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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Housebuilder Barratt Developments poached William Hill's Finance Director Neil Cooper as its new chief financial officer, although it isn't clear when he will make the transition. Barratt Developments said Cooper will join once he's filled "his contractual obligations to his existing employer". Betting operator William Hill said he has a 12 month notice period "but his actual departure date will be confirmed in due course. In the meantime, Neil will continue with his existing responsibilities". William Hill is now starting to search for a successor to Cooper.
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Media buying giant WPP said its GroupM unit has bought digital media and marketing services company Greenhouse Group in the Netherlands. It didn't provide any financial details about the transaction.
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Poundland Group reported a rise in profit in its recently-ended financial year as sales broke through the GBP1 billion mark for the first time. But the discount retailer saw its shares fall, as its profit slightly missed analyst expectations, it revealed slower growth in the first quarter of its current financial year compared with the prior year, and it said consensus figures for full-year profit will be lowered. The discount retailer reported a pretax profit in the year to March 29 of GBP36.2 million, a rise of more than half the GBP21.5 million made the year before. However, the underlying pretax profit of GBP43.7 million was lower than the analyst forecast of GBP44.0 million.
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Playtech unveiled plans for a GBP250 million equity fundraising, with the sale of new shares in the gambling and financial trading company to fund the proposed purchase of Plus500 and other acquisitions. In a statement, Playtech said it is placing up to 29.1 million new shares with investors through an accelerated bookbuild, with the pricing of the shares yet to be determined. The shares equate to 9.9% of the company's existing shares in issue. Brickington, the company's largest shareholder, wants to take up about one-third of the placing so it can maintain its 33.6% stake in the company.
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Premier Farnell said sales per day grew 5.4% in the first quarter of its financial year, with most of the growth driven by further strong demand for the Raspberry Pi single board computers, but it warned that it is continuing to battle adverse exchange rate movements, particularly the weakness of the euro. The electronics distributor said sales per day rose 5.9% in Europe, 2.2% in the Americas, and 16.2% in Asia Pacific between February 2 and May 3.
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John Wood Group said it has been awarded an offshore maintain potential programme contract by Saudi Aramco for greenfield and brownfield engineering services, procurement, and construction management support for new facilities in the Arabian Gulf. It did not give any financial details about the contract, but said it is a six-year deal with the option for two three-year renewals.
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MARKETS
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London stock indices trade lower as investors await developments from the latest Eurogroup meeting on Greece and continue to digest the details from the US Federal Reserve's policy announcement on Wednesday evening.
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FTSE 100: down 0.8% at 6,627.25
FTSE 250: down 1.0% at 17,53.26
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.6% at 761.29
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The pound hit its highest level against the greenback this year, boosted by an unexpected rise in UK retail sales and benefiting from dollar weakness after the US Federal Reserve trimmed growth forecasts for 2015.
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GBP: up at USD1.5909
EUR: up at USD1.1406

GOLD: up at USD1197.90 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD64.71 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament that an agreement between Greece and its creditors was still possible, striking a conciliatory tone ahead of a make-or-break meeting in Luxembourg. "I am still convinced - where there is a will, there is a way," Merkel told the Bundestag. "If the people in charge in Greece muster the will, then an agreement with the three institutions is still possible," she said, referring to the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.
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Greece denied that it would impose capital controls to stop cash from draining out of its banks, hours before key bailout talks between the near-bankrupt country and eurozone finance ministers. Greek government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told the Mega television channel that there was no chance of capital controls being implemented and bank deposits are "safe." "People should be calm," Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas added in comments to state broadcaster ERT, saying there was no problem with paying pensions and wages to public-sector employees. But financial markets and observers have been rattled by a deadlock in negotiations aimed at unblocking EUR7.2 billion in bailout aid for Greece. Almost EUR30 billion have been withdrawn from Greek bank accounts in the first five months of this year, according to the country's central bank.
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UK retail sales increased unexpectedly in May, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Retail sales including auto fuel rose 0.2% in May from April when it climbed 0.9%. Nonetheless, this was the second consecutive rise in sales and came in contrast to a 0.1% fall forecast by economists. Sales excluding auto fuel also grew by 0.2% in May, following a 0.8% rise in April. Sales were up for the fourth straight month. Economists had forecast a 0.2% drop.
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UK Prime Minister David Cameron faced opposition to his bid for Britain to opt out of a duty to forge an "ever closer union" between EU nations, ahead of talks with European Parliament President Martin Schulz and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. Schulz said there was little chance of Cameron succeeding in changing the requirement under the Lisbon Treaty to build ever closer ties, citing a "more or less unanimous" view among leaders of other EU nations.
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Despite a modest improvement in the US economic outlook, the Federal Reserve offered no explicit guidance indicating that it will soon raise interest rates from zero. As expected, the Fed kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged near zero, where it has been since 2008. Many market watchers thought the Fed would lay further groundwork for a rate hike as soon as September, but policy makers remain reluctant to tip their hand even though economic activity seems to be picking up after a second consecutive rough winter. Only 2 of 17 Fed officials want to wait until 2016 to hike, but the decision to hold off for now was unanimous. A September rate hike is by no means off the table, as the Fed's "dot plot" confirms most members want to see two modest rate hikes before year's end.
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The White House warned that plans by Russian President Vladimir Putin to add at least 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year were an "escalation" of Russian "sabre rattling" over Ukraine. Spokesman Josh Earnest called the escalation "unnecessary and not constructive." The US is willing to uphold its commitments to the collective defence of NATO allies with action, he said. "We continue to be concerned by sabre rattling that does nothing to de-escalate conflict in that region of the world, and it's why we continue to take very seriously our Article V commitments under the NATO treaty, and continue to take steps that we believe are necessary to prepare for the collective defence of the US and our allies," he said.
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Controversial election reforms were voted down by legislators in Hong Kong after the bill triggered the biggest unrest in years in the Chinese territory. Just 36 legislators voted, with eight voting in favour of the reform package and 28 voting against, according to reports. The Beijing-backed reforms needed at least a two-thirds majority to pass. About 30 pro-establishment lawmakers walked out of the Legislative Council chamber less than a minute ahead of the vote, South China Morning Post reported. The reform would have allowed the direct election of the city's next chief executive, but from a list of candidates pre-approved by Beijing. The pan-democrats want publicly nominated candidates.
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China invested more than CNY278.4 billion in overseas markets in the first five months of 2015, China's Ministry of Commerce said. China's outbound direct investment surged 47.4% during the period and covered 3,426 overseas-based companies across 146 countries and regions, the ministry said. Meanwhile the latest data showed foreign direct investment into China increased at a slower rate of 11.1% year on year in the first four months of 2015, settling at CNY273.61 billion.
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China will increase its targets for cutting carbon emissions ahead of a key UN climate change conference later this year, media reports said. In 2009, China pledged to cut emissions by 40 to 45% per unit of economic growth within a decade, and the new target would be even more aggressive, the South China Morning Post reported. The new target would cover up to 2030, and officials said details could be released later this week, the report said.
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A top World Health Organization (WHO) official said the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS outbreak in South Korea is "the largest outbreak that has occurred outside of the Middle East," and as of today, there have been 162 cases of infections in the country, where 19 deaths have been officially reported. WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Keiji Fukuda, who took part in a WHO-South Korea joint mission to look into the current situation in the country, was speaking at a press conference in Geneva following the meeting of the Emergency Committee.
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The 10-dollar bill will be the first US paper money to bear the face of a woman, the Treasury said. "The new USD10 will feature a notable woman," it said, calling on members of the public to make suggestions. She will replace Alexander Hamilton, one of the US founding fathers, an aide to George Washington, and the first Secretary of the Treasury. He also led the establishment of a national bank.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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