Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened lower in London Thursday, amid renewed weakness in oil prices and as the Greek finance minister holds talks about the country's debt with his German counterpart.

BT Group shares are up 2.9%, after confirming its agreement to acquire mobile network EE for GBP12.5 billion, in a cash and share deal that will give EE's joint owners Deutsche Telekom and Orange stakes in BT.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6,817.90
FTSE 250: down 0.3% at 16,529.03
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 692.53
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.4% at 24,765.49
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.0% at 17,504.62
DJIA: closed flat at 17,673.02
S&P 500: closed down 0.4% at 2,041.51
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.5197
EUR-USD: up at USD1.1364

GOLD: down at USD1,267.18 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD53.75 a barrel

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

12:00 UK BoE Interest Rate Decision and Asset Purchase Facility
12:30 US Challenger Job Cuts
13:30 US Jobless Claims, Unit Labor Costs, Nonfarm Productivity
13:30 Canada International Merchandise Trade
13:30 US Trade Balance
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
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The Greek finance minister's push to renegotiate the country's bailout stands to face a tough opponent on Thursday when he holds talks with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The meeting between Yanis Varoufakis and Schaeuble comes after the European Central Bank decided to turn up the pressure on Greece over its vow to renegotiate the terms of its bailout by refusing to accept Greek government bonds as security for loans. The ECB had previously given the Greek government a waiver on the use of its bonds as security, but said in a statement that it would lift that exemption as of February 11.
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UK JAN HOUSE PRICES UP 2.0% ON MONTH, 8.5% 3-MO ON YEAR: HALIFAX
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German factory orders recovered and increased at a faster-than-expected pace in December, figures from Destatis showed. Factory orders grew a seasonally and working-day adjusted 4.2% month-on-month in December, much faster than economists' expectations for a 1.5% increase. In November, orders declined a revised 2.4%, the same rate of decline as in October.
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Switzerland's consumer sentiment increased unexpectedly in January, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said. The overall consumer confidence rose to -6 from -11 in October. The score was expected to fall to -13.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev on Thursday amid worries that the fighting in eastern Ukraine will escalate further. Kerry was to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and members of Ukraine's parliament, the US Embassy in Kiev said. The visit kicks off another round of diplomacy in the ongoing crisis, as Kerry travels to Germany later in the day to attend the annual Munich Security Conference.
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US crude oil settled 8.7% lower Wednesday, as supply glut concerns resurfaced after an official weekly oil report from the Energy Information Administration showed crude stockpiles in the US to have surged more than expected last week. A weekly report from the US Energy Information Administration showed US crude oil inventories to have jumped 6.3 million barrels in the week ended January 30, while analysts expected an increase of 2.8 million barrels. The report showed US crude oil inventories at 413.0 million barrels end last week.
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Billionaire Warren Buffett said he does not expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates anytime in 2015 due to the strong US dollar and the global uncertainty. He made the comment while discussing several topics in an interview on the Fox Business Network. "It'd be very tough for the Fed to raise rates. That would exacerbate the problem. I don't think it'll be very feasible to do. I think it would have a lot of international repercussions," Buffett said.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: INVESTEC CUTS SMITHS GROUP TO 'SELL' ('HOLD')
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PANMURE CUTS COMPASS GROUP TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - TARGET 1100 PENCE
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TRADERS: NUMIS CUTS BEAZLEY GROUP TO 'HOLD' ('ADD')
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DEUTSCHE BANK CUTS OCADO TO 'SELL' ('HOLD') - TARGET 330 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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BT Group said it has agreed to acquire mobile network EE for GBP12.5 billion, in a cash and share deal that will give EE's joint owners Deutsche Telekom and Orange stakes in BT. BT will pay the cash amount through a combination of new debt financing and around GBP1 billion from the placing of new BT shares. It said this placing will be launched in due course. BT also will issue shares to EE's two current owners. Deutsche Telekom will take a 12% stake in BT, and will be able to appoint a non-executive member to BT's board, Orange will take a 4% stake.
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Vodafone Group confirmed its full-year earnings guidance as it said the decline in its group service revenue slowed to 0.4% year-on-year in its third quarter, and said its GBP19 billion Project Spring investment programme is "well advanced". The company continues to expect to post full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP11.6 billion to GBP11.9 billion.
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AstraZeneca moved to further bolster its respiratory drug pipeline by acquiring the rights to Actavis' branded respiratory business in the US and Canada, as it reported lower earnings for 2014 due to increased investments it is making in accelerating its existing portfolio. The pharmaceutical giant said it will buy they rights to Actavis' North American respiratory business for an initial USD600 million plus low single-digit royalties above a certain revenue threshold.
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GlaxoSmithKline said late Wednesday it is selling its 7.9% stake in Danish biotechnology company Genmab A/S via a share placing. GlaxoSmithKline currently holds 4.47 million shares in Copenhagen-listed Genmab. The stock closed Wednesday at DKK471.00, making Glaxo's stake worth DKK2.11 billion or GBP212.4 million. In a statement Wednesday, Glaxo said that since its decision to sell its marketed Oncology portfolio to healthcare provider Novartis Pharma AG in April last year, it has considered its stake in Genmab to be a "non-core asset".
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Medical devices company Smith & Nephew reported higher revenue and trading profit for 2014, although earnings per share were hit by restructuring and acquisition costs. Its trading profit rose to USD1.06 billion for the year as a whole, from USD987 million in 2013, as revenue rose to USD4.62 billion, from USD4.35 billion. Trading profit rose to USD325 million in the fourth quarter, from USD292 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to USD1.25 billion, from USD1.18 billion.
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EasyJet reported flat passenger numbers in January and a slight year-on-year decline in its load factor, while Aer Lingus posted a fall in passengers but an uptick in its load factor in the month. easyJet said it carried 4 million passengers in January 2015, flat year-on-year, while its load factor fell by 0.3 percentage point to 85.1% from 85.4%. Aer Lingus' said it carried 546,000 passengers in January, down 4.5% from the 572,000 carried a year earlier. But its load factor in the month was up by 2.4 percentage points to 68.9% from 66.5%.
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Catering company Compass Group said it made a strong start to its new financial year, citing like-for-like revenue growth, with modest pricing and sales volume improvements in its first quarter. The company said organic revenue grew by 5.7% in the three months to end-December, whilst it also improved its operating margin.
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The UK's Groceries Code Adjudicator said it has launched an investigation into Tesco, after concluding it had sufficient reason to suspect the retailer has breached the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. The adjudicator, Christine Tacon, said she had made the decision to launch an investigation after considering information submitted regarding practices associated with Tesco's profit overstatement in September 2014. Tacon has discussed the practices with Tesco and now needs further information from direct suppliers and others in order to decide what action to take.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Premier Farnell said it expects to report an increase in sales for its full financial year on the back of higher sales in the fourth quarter, but said its operating margin has come under pressure. The group said its average sales per day for the year to February 1 rose 3.3% overall. Sales in the second half rose by the same amount, with third quarter sales up 2.7% but fourth quarter sales increasing 4.4%.
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Specialist insurer Beazley reported a 16% drop in pretax profit in 2014, citing reserve releases lower than its five-year average and higher foreign exchange losses due to the strength of its US dollar reporting currency, compared to currencies it uses in operations and to pay staff. Beazley increased its dividend for the year to 9.3 pence from 8.8 pence, though its special dividend to shareholders was lowered to 11.8 pence from 16.1 pence for the prior year. In a statement, Beazley said it made a USD261.9 pretax profit in 2014, compared with USD313.3 million in the prior year, as revenue grew by 4% to USD1.77 billion and expenses swelled by 11% to USD1.49 billion.
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UK pub operator Enterprise Inns said it maintained the "positive momentum" of its previous financial year into the first 18 weeks of its new financial year, reporting like-for-like net income growth for its leased and tenanted estate of 0.3%. However, that growth is slightly lower than the 0.5% like-for-like net income it reported for the fourth quarter of its financial year that ended in September, with Enterprise Inns citing a softening in beer volumes during January.
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Residential property group Grainger reported a rise in sales prices in the first four months of its financial year, albeit slower than a year earlier, and said it has taken a hit from adverse mark-to-market moves in derivatives. Grainger said its average sale price achieve in the fourth months to the end of January was up 3.9% against September 2014 vacant possession value. The rise is slower than for the same period last year, when its reported a 7.1% rise in its average sales value for the four months to the end of January 2014.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Dairy food products business Dairy Crest Group said its cheese and spreads business continued to perform "robustly" in the first nine months of its financial year, while its dairies business continued to make losses. In a trading update, the group said sales of its four key brands - Cathedral City cheese, FRijj milkshake, and Country Life and Clover spreads - were flat over the nine months to end-December compared with the previous year, as growth in some brands were offset by others.
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The UK government said it will sell a stake in Greencoat UK Wind, saying it was an appropriate time to sell given that the renewable energy infrastructure private sector was now established. In a statement, Barclays said the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will place at least 40 million Greencoat shares at between 103 and 105 pence a share through an accelerated bookbuild, meaning the sale will be done quickly with little or no marketing. The sale is expected to be over by midday Friday. Barclays and RBC Capital Markets are acting as joint bookrunners on the share sale, with Winterflood Securities also working on the deal.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Telecom giant Verizon Communications is close to selling a package of wireline assets to regional telecommunications company Frontier Communications for around USD10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal could be announced this week. The transaction is said to be the largest so far for Frontier. It also is likely to be one of the largest in the US so far in 2015.
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US office supply company Staples announced plans to buy competitor Office Depot and merge into a single retail chain. After five months of negotiations, Staples will purchase Office Depot for USD6.3 billion. Office Depot shareholders will receive USD7.25 per share, and Staples expects to reduce annual costs by USD1 billion, it said. With increased office supply competition from online retailer Amazon and large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, Staples hopes the merger will help the company stay competitive.
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French lender BNP Paribas reported a sharp surge in fourth-quarter 2014 net income attributable to equity holders to EUR1.3 billion from EUR110 million euros last year. Excluding the impact of one-off items, net income amounted to EUR1.785 billion for the recent period. Quarterly pre-tax income totalled EUR1.89 billion, versus EUR761 million in the fourth quarter 2013. Excluding one-off items, it was up 17.5% year-over-year.
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French drugmaker Sanofi said fourth-quarter attributable net income grew to EUR1.339 billion from EUR1.060 billion in the previous year. Sanofi generated sales of EUR9.072 billion, up 7.3% from EUR8.457 billion in the prior year. The increase in constant currency was 4.6%.
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Swiss engineering firm ABB said fourth-quarter net income climbed to USD680 million from USD525 million reported last year. Revenue fell to USD10.346 billion from last year's USD11.373 billion. Orders declined to USD9.365 billion from USD10.003 billion in the prior year. Analysts expected revenue of USD10.80 billion.
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German reinsurer Munich Re reported lower fourth-quarter 2014 profit attributable to equity holders of EUR0.7 billion, compared with EUR1.2 billion last year, according to provisional calculations. Gross premiums written decreased to EUR12.0 billion from EUR12.5 billion a year earlier.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Enterprise Inns
Compass Group
Patisserie Holdings
Frontera Resources
Sunrise Resources
Dunedin Smaller Companies Investment Trust
GW Pharmaceuticals
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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