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Mansion tax could come in at £25,000 a year: More than half the homes that would be liable to pay Ed Miliband’s proposed mansion tax would have to stump up almost £25,000 a year, according to a property consultancy.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.25% or $0.14 higher at $57.22 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract declined 0.8% or $0.46, to settle at $57.08 per barrel, as concerns of an oil supply glut were intensified following an official report from the Energy Information Administration, which revealed that weekly US crude oil inventories increased for the ninth straight week.

Ben van Beurden, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, has become the best paid oil chief executive in the country. On Thursday, the oil giant published its annual report showing its CEO was awarded a total remuneration worth €24.2m (£17.2m) last year. The salary, which included a €10.7m pension contribution and a €3.3m annual bonus, placed Van Beurden among the top UK CEOs in terms of pay, just behind WPP's chief Sir Marvin Sordell. Late in January, the group said its full year earnings rose 13.7% to $19bn (£12.6bn) but van Beurden said a sharp decline in the price of crude, which has dropped 50% since June, meant Shell could not guarantee jobs in the North Sea. In response to the slump in oil prices, the company said it plans to it now plans to spend $15bn less over the next three years on developments. On Thursday, Shell shares closed up 1.71% to 1,969.02p

Relatively large sale today!!

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney signalled on Thursday he was in no rush to raise interest rates, saying the impact of sterling's rise and low global inflation could last for some time. Carney said the Bank expected to make limited and gradual increases in rates over the next three years as inflation returned to target within two years, even though it fell to 0.3 percent in January. Those comments echoed the message from the Bank's top policymakers in recent months. Carney also said BoE rate-setters should consider the risk that low foreign inflation and sterling's strength might persist. "The bottom line is that there is a risk that the combination of persistently low global inflation and the strength of sterling could weigh on prices here for some time," Carney said in a speech at a manufacturing research centre in Sheffield in northern England. He said the pace and degree of the BoE's rate hikes would be affected by factors such as foreign prices and Britain's exchange rate, as well as domestic cost pressures. British government bond prices rose in response to Carney's comments, before slipping back again. Sterling touched a seven-year high against the euro on Wednesday, although it has suffered heavy losses against the dollar recently. While the BoE would look through one-off shocks -- such as the plunge in global oil prices, "it may be appropriate to take into account persistent external deflationary forces arising from the combination of continued foreign low inflation and the protracted effects of sterling's strength on the prices facing UK consumers if those forces were to intensify," Carney said.

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline has decided to take profits in Aspen Pharmacare by halving its stake in the South African drugmaker, following a long investment in the firm. The sale will be conducted through a share placing at a discount to the market price, which is expected to raise around $890 million. Britain's biggest drugmaker said on Thursday it would remain a 6.2 percent shareholder in Aspen and it had undertaken not to sell any more shares in the South African group for 180 days. A source familiar with the matter said a price range of 365 to 385 rand per share had been set for the placement, representing a discount of 5.3 to 10.2 percent to Aspen's closing price on Thursday. The share sale is being run by Citi and UBS. Simon Dingemans, GSK's chief financial officer, said the disposal would help give his company flexibility to invest in new opportunities in the wake of a $20 billion-plus asset swap transaction with Novartis. "As we continue to reshape the group around our core franchises and drive the benefits from the Novartis transaction, optimising our financial flexibility to invest behind these priorities is key," he said in a statement. "As a result we have decided now is the right time to realise further value from this successful relationship. We continue to believe in the strategy of Aspen and we remain committed to working together in the future." GSK said that the net profit on the disposal would not be included in core operating profit and core earnings in 2015, and GSK would no longer account for Aspen as an associate. (Reporting by Freya Berry, Vikram Subhedar and Ben Hirschler; Editing by Pamela Barbaglia, Greg Mahlich)

Antofagasta has reached an agreement with locals to resolve two-week-long protests that have affected production at its flagship Los Pelambres copper project in Chile. The company expected normal operations to be resumed in the coming days, though admitted that the industrial action resulted in 8,000 tonnes of lost production. Antofagasta "will work to mitigate this impact over the rest of the year", it said.

The latest North Sea oil inventory revenue data has revealed that Scotland may face a £6.6bn shortfall in the next 12 months after oil prices plummeted to $50 a barrel in 2014, wrote The Guardian.

Centaur back in profit after restructuring: Shares in publishing group Centaur Media fell by 2.58%, despite the company posting a return to profit in 2014.

Countrywide to back tech hub: Countrywide, the U.K.’s largest lettings agency group, has given £250,000 of backing to a business hub aimed at finding the next big tech startups in property.

Hyatt Hotels eyeing up purchase of luxury Grosvenor House Hotel: Hyatt Hotels is considering purchasing the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, after the landmark building was put up for sale earlier this month.

North Sea deal still in limbo: The Russian billionaire at odds with the U.K. government over energy assets in the North Sea is still hoping to reach a deal that will allow his proposed takeover of German firm RWE Dea to go ahead.

U.S. buyer for Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie says £1.85 billion deal not about cost-cutting: The U.S. giant that is buying Wood Mackenzie has highlighted its enthusiasm for the oil and gas consultancy’s Edinburgh based operation and management and emphasised the deal is not being driven by cost cutting considerations.

Luxury homes sales to stay low until after general election, says Foxtons as mansion tax weighs heavily on rich buyers minds: Political uncertainty caused by the upcoming election and talk of a mansion tax has scared rich property buyers into delaying buying houses in central London, estate agent Foxtons said.

House prices fall in London but rise across rest of U.K., says RICS: The U.K. housing market divided sharply last month with London the only region where surveyors reported falling prices.

Number of Arab millionaires to rise despite oil price slump: Falling oil prices haven’t damaged the prospects of millionaires in the Arab world, according to the latest report by Wealth Insight.

Negative energy: Cairn Energy has been highlighting how senior Indian politicians recognise the “negative impact” of retrospective taxation on investor sentiment. Meanwhile, investors have been making their own negative impact on the oil explorer’s value after the group received a $1.6 billion tax bill from New Delhi. Cairn’s share price closed 16% lower on Wednesday, at 153.7p. This treaty says that, if the two sides cannot agree within six months, then the dispute goes to an international panel of three wise persons to reach a majority verdict. One arbitrator is appointed by each side, and the two then agree who the Chairman should be. The President of the International Court of Justice acts as backstop, just in case there is no outbreak of amity and sweet reason. For both parties, however, the most damaging feature of this tax bill is its element of surprise. It goes against the trend of recent Ministerial comment, suggesting that such public statements are not a reliable guide to the government’s views. As such, it exacerbates the unpredictability that is already part of the problem. Cairn insists that the Indian government can have recourse only to its Indian subsidiary, rather than the group as a whole. Even so, its current inability to sell its $700 million stake in Cairn India, which analysts had pencilled in for this year, is bad news enough. When Arun Jaitley, India’s finance Minister, visits the U.K. this week, he should be glad he is travelling to London, not Edinburgh.

Real Domino effect will be higher investment in digital printing: Domino Printing Sciences appears to be reaching its own “sell-by” date as a listed company. Unsurprisingly, the Domino board is recommending the offer of 915p a share, which comes with the bonus of the 14.76p-a-share final dividend. A scheme of arrangement to win shareholder approval shortens the timescale for any other interested party to make an alternative offer. In multiple terms it is also generous, valuing the group on a forward p/e of about 24 times. Analysts at Barclays say that in 2004 U.K. printing group Lynx was bought by Danaher for a price equivalent to a p/e of 20 times. And that was after the U.S. group had won a bidding war against ITW. Investment bankers hope the deal will renew M&A interest in FTSE 250 industrial engineers and similar. Xaar, the profit-warning-hit industrial printer, has already been mentioned as a possible target. More imaginative speculation reaches as far as Spectris, which makes electrical equipment.

GSK selects Singapore as Asia hub: GlaxoSmithKline, the U.K.-listed drugmaker, has designated Singapore as its Asia headquarters and will shift some of its U.S. and U.K. staff to the city-state, in an effort to tap growing demand in the region.

Bwin.party in discussions with suitors over sale possibilities: Bwin.party, the online gambling company, confirmed on Wednesday that it has received indicative offers from several groups interested in buying part or all of the company.