Member Info for jange

RGI International, developer of residential and commercial properties in Moscow, said trading for the fourth quarter and full year was in line with management's expectations. The company reported sales growth, driven by the success of residential project V Lesu. RGI sold 135 apartments at the development, compared to 91 the previous year. It brings the total sold for the first phase of the project to 715, representing 57% of the whole. Strong sales at V Lesu enabled RGI to repay the final instalment on its bonds of $9.6m in November and reduce its overall debt.

The contracts are for a regional express service between Rheine-Munster-Cologne-Krefeld and a Bonn-Cologne-Wuppertal stopping service.

National Express Group has been selected to operate two 15 year regional commuter rail contracts in Germany, serving cities including Cologne and Bonn. The company will start operating the contract in December 2015, after first procuring 36 new electric trains on behalf of the local authorities. The contracts will generate revenues of around 1.6bn euros for the 15 years as a whole. Dean Finch, National Express Group Chief Executive said: "National Express is delighted to have been selected to run these two German commuter rail contracts. I'm particularly pleased that our success in running the UK's best performing franchise has been recognised by the German authorities. We look forward to maintaining these high standards and serving the people of North Rhine-Westphalia for many years to come."

"We continue to work on bringing increased stability to our processes through operational improvements to ensure we can capitalise on this world-class resource." Collahuasi, located in the Región of Tarapacá, produced 284,000 tonnes of fine copper in 2012. The remaining stake in Collahuasi is owned by a Japanese consortium headed by Mitsui.

Diversified mining groups Anglo American and Xstrata have highlighted the potential of their joint-owned copper mine in Chile after announcing that the project's resources estimate has been hiked by almost a fifth. The Collahuasi mine, in which the companies own a 44% interest each, has raised its new measured, indicated and inferred resource estimate by 1.4bn tonnes, or 19%, to over 9.0bn tonnes, compared with the previous estimate published in December 2011. The new estimates are at an average grade of 0.81% copper and 0.02% of molybdenum. Meanwhile, total contained copper metal has increased by 23% to around 73m tonnes. Ore reserves have risen 292m tonnes to 3.2bn tonnes (up 10%) at an average grade of 0.81% copper. "This impressive uplift in our mineral resource base at Collahuasi clearly indicates the significant potential for further expansion at Collahuasi," said Collahuasi's Chief Executive Officer Jorge Gomez.

"We are confident that our customer focused strategy is driving performance and based on current trading we expect to be towards the top end of our roadmap guidance of 7.0 to 10% underlying operating profit growth for the 2013 financial year."

Demand for the Nordic market buoyantOutperformance was reported in the UK and Nordic markets with unique holiday bookings in the UK, Nordics and Germany increasing by 15%, 10% and 6.0% year-on-year respectively for Summer 2013. Direct distribution sales in the UK and Nordics for Summer 2013 were valued at 90% and 85% respectively, with online sales accounting for 37% and 65% respectively. Peter Long, Chief Executive of TUI Travel, said: "We are pleased to report that our strong trading momentum has continued with particularly encouraging growth in the UK and Nordics. Our leading position in the UK has further benefited from increased market share as a result of higher demand for our unique holidays. Across all our key markets demand for the overseas holiday remains strong, despite the overall economic environment.

FTSE 100 listed leisure travel company TUI Travel has reported an operating loss of 93m pounds in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, 15 per cent less than the loss recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier. A financial update issued by the company showed that the operating loss had contracted to £93m from £109m in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2012, representing the three months to December 31st. The company reported continued growth in UK cumulative market shares with Summer 2013 up 4.0% and the January booking period up 2.0%, gaining on the 7.0% increase in the same period last year.

"With 82% of the full year target now secure, the board expects to achieve volume growth of around 5% in the current financial year, assuming reservations over the spring selling season follow their usual upward trend," said Bellway. "The group is therefore well placed to deliver further growth in profit and shareholder return through its continuing strategy of growth in volume, average selling price and operating margin."

Housebuilder Bellway reported an increase in completed home sales and average selling price and said it is well placed to deliver further growth in profit. The group completed the sale of 2,597 homes the six months ended January 31st 2013 compared to 2,455 the same time a year earlier. The average selling price of homes sold increased by 2.3% to £187,000, following changes in product and geographic mix. Bellway said it expects that the average selling price will continue its upward trend for the remainder of this financial year. Operating margins continue to improve, mostly due to the increasing proportion of completions from higher margin land, acquired since the downturn. As a result, operating margins are expected to exceed 12.5% for the first six months of the year versus 10.1% before and will continue to improve throughout the rest of the financial year. The house builder said demand for new homes remains resilient, with an average of 97 reservations per week since August 1st, up from 89 in 2012. The order book at January 31st 2013 stood at 2,467 units compared to 2,359 in 2012, representing a value of £453m.

Net cash at the year end dropped from €137.3m to €51.9m over the 12 months. In the year-to-date, average daily revenue for the first 36 days of 2013 is up over 9.0% on the first quarter of 2012 and flat on the final quarter of 2012.

"The company achieved robust organic growth and benefited from innovative cross-selling initiatives with several major licensees. Playtech's new product and licensee launches, together with the launch of slots in Italy, have exceeded expectations and build further on the Company's solid growth platform. "I am also pleased to announce that our joint venture with Gauselmann has been awarded licenses by Schleswig Holstein for online casino and sports betting. "As a result of the impressive performance in Q4 and since the beginning of the year, the board is very comfortable with market expectations for the full year and looks forward to 2013 with confidence."

Online gaming software company Playtech posted a 20 per cent leap in total revenues for the three months ended December 31st, boosted in particular by improvements in both Casino and Services income. Quarterly revenues of €83.9m, up from €69.6m the same period the previous year, contributed to a 53% increase in total full year revenues of €317.5m, compared to €207.5m in 2011. Gross income for the year rose 51% to €368.1m (2011: €243.6m), while on a quarterly basis it climbed 26% to €98.8m, from €78.4m the same period in 2011. Divisionally, quarterly revenue from the Casino business rose 27% year-on-year, Services 17%, and Bingo 14%, while Poker revenues dropped 27% and Videobet was stable at €2.7m. William Hill Online, to which Playtech is a major supplier, delivered its largest quarterly contribution to the company since inception, marking a third consecutive year of double-digit growth. Playtech's Chief Executive Officer, Mor Weizer, said: "Playtech has again delivered an exceptional fourth quarter performance enhanced by WHO's record quarterly profit and the significant growth in software revenues with Casino, Services and Bingo demonstrating double-digit increases.

Andrew Horton, Chief Executive Officer of Beazley, said: "Beazley performed very strongly in 2012, delivering double digit premium growth and record profits. We continue to add new products and lines of business to our diversified portfolio and see further opportunities to grow profitably in the year ahead." He added: "Today's announcement of a special dividend, a debt buyback and plans for a further retail bond demonstrate our continued active approach to capital management. Our focus is on generating value for shareholders while maintaining our financial strength and flexibility."

FTSE 250-listed specialist insurance provider Beazley has reported a 300.6 per cent rise in pre-tax profit for the year ending December 31st, according to an interim management statement issued by the company on Thursday. The company, which insures athletes, crews of ships and aircraft, reported that profit before tax had risen to $251.2m compared to $62.7m in the previous year. Return on equity rose 13 percentage points to 19% and gross written premiums jumped 11% to $1,895.9m. Net written premiums climbed 12% to $1,542.7m and the company announced a second interim dividend of 5.6p, taking total dividends for the year to 8.3p, up 5.0%, plus a special dividend of 8.4p. Beazley also stated that it was considering a second retail bond for up to £75m.

The sale of its French branded spreads business St Hubert strengthened Dairy Crest's financial position. The cash from the transaction will be used to supplement growth and make targeted acquisitions in the future. Mark Allen, Chief Executive of Dairy Crest, said: "Dairy Crest has delivered a solid performance in the third quarter. "The sale of St Hubert has significantly strengthened Dairy Crest's financial position, and has provided a strong foundation for the future. We still hope to use some of the proceeds to supplement the organic growth that our brands continue to deliver, but we are determined that any acquisition must deliver strong returns for shareholders. "We do not currently anticipate that any significant acquisition will be made in the near future, and accordingly we have identified a number of internal capital projects to support the continue

Dairy Crest continued to milk revenues in the third quarter despite a challenging market environment and production setbacks. The UK dairy foods company said it was trading in line with expectations with sales volumes up 4.0% across its key brands Cathedral City, Country Life, Clover and FRijj for the last nine months of 2012. However, it represents a slowdown from the double digit increases seen in the first six months of the year. The company blamed tougher comparatives it has been trading against in the quarter. "This year has been a tough one for dairy farmers with poor weather and high animal feed costs making production difficult and expensive," Dairy Crest said in a statement. "With the support of our customers we have paid more to our farmers to help them overcome the challenges they have faced, and to encourage them to continue to provide us with high quality British milk." The FTSE 250 group added it was on track to delivering savings around £23m this year, aided by strong performance from new products launched in recent years.

However, activity levels last month improved, with electronic broker volumes up 17% year-on-year. The improvement was sparked by the 'fiscal cliff' resolution in the US, early repayment of loans by banks to the European Central Bank, and an increase in volatility in core currency pairs at EBS, ICAP's electronic FX platform. "While December was even slower than expected, we've seen a marked improvement in trading volumes since the beginning of January across our entire business, although it is premature to tell if this is the start of a more sustained upturn," said Chief Executive Officer Michael Spencer. "We remain well positioned for the opportunities that regulatory changes in the market landscape will bring. The push towards more electronic trading and risk mitigation of OTC derivatives plays to our strengths as we have invested in developing the services and technology that our customers will need to meet the new regulatory requirements."

Interdealer broker ICAP saw shares slip into the red on Thursday after revealing that revenues and volumes declined in the third quarter as a result of 'challenging' conditions. However, with activity picking up in January, the company said it remains on track to deliver a full-year pre-tax profit within current market forecasts of £280-305m. As highlighted in its first-half report in November, trading during the final three months of 2012 was tough with a "pronounced slowdown" in Global Broking volumes in December. Group revenues fell 13% year-on-year with total average daily volumes on ICAP's electronic foreign exchange and fixed income platforms, EBS and BrokerTec down 9.0% at $664bn. The firm said that Global Broking activity levels were affected by the "ongoing economic, monetary and regulatory uncertainty, which further exacerbated the traditional year-end slowdown".

AIM-listed Cameroon-focused iron ore explorer Afferro Mining saw its shares slide sharply on Thursday morning after it issued an update on its disussions with potential strategic partners. The group is currently engaged in on-going negotiations regarding a potential offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company or the option to form a strategic partnership to further develop the Nkout iron ore project. Afferro reoprted that talks with International Mining and Infrastructure Corporation plc. as well as those with potential strategic partners were progressing. However, negotiations with Jindal Steel and Power Limited had been terminated, the company reported, saying that Jindal's indicative offer fundamentally undervalued the company's quality, strategically located portfolio of iron ore projects in Cameroon and strong balance sheet. The group statement said: "Whilst the company has received approaches from a number of interested parties, there can be no certainty that a formal offer will be forthcoming."