escalation followed the movement of a large amount of heavy weapons towards the contact line by the Russia-backed separatists, as reported by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission. Renewed intense fighting risks unleashing a new spiral of violence and human suffering, said Maja Kocijancic, chief spokesperson for Federica Mogherini - the EU's chief of security and defense policy.
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Salvage workers were attempting to right a capsized Chinese cruise ship early Friday, state television reported, with over 300 people still missing after it sank four days ago. The starboard side of the Eastern Star, which capsized late Monday in bad weather, was visible above the water, the report said. The confirmed death toll stood at 82 early Friday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Fourteen people have been rescued. Cranes capable of lifting the ship are being used to right the vessel.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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