TOP NEWS SUMMARY: M&S Boss Bolland To Retire Amid Poor Christmas Sales

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Marks & Spencer Group said Chief Executive Marc Bolland will retire from his role this year as it reported a fall in group sales in the third quarter of its financial year, as a poor performance from its general merchandise division offset growth in the food division. The retailer said Bolland, who has been at the helm for six years, will step down in April after the close of the group's current financial year. He will be replaced by Steve Rowe, the executive director of the company's General Merchandise business, covering its clothing and homewares. The news came as M&S said group sales in the 13 weeks to December 26 fell 0.4% year-on-year, remaining flat at a constant currency basis, as food sales rose 3.7% but general merchandise dropped 5.0%. On a like-for-like basis, food grew 0.4% and general merchandise declined 5.8%.
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The former chief executive of Tesco is understood to be considering leading a potential takeover offer for Home Retail Group to rival the interest in the business shown by J Sainsbury, The Times reported. Terry Leahy, who stepped down from the helm of Tesco in 2011 having led its transformation into one of the biggest retailers in the world, is thought to be working with private equity investor Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, to which he is a consultant, on a bid for the owner of Argos and Homebase.
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The UK Financial Conduct Authority is investigating traders at Lloyds Banking Group over possible manipulation of the British government-bond market, the Wall Street Journal reported after the close on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Part of the probe is considering whether the traders in question tried to boost their profits by driving down the prices that the British bonds, known as gilts, were able to achieve in government auctions or by artificially raising prices when they were sold on to other investors.
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Low-cost airline easyJet said its passenger traffic rose in December but its load factor was dragged lower by the effects of the Paris terror attacks, though no such problems were reported by rival Ryanair Holdings, which saw its traffic and load factor both improve. easyJet said it carried 4.8 million passengers in December, compared to 4.6 million a year earlier, up 4.6%. But easyJet said its load factor in the month declined to 86.6% from 88.4%. Irish carrier Ryanair, however, said its customer traffic in the month rose 25% year-on-year to 7.5 million, up from 6.0 million, while its load factor improved to 91.0% from 88.0%.

easyJet also said it will embark on a roadshow with wholesale debt investors, ahead of what could be the budget airline's first ever issue of bonds, through the sale of euro medium term notes. The carrier said the roadshow will begin on Tuesday next week, with an potential bond programme depending on market conditions.
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Persimmon got the trading update season for the housebuilding industry off to a positive start, hailing a year when it sold more homes at higher prices and saying its pretax profit is set to rise substantially thanks to the margin improvement which accompanied stronger revenue. The housebuilding industry enjoyed a very strong 2015, buoyed by a chronic displacement in the supply-demand dynamics of the sector. With housing supply now substantially outstripped by buyer demand and a number of policies put in place by first the coalition government and now the Conservatives to drive up home ownership, prices have been pushed higher and have not risen to the point where demand has been hampered.
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BP late on Wednesday said it has agreed to sell its petrochemical complex in Decatur, in the US state of Alabama, to Thai petrochemicals group Indorama Ventures. BP said the sale will allow it to focus on its own technologies within its petrochemicals business, including the production of purified terephthalic acid, which is used in manufacturing polyester. Indorama will buy the complex, including working capital and related infrastructure, and will assume contracts currently in place with suppliers and customers. No financial details were disclosed. BP also is set to spend USD200.0 million upgrading its Cooper River plant and its sister facility in Geel in Belgium, the largest PTA-producing sites in the Americas and Europe, respectively.
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Poundland Group said it expects its pretax profit for the year to March to be at the lower-end of market expectations, as some of the sluggish trading seen in the first half of its current financial year continued into the third quarter. The single-price retailer said total sales in the third quarter, covering the 13 weeks to December 27, rose 29%, with revenue growth coming from its current Poundland stores but with the majority of this attributable to the 99p Stores outlets added to its estate following the acquisition of its rival last year. Of constant-currency sales growth of 30%, excluding Spain, 99p Stores contributed 21 points, while 99p Stores converted into Poundland stores added a further 3 points.
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Property developer Great Portland Estates said it has swapped two London buildings with German property group Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH, including one currently occupied by financial news and information company Bloomberg. The FTSE 250-listed company said it has sold 33 Margaret Street in central London to Deka for GBP216.3 million. In a separate transaction, Great Portland bought 50 Finsbury Square in the City of London for GBP119.0 million from Deka. The building offers 126,500 square feet of office space and is currently let to Bloomberg for GBP5.7 million a year.
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Centamin said production for 2016 from its Sukari gold mine in Egypt is forecast to be higher than levels seen in 2015. In a statement, the gold miner said it expects 2016 production from Sukari to amount to 470,000 ounces at a cash operating cost of USD680 per ounce and all-in-sustaining cost of USD900 per ounce. Centamin said that would equate to a 7.0% increase on 2015 production and a reduction on 2015 cost guidance of USD700 per ounce cash operating cost and USD950 per ounce all-in-sustaining cost.
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Rathbone Brothers said it will "more frequently" review the "timing and priority" of its projects as long as financial markets remain "subdued", although the British wealth manager committed itself to pursuing its growth objectives. Despite subdued financial markets, Rathbone Brothers said it still has an "appetite" for acquisitions, and views 2016 with "cautious optimism". Rathbone said its total funds under management amounted to GBP29.2 billion at the end of 2015, up 5.8% from the GBP27.6 billion recorded three months earlier and up 7.4% from the GBP27.2 billion seen at the end of 2014.
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MARKETS
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UK indices were trading firmly in the red after China's central bank set a weaker reference rate for the yuan, which sent Asian markets and London's miners and other China-exposed stocks tumbling. Oil fell to a fresh low of USD32.10 a barrel. Wall Street pointed to a lower open.
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FTSE 100: down 2.6% at 5,914.05
FTSE 250: down 2.1% at 16.703.05
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 1.4% at 723.83

GBP: down at USD1.4567 (USD1.4620)
EUR: up at USD1.0846 (USD1.0759)

GOLD: up at USD1,095.67 per ounce (USD1,090.80)
OIL (Brent): down at USD33.45 a barrel (USD34.59)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK house prices increased at a faster than expected pace in December, data published by Lloyds Banking Group's Halifax division showed. House prices climbed 1.7% in December from November when they remained flat. Economists had forecast only 0.5% rise. On a yearly basis, house prices advanced 9.5% in the quarter ended December compared to a 9% rise in three months to November. The annual growth was expected to remain at 9%.
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UK car sales hit a record-high in 2015 on improving consumer confidence and attractive finance deals, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said. Car registrations rose 6.3% to 2.63 million units, exceeding forecast and outperforming the last record year in 2003 when 2.57 million new cars left the showrooms. This was only the fourth time that the UK market has surpassed 2.5 million vehicle sales in a full year, the agency said.
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Trading was halted for the day on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges after a steep drop in prices triggered an automatic "circuit breaker" for the second time this week. Prices on the CSI 300 Index plummeted more than 7% in the first 30 minutes of trading following a further devaluation of the Chinese currency, the yuan, which hit its weakest level in nearly five years, official data showed. The CSI 300 comprises the 300 largest firms listed on the mainland.
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Many policy makers were reluctant to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade, according to the minutes of the December 15-16 Federal Reserve meeting. It was a "close call" for some officials, but ultimately the FOMC voted unanimously to hike interest rates from zero. As expected, there was "significant concern about still-low readings on actual inflation and the uncertainty and risks present in the inflation outlook." Collapsing energy prices have kept inflation in check, but Fed members predicted these effects will prove temporary.
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The World Bank trimmed its global growth outlook, citing anemic recovery in major emerging markets, although it suggested that overall growth will improve from last year, underpinned by advanced economies. Global economic growth is forecast to be 2.9% this year, instead of the 3.3% projected in June, the Washington-based lender said in its bi-annual Global Economic Prospects. At an estimated 2.4%, global growth was weaker than expected in 2015 due to falling commodity prices, flagging trade and capital flows and episodes of financial volatility.
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Germany's retail sales rose less-than-expected in November as the pace of growth slowed for a second straight month, preliminary data from Destatis showed. Retail sales grew 2.3% year-on-year following a 2.5% gain in October, revised from 2.1%. Economists had forecast 3.7% increase.
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Germany's factory orders grew more than expected in November despite a fall in demand from the euro area, provisional data from Destatis revealed. Manufacturing new orders grew 1.5% in November from the prior month, bigger than an expected growth of 0.1%. Nonetheless, monthly growth eased from October's revised 1.7% increase.
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The US said it had an "ironclad commitment" to the defence of South Korea, and both countries threatened North Korea with consequences after Pyongyang said it had carried out its fourth nuclear test. "Any such test...is both a flagrant violation of international law and a threat to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the entire Asia-Pacific region," US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his South Korean counterpart Han Min Koo said after speaking by phone. The US guarantees South Korea's security under its nuclear umbrella, and has 28,500 soldiers stationed in the country.
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US Congress took another stab rolling back President Barack Obama's namesake healthcare programme, sending legislation to repeal the so-called Obamacare to the president's desk. Conservative Republicans, who hold majorities in both the Senate and the lower House of Representatives, have tried many other ways to kill the ground-breaking 2010 healthcare law, but this is the first time opposition legislators have sent a repeal to the president's desk. The measure, which Obama has vowed to veto, would repeal most of the officially named Affordable Care Act and strip federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a women's health care provider.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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