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Poundland Group Plc (PLND.L) Announced that they have signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement for the company to acquire 99p Stores for an enterprise value of £55 million, comprising a cash consideration of £47.5 million and the issue of new company shares with a value of £7.5 million at closing. The proposed transaction includes 99p Stores' network of 251 stores, which serve more than two million customers a week, as well as its warehouse and distribution centre.

BUDAPEST, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Hungarian oil and gas group MOL said on Friday that exports of crude by truck from the Shaikan block in Iraqi Kurdistan has been temporarily suspended. MOL also said, in line with an announcement by Gulf Keystone Petroleum, that it was selling oil on the local market as a temporary measure until there were steady payments for exports. "This is expected to be a short-term measure until a regular payment cycle can be established for sales via the export route," MOL said in the statement. "Partners are actively working towards an early pipeline access solution for Shaikan crude." MOL has a 20 percent working interest in the Shaikan block, where Gulf Keystone is the operator. (Reporting by Krisztina Than. Editing by Jane Merriman)

The cost of a typical home loan has been reduced by £1,700 in four weeks by the mortgage rate war developing among banks, The Telegraph reported.

Recent acquisition. Full RNS as follows: Tekcapital Plc ("Tekcapital", "the Company" or "the Group") Issue of Shares to the University of Arkansas for technology acquisition Further to its technology acquisition announcement on 27 January 2015, Tekcapital plc has applied for 65,732 ordinary shares in the company to be issued as consideration for the acquisition of an exclusive licence for a new, patent pending coating for baked products that imparts the attributes of fried foods from the University of Arkansas ("Consideration Shares"), to be admitted to trading on AIM with effect from 10 February 2015. Following admission of the Consideration Shares, Tekcapital's total issued and voting share capital will comprise of 23,449,479 ordinary shares. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, securities of the Company.

Oil stages sharp comeback from losses Traders await data release from Saudi Arabia’s state oil company

Compass posts bullish start to year but warns on oil price fall: Compass Group, the world’s biggest catering firm, hailed a strong start to the new year after seeing a return to growth in Europe and Japan, but warned of the impact of falling oil prices.

Tight mortgage rules squeeze the old and the self-employed: Mortgage brokers are increasingly struggling to find loans for home buyers with unusual requirements, thanks to tougher rules on lending quality, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) warned.

Property firm Grainger achieves sales growth despite electioneering building: Property management firm Grainger said despite the good start to the year, the company expects the months leading up to the election to result in a softer market on home sales as uncertainty weighs on market sentiment.

Wincanton on the road to recovery: Small-cap haulier Wincanton has been enjoying a steady turnaround that has seen the shares gain almost 18% during the past six months. That said, the company remains on target to hit market expectations for full year pretax profits of £27.7 million, giving earnings per share of 17.9p, on revenue of £1.1 billion. The haulage and logistics group is well diversified, with 12% of sales coming from construction, 13% from petrol tankers, 15% fast-moving consumer goods, 25% groceries, 25% general merchandise. The balance comes from other haulage. Wincanton’s shares are up 21% since we recommended buying last year (Buy, 138.75p, July 19), and trading on 10 times forecast earnings, they remain good value. Both companies are logistics operations with revenue of about £1 billion, and both manage large fleets of vehicles to transport goods from A to B. Applying Ocado’s valuation multiple to Wincanton’s forecast earnings would increase the company’s vlaue from about £200 million to £2 billion. Questor thinks one of these valuations is closer to reality and would rather buy the cheaper option at Wincanton, and hold the shares for the long term and wait for the steady profit recovery. Wincanton at 172p-6.9p. Questor Says “Buy”.

Help-to-Buy 2 shaves six years off first-time buyer age of 37: A government initiative aimed at getting first-time buyers on the property ladder has shaved six years off the age at which people can afford their first home.

AstraZeneca / Sanofi: inversion: AstraZeneca clocked in with a 3% rise in sales for the year but — even excluding a pile of one-off costs — net profit was down 8%. It told investors to expect falling sales, and modest earnings growth, in 2015. This excludes the impact of currency which, at the pound’s current level, will probably worsen the sales decline and wipe out the earnings growth. Then there is Sanofi, which expanded sales by 5% and earnings by 7%, and also sees modest earnings growth this year — but, at the current level of the euro, will receive a currency boost. Analysts expect Sanofi’s growth to accelerate in 2016 and 2017; it has a diverse portfolio with slow, consistent growers such as insulin; hard to copy treatments for rare diseases; and vaccines. Analysts expect declines in revenues and profits in those years at AstraZeneca, which will face generic competition for U.S. Nexium (7% of total sales) imminently, and for U.S. Crestor (11% of sales) next year. The other explanation is that AstraZeneca’s growth will be strong a few years further out. This depends on the immuno-oncology drugs in its pipeline selling as well as it hopes. No drug class creates more excitement. Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck are also active in the space.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.85% or $0.48 higher at $57.05 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract climbed 4.45% or $2.41, to settle at $56.57 per barrel, following better than anticipated US jobless claims data and a higher economic growth outlook for the EU and the Eurozone, which increased demand expectations for the commodity

UK house prices have begun to rise again after their slowdown in the second half of last year, according to new data from Halifax. House prices in the country enjoyed their first quarterly rise since last summer, rising 1.9% in the three months to January compared to the preceding three months and 8.5% higher than in the same period a year ago. This annual increase was up from the 7.8% in December but remained some way below the heights of 10.2% last July. House prices also grew by 2.0% between December and January, the biggest January monthly increase since 2009. "This bounce-back in house price growth in January coincides with reports of the first rise in mortgage approvals for six months in December," said Halifax economist Martin Ellis. "These improvements may indicate that the recent declines in mortgage rates, the reform of stamp duty and the first increases in real earnings for several years are providing a modest boost to the market. "It is, however, too early to draw any firm conclusions." January's figures have a history of volatility due to the lower activity at this time of year, with unusually large rises seen in 2007 and 2009, for example.

Oil cost collapse due to supplier price war – not weak demand: Plummeting oil prices will prove to be positive for global economic growth and are not a reflection of a slowdown, the U.K.’s biggest fund Manager has said.

U.K. services sector makes strong start to 2015: Britain’s all-important services sector got a major boost from the oil price slump in January with business costs increasing at the slowest pace in five-and-a-half years.

Fruit offshoot: Peter Hargreaves enjoys growing his own fruit and veg. So it is appropriate that Hargreaves Lansdown, the investment supermarket he co-founded, is propagating its own peer-to-peer lender. Reform to financial services at first boosted the client base of HL. Investors “orphaned” when independent advisers closed flocked to its Vantage platform. But tougher disclosure blighted HL too last year. New client numbers fell by a half to 23,000 in the six months to December 31. HL is venturing into P2P in response to low margins on cash evident in a 2% half year drop in profits before tax to £102 million. P2P cash boasts higher yields. HL has the skills and scale to succeed here. However, an in-house robo adviser might offer greater synergies. U.S. low-cost broker Charles Schwab has one. Schwab’s shares trade at a 15% forward earnings discount. Even after a 7.6% drop on Wednesday, HL’s shares remain pricey.

Sky: how high’s the limit?: The next auction of English Premier League football TV rights is under way. Results are due soon, and it will not be cheap. The auction of the rights for 2013-2016 raised £3 billion in total (of which Sky paid two-thirds). A decade earlier the rights to the same competition were sold for £1 billion. And the English Premier League is not losing popularity. That is not too worrying, but a big payout for football rights could change that. Ominously for Sky, there will be competition. Rival BT Group has already won the rights for all European cup matches, including the Champions League, for the next three seasons. BT does not have limitless resources. U.K. regulator Ofcom has questioned whether BT is overcharging companies that want to use its backbone network, and using the proceeds to show football to its own subscribers. But with a strategy that is partly based on using football to win subscribers, BT will be part of the auction. Still, Sky will have to face up to the challenge. The current content mix is performing well. On Wednesday Sky revealed good first half subscriber increases in its key U.K. and German markets, the latter up 9% year on year. Revenue per user held up everywhere except Germany.

Glutted: oil price recovery halted as traders face reality: A mini-resurgence in the price of oil came to a shuddering halt as traders sobered up, faced with the scale of the global supply glut. Brent crude dived by 4% to $55.54 a barrel after American inventories rose to a record high, bringing four days of rising oil prices to a close. The increase was nearly twice as much as forecast.

At 0430GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.92% or $0.50 higher at $54.66 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract declined 6.48% or $3.75, to settle at $54.16 per barrel, after the Energy Information Administration reported that US crude oil inventories rose by 6.3 million barrels to 413.1 million in the week ended January 30, their highest in three decades

Madame Tussauds site up for sale Entrepreneur Leslau looks to raise over £300m with sale of freehold site in Marylebone