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Shire gets growth injection: Shares in pharmaceutical group Shire [LON:SHP] capped off an excellent three month run last week by announcing a $5.2 billion (£3.5 billion) all-share deal to buy U.S. biotech NPS Pharmaceuticals. The FTSE 100 pharma group will pay $46.00 per share for NPS, which is focused on producing treatments for rare diseases. Shire shares have increased by 17% from about £37 to £46 since October when they fell sharply as U.S. group AbbVie walked away from its $55 billion deal to buy Shire. The silver lining of the collapsed deal was a $1.5 billion break fee which AbbVie had to pay to Shire for walking away. The acquisition of NPS – which has the backing of both companies’ boards – is no surprise after Shire was reported to be in discussions with the group last summer. NPS is currently loss-making and of the two new drugs it is focusing on one has not been approved by the American drug authorities. However, the regulator will rule on Natpara this month and analysts assume it will be approved. There are of course no guarantees that Natpara will receive regulatory approval, and this would be a painful reversal for Shire investors if it was turned down. We tipped the shares back in 2013 (Buy, £27.60, October) and they have increased by 68% since then, and we repeated the buy advice last year (Buy, £31.42, February 14). We recommend “holding on”.

Oil price fall cuts fracking costs for Cuadrilla: Britain’s hopes of a shale gas boom will not be killed off by current low commodity prices and fracking firm Cuadrilla actually stands to gain from the plunging oil price, its Chief Executive has said. BP faces never ending legal battle for Deepwater disaster: From fishermen and oystermen to hoteliers, restaurateurs and tourist businesses, hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses stretching along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico have sued BP over its Deep Water Horizon spill

Tumbling oil will keep rates on hold until 2016, warns forecaster: A fall into outright deflation in the coming months will force the Bank of England to delay a rise in interest rates until 2016, one of the UK’s most influential economic forecasters has warned

North Sea oil stalwart takes axe to costs: The biggest independent U.K. producer in the North Sea is slashing spending, jobs and pay in a desperate effort to avoid breaking the terms on its huge bank loans.

Britain set for fastest growth in decade — thanks to oil crash: Britain will grow at its fastest rate for a decade this year thanks to the slump in the oil price, according to an influential forecast to be published this week.

Oil price collapse set to end this year, claims IEA: The oil price rout could end in the second half of the year, according to the International Energy Agency, which believes that “signs are mounting that the tide will turn”.

Oil prices declined this past week, extending their downward spiral, after the OPEC, in its monthly report, lowered expectations for its oil demand for 2015. The commodity came under further pressure after an influential Wall Street bank reduced its short term forecast for oil prices, while another bank slashed its estimates for oil prices in 2015. Moreover, UAE’s Energy Minister stated that the OPEC would not reduce its production, regardless of oil prices. However, the commodity found support after the IEA stated that a recovery in oil prices was possible this year. Brent crude oil prices fell 2.2% to $50.17/barrel.

Lending stalls in H2 House purchase lending stalled in the second half of last year, figures from e.surv have revealed, with H2 2014 seeing 8.4% fewer loans approved than H1. There were a total of 370,184 house purchase approvals in H2 2014, a drop of around 34,000 from H1 when 404,058 loans were approved. On a monthly basis, total house purchase approvals for December stood at 60,217, a 16.6% drop from the 71,504 recorded in December 2013. However, it posts a month-on-month increase of 2.0% from the approval total of 59,029 seen in November, the first increase in five months and a sharp turnaround from September when a drop of 4.4% was recorded. Analysis suggests that lending recovery has become subdued following significant regulatory change in the past 12 months, with activity unable to remain at the post-recession highs seen in H2 2013.

Moneysupermarket.com Group Plc (MONY.L) Announced, in its post close trading statement that, the board expects full year revenues to grow by around 10% to £248 million, and adjusted EBITDA to grow by 13% to in the region of £95 million. The group's financial position remains strong and at 31 December 2014, the group had net cash of £10.5 million. The results for the year will be announced on 3 March 2015.

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's said it intends to appoint Ernst & Young LLP as the group's auditor for the financial year ending 12 March 2016. Ernst & Young, whose appointment remains subject to shareholders approval, would replace PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), the group's current auditor. The retailer added that PwC is set to continue in its current role and will oversee the audit of the company's accounts for the year ending 14 March. Sainsbury's added that its decision to replace the group's auditor follows a recommendation by its audit committee.

Oil giant BP face a maximum penalty of $13.7bn under the Clean Water Act, after the District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ruling on the Deepwater Horizon case has found that 3.19m barrels of oil were discharged in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The ruling put the spill's size below the government's 4.09m estimate and just under the 3.26m estimated by the firm. Meanwhile, the court has also ruled that BP was not grossly negligent in its source control efforts following the incident

Connect shares slide on falling revenue: Connect Group, the largest newspaper and magazine distributor in the U.K., reported falling revenue and a disappointing performance from its education stationery business, sending shares down more than 5%. The company reported a 1.5% dip in sales for the 19 week period ending January 10, compared to the same period last year. Revenue from distributing newspapers fell 2.8% on a like-for-like basis. Connect Group was formerly called Smiths News but changed its name to Connect last year. Connect is still predominantly a U.K.-focused newspaper and magazine distribution business with 84% of group revenue and 77% of operating profits coming from that part of the business. The newspaper distribution business is declining but it is also profitable and generates lots of cash. What’s more, the company is using that cash to diversify the business. Book business Bertrams was purchased out of the Woolworth’s administration in 2009. Connect said revenue fell 1% during the period in a very competitive market. Connect expanded into school stationery through the purchase of Consortium in 2012. The school stationery business reported a disappointing 2% fall in revenue when analysts had been expecting 5% growth during the period. The company announced a move into parcel delivery through the acquisition of Tufnells on December 19. The distribution group said it would also use its existing fleet of vans and lorries to deliver Amazon parcels as well. The shares trade on 8 times forecast earnings of 18.2p per share, and offer a forecast dividend yield of 5.7%. The market expectations don’t look too demanding for the year ended August 2015. Connect Group at 139p-7.25p Questor Says ‘Hold’

Cheap oil won’t save the world economy, says IMF: The global economy remains “on its knees” and will not be bolstered by the collapse in oil prices, according to Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund.

Sugar daddy: You cannot accuse George Weston, Boss of Associated British Foods, of ignoring an opportunity. If you visit him at ABF HQ on a rainy day, he will sell you a £3.50 Primark umbrella on the way out. Nor has he missed a beat in expanding the fast fashion chain, whose low-cost formula has caught the post-crisis mood. Sales jumped 15% in the last quarter driven by exceptional trading in France. Beets of the tuberous kind are, however, a problem for ABF’s legacy sugar business. ABF is stopping production from China’s Heilongjiang province. Runty rhizomes have been its nemesis. The result will be an interim write-off of £128 million, just £18 million of it in cash. Sugar prices are weak, the dollar is strong and consensus full-year profits before tax will ease 1% to just over £1 billion, according to Citigroup. ABF is a conglomerate of disparate parts run by a second-generation member of the controlling family. Its shares are expensive, trading at 29 times forward earnings, just ahead of Inditex. What’s not to like? Remember Mr Weston’s wheeze with the brolly.

Lombard: Rupert’s last hurrah should be to hold George to his North Sea pledge: George Osborne’s top adviser Rupert Harrison long ago gave up lobbying this columnist to write rosily about his Boss’s policies. But should he seek to renew the acquaintance, Lombard would lobby straight back at him, asking the Treasury to cut the levy on North Sea oil by a grown-up amount. It would be graceful for the Old Etonian, who is expected to leave government after the election, to exit with a promise kept. In the 2011 budget Mr Osborne jacked up the supplementary charge on North Sea production from 20% to 32%. But the Chancellor also pledged there would be “no extra tax on the profits of North Sea oil companies if the oil price falls and stays low”. He suggested if oil fell below about $75 dollars a barrel he would reintroduce the fuel duty escalator paid by consumers but “reduce the new oil tax in proportion”. These latter comments were ambiguous. But the broader implication was of a 12% point cut in the supplementary rate. A 2 point cut in the autumn did not cover it.

Booker to step up discount shop rollout: Booker, the U.K.’s biggest wholesaler, plans to accelerate the rollout of its discount convenience stores, to at least 50 scheduled to open in 2015.

Saudi Arabia predicted to cut state spending after oil price fall: Saudi Arabia is forecast to reduce state spending by 18% this year, a clear sign of the impact the slump in crude prices is having on the finances of the world’s largest oil exporter.

Norway poised to hold crisis talks over oil price fall: Senior members of Norway’s government and central bank will hold a crisis meeting on Friday to discuss a possible stimulus package as western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer is hurt by a fall in oil prices and investment

U.K. orders urgent review into North Sea oil: U.K. Ministers have ordered an urgent review into the state of the North Sea oil industry, after a collapse in prices that has prompted BP and other companies to cut hundreds of jobs and raised fears operators could speed up the decommissioning of ageing fields.

Schlumberger to axe 9,000 jobs amid oil rout: Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil services company, plans to cut 9,000 jobs as a result of the fall in oil prices and cutbacks in spending by the energy groups that are its customers.