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Cairn Energy suffers exploration reverse off North Africa: Cairn Energy has suffered another setback off North Africa with its latest exploration well.

U.K. Government and Russian oligarch set for court battle over North Sea gas fields: Whitehall appears set for a major court battle with a Russian oligarch to stop his company operating a raft of gas fields in the North Sea, No 10 has signalled.

Direct Line shareholders receive double boost as the insurer announces a special payout and a hike in its dividend: Shareholders in Direct Line received a double boost after the insurer announced a special payout and a hike in its dividend.

Charter flight? Ryanair launches a customer contract: Ryanair has pledged to continue its transformation into a passenger-friendly airline, introducing a customer charter to nail its promises to the cabin door.

Sports Direct Founder Mike Ashley refuses to appear before MPs: The Sports Direct Founder Mike Ashley has rebuffed MPs who wanted to grill him over the treatment of staff at the company’s U.S.C retail business in Scotland and the use of zero-hours contracts.

BP’s Bob Dudley got 25% pay rise as company salaries were frozen: Bob Dudley, the Chief Executive of oil group BP, enjoyed a 25% pay rise to $12.7 million (£8.3 million) after implementing a raft of job cuts, imposing a company salary freeze and missing all safety targets for the year.

Put train delays aside and get on board with Costain: Questor gets to work by train so on a personal level doesn’t like engineer Costain, the contractor on the huge project to redevelop London Bridge Station. The work is having a knock-on effect across the rail network, causing delays and cancellations, and making Questor late to his desk. This need to update infrastructure is also recognised by politicians, who are supportive of plans to revamp Britain’s tired transport, energy and utility networks, meaning Costain looks like it has a long, large and stable flow of work coming its way. Projects the business is working on include Crossrail, Sellafield’s decommissioning and improving Thames Water’s main pipes. These are the kind of jobs that can’t be avoided and Costain has a good history of delivering on them. Posting annual results on Tuesday that showed a 17% jump in revenue and a 4.7% rise in operating profit, the group revealed a record £3.5 billion order book, of which almost all was repeat business. Costain only carries out U.K. projects but estimates it has about 5% of the market, and is keen to increase this. the business raised £70 million in a move Mr Wyllie said allowed Costain to speed up its growth plans and demonstrate to customers it is capable of amassing the financial firepower it needs to take on billion-pound contracts. In another demonstration of its confidence, Costain raised its dividend by 25% to 9.5p, a level at which is it is 2.5 times covered. The company also has more money in the bank, with net cash up 157% to £148.5 million, though the fundraising obviously helped lift this figure. The shares trade at a price-earnings ratio of 15.33 – slightly more pricey than many competitors – and yield 3.2%. However, with a strong order book and demand for Costain’s services likely to grow, Questor says buy. Costain at 302p. Questor Says “Buy”.

Paddy Power reports record profits: Paddy Power is to return €392 million (£285 million) to shareholders after enjoying a record year for profits.

Lone arranger: A £100 million sale of bonds by Partnership Assurance to Cinven may not merit raising a red flag over. But it is worth raising an eyebrow. The private equity firm owns 52 per cent of the shares of the annuity company. The influence this could give Cinven means dealings with Partnership should be scrutinised. Usually, minority shareholders would get to vote on whether their company should do a big transaction with a majority shareholder. Partnership says a vote is unnecessary this time thanks to an exemption for loans in stock market rules. For the waiver to apply, the terms for the unlisted bonds would need to be commercial. Otherwise, Cinven would be paying out earnings to its controlling shareholder that all investors might otherwise receive through dividends. Cinven will get 9.5 per cent a year on its money. The yield on junk bonds is about 5.6 per cent. However, a junk issuer typically has a credit rating, unlike Partnership, and bonds would trade publicly, giving them liquidity.

Dubai to build $1 billion financial zone development: Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund is to build a $1 billion development in the heart of the emirate’s financial district, the first new construction project there since the real estate crash of 2008.

Moneysupermarket shares tumble amid regulatory concerns: Moneysupermarket.com’s share price tumbled 9% on Tuesday as investors worried that the U.K.’s largest price comparison company may be forced to pay compensation to energy consumers.

Pension crisis ‘can no longer be ignored’: One in ten workers fear they will never be able to retire and the majority believe they will have to double their pension contributions to pay for their old age, according to research.

UK construction PMI advanced unexpectedly in February In February, the construction PMI in the UK registered an unexpected rise to 60.10, compared to a reading of 59.10 in the prior month. Market anticipations were for the construction PMI to ease to a level of 59.00.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.41% or $0.25 lower at $60.77 per barrel, ahead of the Energy Information Administration weekly oil inventory data to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract climbed 2.49% or $1.48, to settle at $61.02 per barrel, after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Obama administration against accepting a weak nuclear deal with Iran. Moreover, reports of violence in Libya and Saudi Arabia increasing its price for Asian buyers by the most in 3 years boosted the commodity further. Separately, the American Petroleum Institute stated that crude oil stockpiles rose 2.9 million barrels last week.

And rather than offering a simple match-making service, Tekcapital assess the potential opportunities and pitfalls of each patented idea. Its InventionEvaluator produces, the second part of the firm’s three pronged approach, provides objective reports on the technology and assesses the commercial potential of new intellectual property. According to Gross, the business can now turn around 40-page reports on technologies in under ten days. At a price of US$1,000 per report, he believes it’s a service which cannot be found elsewhere. This week Tek agreed a marketing deal with US consultant Health Connexions boost InventionEvaluator’s reach in the pharma and healthcare industry. Through the deal, Tek’s reports will be made available to Health Connexions' client base, which includes pharmaceutical, diagnostic and medical device companies. The third, and potentially most lucrative part of the business in the long run, is its acquisition arm Last month it acquired the exclusive worldwide licence for a process that makes baked products taste like they have been fried – a potentially game-changing cooking process which claims to produce tasty food with 60% less fat. “If we come across a technology that doesn’t fit with our clients, but we like the look of it, we take a view to enquire the rights,” said Gross. He says the business is currently on the verge of adding two more technologies it’s spotted. It's this approach, Gross believes, which has the potential to generate substantial revenues. In fact, he reckons if Tek can sell the rights to the food coating technology to a major fast-food chain, annual revenues could exceed its current market value of £4.5mln. “We certainly envisage the acquisition side of the business taking on a lead role in revenue creation,” said Gross. “The potential is huge." Northland’s Johnson agrees that the acquisition business is a long-term play, but says Tek’s inroads into research institutions, combined with its strong advisory board gives it a strong insight into technology that companies will eventually want to buy. “During my research I couldn’t identify another business offering the same combination of access to institutions, a scientific advisory board and a track record of senior management with experience in technology transfers,” adds Johnson. “In that sense, the business is unique. Shares in Tekcapital are priced at 18p. Northland Capital Partners has a target price of 30p. By Proactive Investors

Harvesting brainy ideas from the world’s finest minds sounds like an attempt to solve the so-called Theory of Everything. Ok, it’s probably not the approach Stephen Hawking takes in his Cambridge laboratory, but it’s proving to be a winning formula for Tekcapital (LON:TEK). Headquartered four miles away from the world-famous professor, the Oxford-based firm has an intriguing algorithm and a team of scientists at work. Their goal, rather disappointingly, isn’t to unlock the secrets of the universe, but to sift through thousands of new patented ideas from universities around the globe. New discoveries are then pulled onto its Innovation Discovery Network (IDN), which matches the right companies with the right patents. It’s a database that has continued to grow since the firm listed in London last year, as former academic and Tekcapital founder Cliff Gross explains. “Our database has now passed 4,000 universities and laboratories. We believe this accounts for close to 80% of the world’s leading intellectual property.” Clients accessing the database, often large corporates looking to buy into the next big invention, are also on the rise. New customers include a listed Japanese pharmaceutical, a multi-national Finnish tech company (rumoured to be Nokia) and an Israeli bio-tech. It has also bagged a global food and beverage company quoted on NASDAQ, and the second is a UK-based industrial products company that operates in more than 30 countries. The firm has refused to name its customers so far, but market sources say the US client wins include the likes of PepsiCo and General Motors. The ongoing IP search service is charged on a monthly basis and depends on the size of client and its potential market. If a client commits to acquiring a particular technology – what Tek calls a technology transfer - they are then charged a success fee, which depends on the complexity of the acquisition process and size of the potential market for the acquired intellectual property. The business expects to reach its break-even point of 35 paying IDN clients by the end of this year - it’s currently adding two a month, a view shared by Northland Capital Partners. “As the company moves through the year, adding to its retainer base, it should get to requisite number of clients to cover costs on a month-by-month basis,” said Northland analyst David Johnson. For Gross, the idea of rationalising the supply of new ideas on one portal is starting to be seen as a convenient way for firms to keep their finger on pulse. “We essentially an in-house technology scouting service,” he adds. “Many companies don’t have time to spend significant amounts of capital and time, trying to predict, develop and control where innovation is heading. “IDN allows them to access a global network of brilliant thinkers to help open innovation pipelines at very low cost,” he

As NUMIS is the latest Market Maker to provide a market in TEK shares. This company will surprise on the upside for anyone who can live with a timeline of 1, 3 or 5 years as Technology acquisitions take place and it only needs 2/3 of them to be commercialised globally via a major multi-national corporation to see the Market Cap. being at least 3 or 4 times what it is today. An excellent and experienced senior team at the helm with great potential to realise shareholder value for medium term investors IMHO.

LONDON (Alliance News) - Direct Line Insurance Group PLC Tuesday warned that the UK motor and home insurance markets are still highly competitive, with the opening months of the new year showing signs of more pressure in motor and "broad stability" in the home market. Insurers operating in the motor market have been combating intense competition, which has been putting pressure on premiums, but Direct Line said it has the ability to deal with the tough environment. "The UK motor and home markets remain highly competitive with recent market conditions characterised by periods of market price deflation and of stability. Early 2015 has seen some additional, potentially seasonal, market pressure in motor and broad stability in the home market," Direct Line said in a statement. "Against this backdrop the group will continue to adopt a flexible, but disciplined, approach to managing the trade-off between margin and volumes. Meanwhile the group is investing in building future capability and continues to identify opportunities to improve efficiency," the group added. The group's update came within annual results showing that pretax profit for continuing operations rose to GBP456.8 million in 2014, compared with GBP407.3 million in the prior year. Operating profit from ongoing operations crept down to GBP506.0 million from GBP509.9 million. The group's combined operating ratio, a measure of underwriting performance under which a value below 100% represents a profit, improved by 0.2 percentage point to 95.0%. For 2015, the group said it expects to achieve a combined operating ratio in the range of 94% to 96% for ongoing after normalising for claims from major weather events. "The range reflects uncertainty surrounding claims inflation versus market pricing in motor," Direct Line said. Direct Line increased its total dividend for 2014 to 27.2 pence from 20.6 pence in 2013, boosted by a 4.8% increase in the final dividend to 8.8 pence per share and a second special interim dividend of 4.0 pence per share.

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Travis Perkins, Britain's biggest supplier of building materials, posted a 14.9 percent rise in 2014 earnings and said it was confident it can continue to outperform the markets it operates in over the year ahead and the medium-term. The firm, which trades from 18 brands including Travis Perkins, Wickes, City Plumbing, Keyline, Tile Giant and BSS, across 1,900 UK outlets, said on Tuesday adjusted earnings per share were 119 pence in 2014. That compares with analysts' average forecast of 116.3 pence, according to Reuters data, and 103.6 pence made in 2013. Adjusted profit before tax rose 12.8 percent to 362.3 million pounds ($558 million) as revenue increased 8.4 percent to 5.6 billion pounds.

AstraZeneca has completed its acquisition of the rights to Activis' branded respiritory business in the US and Canada. AstraZeneca has paid Actives $600m of initial consideration as well as an extra $100m for a number of contractual consents and approvals.