UK MIDDAY BRIEFING: Aviva Sells Stake In South Korean Venture

LONDON (Alliance News) - Aviva has Monday agreed to sell its 47% stake in its South Korean joint venture Woori Aviva Life Insurance to NongHyup Financial Group, as it continues to contract in the region and focus on markets where it can make the best returns on capital.

"Aviva has a strong presence in China and South East Asia, which are key future cash generators for the group. This deal provides further focus to our Asian businesses, which increased value of new business by 65% in 2013," Chief Executive of Aviva Asia, Khor Hock Seng, said in a statement.

Aviva said the deal will have a neutral impact on its net assets and will increase economic capital surplus by GBP200.0 million, recognising the reduced exposure to interest rate and credit risk.

Woori Aviva Life Insurance is majority-owned by Woori Financial Holdings Company Ltd, which has also agreed to sell its stake to NongHyup Financial Group as part of this transaction. The sale of Woori Aviva Life Insurance is part of a broader privatisation of Woori by the South Korean government.

The business was established in 2008 following an agreement between Aviva and Woori Finance Holdings Company Ltd.

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FTSE 100: Down 0.4% at 6,537.27
FTSE 250: Down 1.7% at 15,653.59
AIM ALL-SHARE: Down 1.2% at 824.75
GBP-USD: Down at 1.6711
EUR-USD: Down at 1.3823
GOLD: Up at USD1,322.16 an ounce
OIL (Brent): Down at USD107.61 a barrel

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Key UK Corporate News

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FTSE 100: Swiss commodities trader and miner Glencore Xstrata has agreed to sell its interest in the Las Bambas copper project in Peru to a Chinese consortium including MMG Ltd., Guoxin International Investment Corp. Ltd. and CITIC Metal Co. Ltd. for USD5.85 billion in cash. GlaxoSmithKline is facing a criminal probe in Poland for allegedly paying bribes to doctors to promote its asthma drug Seretide, BBC Panorama reported. Orix Corp., a Japan-based financial services group, is considering bidding for Asia-focused lender Standard Chartered's consumer credit unit in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported.

FTSE 250: F&C Commercial Property Trust reported an increase in profit in 2013, after the previous year's results were affected by revaluation losses. Centamin Executive Director Trevor Schultz will resign and become a non-executive director from May 1.

AIM All-Share: Galantas Gold Corporation is a big gainer after the five for one consolidation of its shares became effective. Microsaic Systems is higher after the firm signed a pre-contract commercial agreement with an unnamed healthcare equipment company to market and sell its 4000 MiD mass spectrometry instrument. Richland Resources is lower after it said its directors will be taking a pay cut and it will be undertaking a strategic review of its operations, as profit at its Merelani tanzanite mine at Block C in Tanzania continues to be hit by illegal mining and smuggling operations. Pentagon Protection is down after the firm said it is in talks with several parties about providing short term financing, or other alternatives, to alleviate constraints on its working capital. Imaginatik is also another faller after it said it expects to post a widened loss for the year to end-March after it increased investment in sales and consultancy personnel and its recognised revenue was broadly flat on the previous year.

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Top Economics And General
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UK house prices rose to a record high due to the lack of property coming for sale in April, data from the property tracking website Rightmove showed. Asking prices increased at a pace of 7.3% year-on-year in April, the highest since October 2007 and takes it back to pre-credit crunch levels. This follows a 6.8% rise reported for March. The availability of mortgage finance coupled with property shortages exacerbated house prices. The monthly growth held steady at 2.6% in April.
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Pro-Russian separatists must lay down their weapons and leave the police stations and administrative buildings in eastern Ukraine they are occupying or a large-scale army operation will be launched against them, Ukraine's president said. The separatists had until 9 am (0600 GMT) to meet the demands, Turchynov said, adding that he had signed a decree promising they would not face prosecution unless they had fired upon Ukrainian security forces.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has suggested that the more than three-year-old civil war in his country is tilting in favour of his government. "There is a turning point in the Syrian crisis. Militarily, the army has made successive accomplishments in the war against terrorism," he told a gathering of students in the capital Damascus, according to Syria's official news agency SANA. While al-Assad has faced an unprecedented rebellion since 2011, his troops, backed by fighters from the allied Lebanese Shiite Movement Hezbollah, have in recent months regained opposition-held strongholds, mainly near the border with Lebanon.
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Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the head of the Constitutional Court, as tensions rise between the country's chief judicial body and the government. In a veiled reference to Hasim Kilic, the head of the court, Erdogan called for a judge who wants to get involved in politics to "take off your robe." The court this week issued a ruling overturning key parts of a controversial new law that gave the justice minister more power over the judiciary, which civil rights groups argued risked politicizing the justice system.
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Global trade is expected to expand by 4.7% this year because of positive developments in the US and the EU, World Trade Organization chief Roberto Azevedo said Monday in Geneva. Last year, trade grew by only 2.1% and reached 18.8 trillion dollars.
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More than 200 were feared killed after a major explosion rocked the outskirts of Nigerian capital Abuja, witnesses and local media said Monday. The explosion occurred at a busy public transport hub at a major road in the neighbourhood of Nyanyan, which leads to the capital's commercial centre.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

13:30 US Retail Sales
15:00 US Business Inventories
16:30 US 3-Month Bill Auction
16:30 US 6-Month Bill Auction
17:45 EU ECB Governing Council Member Noyer speech

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Tuesday's Key UK Corporate Events

JD Sports Fashion Full Year Results
Aggreko Q1 Results
Energy Assets Group Trading statement
Debenhams Half Year Results
GKN Interim Management Statement
SABMiller Q4 Trading statement
Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Trading statement
Amara Mining Full Year Results
Michael Page International Interim Management Statement
e2v technologies Trading statement
Hochschild Mining Interim Management Statement
Rio Tinto Production Report
Etalon Q1 Results
Punch Taverns Full Year Results

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

00:01 UK BRC Retail Sales Monitor
09:30 UK Core Consumer Price Index
09:30 UK Producer Price Index
09:30 UK Retail Price Index
10:00 EU Trade Balance
10:00 Germany ZEW Survey - Economic Sentiment
10:00 EU ZEW Survey - Economic Sentiment
13:30 US Consumer Price Index
13:30 US Fed's Lockhart speech
13:30 US NY Empire State Manufacturing Index
13:45 US Fed's Yellen Speech
13:55 US Redbook index
15:00 US NAHB Housing Market Index
21:00 US Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Rosengren Speech
21:00 US Philadelphia Fed's Plosser speech

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

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