Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Europe's largest home improvement retailer Kingfisher saw its shares rise Thursday after saying it is in exclusive negotiations to acquire French home improvement retail chain Mr Bricolage for an overall enterprise vale of around EUR275 million.

Kingsfisher has started exclusive negotiations with the principal shareholders of Mr Bricolage to acquire their shareholdings. "This would add a third, complementary strong business alongside Kingfisher's existing two successful brands in France," said Chief Executive Ian Cheshire.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Kingfisher would acquire a 41.9% stake from from ANPF, which is held by franchisees, and 26.2% from the Tabur Family, at an agreed price per share of EUR15. It also said it would file a mandatory offer to acquire the shares held by the minority shareholders at the same price. Including the French chain's net debt as at the end of 2013, the overall enterprise value of Mr Bricolage would be around EUR275 million.

Kingfisher owns and operates the brands B&Q and Screwfix in the UK and elsewhere, and the Castorama and Brico Dépôt brands in France.

The stock has been one of the leading gainers in the FTSE 100 for much of the morning. At midday, it was quoted up 2.5% at 442.10 pence per share.

IPOs have attracted market attention again this morning, after shares in online takeaway service Just Eat started conditional dealings on London's main market respectably above its offer price.

Just Eat raised GBP360.1 million via an initial public offering of 138.5 million new and existing shares, 24.6% of the company's entire share capital, giving it a market capitalisation at the IPO price of GBP1.47 billion.

In regulatory news, the Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed it intends to undertake a competition review into the UK's GBP150 billion credit card market at the end of the year.

Speaking at the Credit Today Credit Summit in London, FCA Chief Executive Martin Wheatley said that, given 30 million people hold at least one credit card, it was right that the regulator explores whether competition in this market was working effectively for consumers.

With the FCA taking responsibility for Consumer Credit on April 1, Wheatley said he was keen for the study to ask how the industry worked with those people who were in difficult financial situations already.

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FTSE 100: flat at 6,659.26
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 16,388.38
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 852.38
GBP-USD: down at 1.6592
EUR-USD: down at 1.3759
GOLD: down at USD1,283.38 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD104.57 a barrel

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Key UK Corporate News

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FTSE 100: Shareholders of the UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue, Sports Direct International, have rejected a GBP72.5 million share bonus package for Mike Ashley, the company's founder, deputy chairman and biggest shareholder. British Land Co said it has signed a new financing deal with a syndicate of 14 banks for GBP785.0 million. Travel operator TUI Travel has signed a new GBP1.4 billion bank credit facility, which it said will improve the strength and flexibility of its balance sheet, and was oversubscribed. Vodafone confirmed plans to invest GBP100 million in the UK to open 150 new retail shops and create 1,400 jobs, as it ramps up its investment programme in the country.

FTSE 250: Cairn Energy it will take "whatever steps are necessary" to defend itself in its ongoing tax dispute in India, and reiterated that it had been compliant with tax legislation in every year of its operations in India. UK food wholesaler Booker Group said it finished the financial year just ended on a strong footing, boosted by its acquisition of Makro last year, with profits for the year in line with expectations, and a balance sheet carrying GBP150 million of net cash. A John Wood Group joint venture, KTR-WG Turbine Services LLP, has won an eight-year contract in Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field. AG Barr said Finance Director Alex Short has informed the board of his intention to resign. St Modwen Properties said members of the Clarke and Leavesley families, its largest shareholders, have sold about 8.3 million shares in the company at 380 pence each. Dunelm Group reported strong sales growth for the third quarter, albeit at a slower pace than in the prior year, as it continues to invest in its in-store offer, store expansion, and improving its multi-channel offering. Tate & Lyle said its operating profit for the year just ended will be lower, as sweetener volumes in both of its divisions were held back by a soft US beverage sector. Electrocomponents said it expects to meet expectations for pretax profit, excluding reorganisation costs, for the year ended March 31, as profit margins remained stable and operating costs were "tightly controlled." BTG said that it expects revenue for year ended March 31 to be around the top end of its guidance range of GBP275 million to GBP285 million. SOCO International said it has hired Anya Weaving as its new chief financial officer, effective May 1, 2014.

AIM: Toumaz shares jumped to 4.37 pence per share after Chairman Richard Steeves bought 12.5 million shares at 3.05p and a further 1 million shares at 3.88p, and Chief Executive Officer Antony Sethill bought 1.5 million shares at a price of 3.225p, in deals worth approximately GBP47 million. Shares in ITM Power have risen. The energy storage and clean fuel company said it had won a GBP2.8 million contract to supply three refuelling stations in London under the HyFive project announced Thursday by London Mayor Boris Johnson. Unitech Corporate Parks also has risen; the company has received a third-party approach expressing interest in potentially acquiring subsidiary Candor Investments Ltd, adding that it is in talks over a possible sale. Shares in Intercede Group are up. The company said that revenues for the year ended March 31 will be ahead of expectations and over 40% higher than the previous year, boosted by new contract wins for its MyID identity and credential management technology. Kea Petroleum is also trading higher after the oil and gas company said Darwin Strategic is to convert GBP200,000 of its convertible loan notes into shares at 1.952975p per share.

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Top Economics And General

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The UK service sector growth slowed unexpectedly to a nine-month low in March, survey data showed. The services Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 57.6, the lowest level since June 2013, from 58.2 in February, Markit Economics said. The score was expected remain unchanged at 58.2. Although the index signaled another period of sharp activity growth, the score fell for a fifth month in a row and posted its lowest level since June 2013.
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The European Central Bank is set to leave interest rates at the historic low of 0.25%, despite renewed fears of deflation. The region's cost of living slumped to a more-than-four-year low of 0.5% in March, compared with 0.7% in February, the European Statistics Office Eurostat said Monday. This took consumer prices deeper into what ECB chief Mario Draghi has called the "danger zone" of an inflation rate below 1%.
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International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde called Wednesday for easing of monetary policy in the EU. She cited the risk of low inflation in advanced economies as an obstacle to short-term global growth, but insisted the issue was not deflation. "There is the emerging risk of what I call 'low-flation', particularly in the euro area," Lagarde said in an address at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "A potentially prolonged period of low inflation can suppress demand and output - and suppress growth and jobs," she said. "More monetary easing, including through unconventional measures, is needed in the euro area to raise the prospects of achieving the (European Central Bank's) price stability objective."
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Eurozone retail sales volume expanded unexpectedly in February from the prior month, data showed. Driven by food and non-food product sales, retail sales grew 0.4% on a monthly basis in February, Eurostat reported. Economists were expecting sales to fall 0.5% after recovering last month.
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China announced slew of measures to bring the economic recovery on track to achieve this year's 7.5% growth target. The three major initiatives announced by the State Council on Wednesday include reforms in railway, the urban redevelopment program and tax breaks for small and micro enterprises.
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The service sector in China expanded at a faster pace in March, the latest PMI from HSBC and Markit Economics revealed on Thursday, coming in with a four-month high score of 51.9. That's up from 51.0 in February, and it moves farther above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
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British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), on Wednesday traded increasingly bitter jibes during a live televised debate about Britain's membership of the EU. Clegg, the leader of the pro-EU Liberal Democrat party, accused Farage several times of indulging in "fantasy" and said the UKIP leader's arguments for quitting the bloc were a "dangerous con." Farage responded that the majority of Britons did not want to be part of a political union within the EU but that an exit was being blocked by people like Clegg, who was part of a "career political class" with "friends in big business." The two men were taking part in the second of two debates on whether Britain should remain in the EU.
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Growth in the Irish service sector regained momentum at the end of the first quarter of 2014, data from Markit Economics showed. The seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 60.7 in March from 57.5 in February. The score above 50 indicates expansion in the sector. Activity has now risen in each of the past 20 months.
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NATO's decision to suspend cooperation with Russia on civilian and military matters is regrettable as it benefits neither the military alliance nor Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. NATO's move was announced Tuesday in Brussels by its foreign ministers, who raised the possibility of deployments as part of their response to the Ukrainian crisis. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the language of the ministers' statement was reminiscent of vocabulary used during the Cold War. NATO's decision will benefit terrorists and organized crime and will complicate response efforts in future natural disasters, the spokesman said.
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Four people were reported to have been killed Wednesday in shooting at a US Army base in Texas and the base remained on lockdown as military police went building to building searching for others involved. The shooter was among the four dead, said US Representative Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Unidentified government officials told the Washington Post at least four were dead. The shooter has been identified by multiple government sources as Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, the newspaper said. Fourteen people were injured, McCaul told CNN. Fort Hood was the scene of a shooting rampage five years ago in which 13 people were shot dead and dozens were injured.
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The death toll from the mudslide in the US state of Washington rose to 29 Wednesday, as President Barack Obama issued a federal disaster declaration to help the obliterated town of Oso recover from the catastrophe.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Afghan presidential candidates, their supporters and election authorities to make sure voting Saturday is conducted legally, even as an attack took place in the war-torn country's capital. At least six police officers were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up in front of the Interior Ministry in Kabul, the government said.
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The number of Syrians registered as refugees in Lebanon has surpassed one million, making the country the highest per-capita concentration of refugees worldwide, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said. "The influx of a million refugees would be massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation beset by internal difficulties, the impact is staggering," UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of Lebanon's resident population, most of them live in dire conditions and depend on aid for survival, according to the agency.
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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak joined his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott in an inspection of the air force base in Perth that is serving as the centre of a huge international operation to find missing flight MH370. Welcoming Najib to Pearce Air Force base north of Perth, the search coordinator, former Air Force chief Angus Houston, said the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines airliner was "one of the most complex operations the world has ever seen."
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Global food prices rose to a 10-month high in March due to bad weather in the US and Brazil and tensions in Ukraine, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. FAO's Food Price Index increased by 2.3% from February, to 212.8 points.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

12:30 US Challenger Job Cuts
12:45 EU ECB Interest Rate Decision
13:30 EU ECB Monetary policy statement and press conference
13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims
13:30 US Continuing Jobless Claims
13:30 US Trade Balance
13:58 US Markit Services PMI
15:00 US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change

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Friday's Key UK Corporate Events

Easyjet March Traffic Statistics

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Friday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)

n/a UK Halifax House Prices
11:00 Germany Factory Orders
13:30 US Nonfarm Payrolls
13:30 US Average Hourly Earnings
13:30 US Average Weekly Hours
13:30 US Unemployment Rate

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By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance

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