(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Vodafone said it has agreed to sell its Malta unit to Monaco Telecom. The sale will be processed through the telecommunications firm's subsidiary Vodafone Europe, with a cash consideration payable for Malta operations equivalent to an enterprise value of EUR250 million. For the financial year ended March 31, Vodafone Malta generated EUR82 million of revenue, and EUR32 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Following completion of the transaction, Vodafone Malta will continue to operate under the Vodafone brand for a transitional period, the company noted.
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Royal Bank Of Scotland Group said it has appointed RBS Treasurer Robert Begbie as interim chief executive officer of the bank's investment arm Natwest Markets. He will replace Chris Marks, who is stepping down from his role after three years since 2016, but will remain with the group until June 2020 to assist with an orderly transition. RBS Treasury Finance Director Robert Horrocks will be appointed as interim chief financial officer of Natwest Markets. He will replace Richard Place, who will leave the group on March 2020, after four years in the role since 2015. Begbie has been treasurer at RBS for two years since 2017. Horrocks has been the finance director at the RBS Treasury for the same period of time. RBS Head of Treasury Markets Donal Quaid, has been appointed as interim RBS Treasurer. RBS said it has started an internal and external search for permanent replacements for Marks and Place.
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Endeavour Mining urged Centamin to extend its takeover offer deadline, as the two struggle to come up with a pathway for a possible merger. Canadian miner Endeavour has accused Centamin of being unwilling to "explore meaningfully" the benefits of a merger. Endeavour has until December 31 to decide whether to make a firm offer for Centamin. Endeavour at the start of December proposed a deal in which Centamin shareholders would get 0.0846 of an Endeavour share per Centamin share held, giving Centamin shareholders 47% of a combined company and valuing Centamin at GBP1.47 billion. Endeavour said it will not make a full offer until proper due diligence is done, which is not possible before December 31. Thursday's announcement comes after Centamin on Wednesday said it was "disappointed" with Endeavour's behaviour.
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Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday downgraded Boeing's ratings and changed its outlook to stable from negative due to the ongoing 737 MAX jet grounding saga. The ratings agency downgraded Chicago-headquartered Boeing's senior unsecured debt to A3 from A2 and downgraded its short-term debt to Prime-2 from Prime-1.
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MARKETS
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London stocks were subdued on Thursday, with investors eyeing the Bank of England's latest monetary policy decision and the Queen's Speech due later. There was little market reaction to US President Donald Trump's impeachment, with Wall Street pointed to a broadly higher start. The Dow Jones is called up 0.1%, the S&P 500 seen slightly higher and the Nasdaq flat.
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 7,545.07
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 21,642.10
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 935.57
GBP: up at USD1.3104 (USD1.3070)
EUR: firm at USD1.1134 (USD1.1125)
GOLD: soft at USD1,474.13 per ounce (USD1,475.70)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD66.16 a barrel (USD66.12)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK retail sales in November were dramatically below forecasts, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. For the month of November alone, seasonally-adjusted sales fell by 0.6% month-on-month, though rose 1.0% year-on-year. Consensus, according to FXStreet, was for monthly growth of 0.3% and annual growth of 2.1%. In October, sales had risen 3.1% annually and were flat on a monthly basis. In the three months to November, the seasonally-adjusted volume of sales was down 0.4% when compared with the prior three months, marking the first decline since April. The Black Friday shopping event fell outside the November reporting period, which covered the four weeks to November 23, the ONS noted, though its seasonally adjusted estimates account for this shift in timing. Black Friday was on November 27 this year. The amount spent rose 1.3% year-on-year for the month of November, though was down 0.5% month-on-month.
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Hedge funds could have gained a crucial advantage over rivals by listening to a hacked audio feed of Bank of England press conferences a few seconds ahead of the broadcast feed. A Times newspaper investigation revealed a back-up communications system installed by the Bank a few years ago had been hijacked and shared with a market news service. The illegitimate use of the audio can be compared to insider trading because it gave traders a boost based on information their rivals did not have. The Bank said the audio feed had been installed in the event of a failure of the video broadcast, and had been misused by the supplier since earlier this year.
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President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power in a historic vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, setting up a Senate trial on removing him from office after three turbulent years. By a 230 to 197 vote in the Democratic-majority House, the 45th US president became just the third occupant of the White House in American history to be impeached. Trump will now stand trial in the Senate, where his Republicans hold a solid majority and are expected to exonerate him. The House vote came four months after a whistleblower accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine's president to investigate his potential White House challenger in 2020, the veteran Democrat Joe Biden. After a marathon 10-hour debate, lawmakers also voted 229-198 to approve the second article of impeachment facing Trump – for obstructing the congressional probe into his Ukraine dealings.
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China announced a list of US chemicals that will be exempted from import tariffs, just under a week after Beijing and Washington agreed a trade agreement that a dialled down tensions between the two. The world's biggest economies have exchanged blows for more than a year, on Friday announced a mini-agreement to reduce some levies in a bruising trade war that has dragged on global growth. Beijing released a list Thursday of products that will no longer be subject to the tariffs, including certain types of industrial glue and adhesives, industrial polymers and types of paraffin, which can be found in cosmetics and food. The exemptions will come into force from December 26 until December 25 next year, according to a statement from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.
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Japan's central bank decided to keep its ultra-loose monetary policy to overcome deflation and prop up the nation's economy despite signs of a slowing economy after a consumption tax hike. The central bank decided to maintain the short-term interest rate at minus 0.1% and the long-term interest rates at around zero per cent, it said after a two-day monetary policy meeting. The bank will also continue large-scale asset purchases, it said in a statement. Aggressive monetary easing measures were introduced in April 2013 as the bank aimed to reach its 2% inflation target within two years. Consumer prices rose 0.4% year-on-year in October and the reading was still far off the bank's target.
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