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ConocoPhilips sparks rush for Clair oilfield with sale: The Ownership of one of Scotland’s most valuable oilfields is up for grabs after an American oil company put its stake up for sale.

Getting a foot on the property ladder in London now requires an average salary of £51,500, reports The Daily Telegraph. Citing new figures released from the Office For National Statistics, the Telegraph adds that the average price of a London home has exceeded the £500,000 limit for the first time ever, with the average value of a home in the capital rising by 19.1% compared to 2013.

UK house prices rose by 11.7% in July, with London seeing the highest growth, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. The results follow a 10.2% increase in housing prices in the year to June and represent the fastest rate of increase for seven years. Forecasts predicted slower growth at 10.6%. The annual house prices in London increased by 19.1% and 12.2% in the South East. Excluding these two regions, UK house prices increased by 7.9% year-on-year to July. Chris Willamson from Markit said: “The housing market will remain something of a concern to the Bank of England, where a further marked jump in prices on a year ago will add to worries that the property market poses a key risk to financial stability, and that macro-prudential tools may be insufficient to cool the housing market without an accompanying rate hike.” Meanwhile, Howard Archer from HIS Global Insight said house price growth looks “unlikely to fall away”. The analyst also said he expects house prices to increase by 2% by the end of 2014 and 6% in 2015.

Housebuilder Crest Nicholson has, like its peers, seen a "slight moderation" in sales rates over the last few months but still enjoued a strong third quarter and was fundamentally upbeat on the sector's outlook. "Strong purchaser demand for new homes continues to underpin a buoyant housing market," said chief executive Stephen Stone.

New iPhone breaks records with more than 4 million pre-orders in first day of sale: Apple chalked up a hit with its iPhone 6 as the technology giant received more than 4 million pre-orders for the handset on its first day on sale – double the 2 million sales the iPhone 5 attracted on its launch.

Cheap trip: Tui A G would pay no premium for combining with Tui Travel of the U.K., in which it holds a 54% stake. It has thus given U.K. minority shareholders something to beef about over lagers at the poolside bar. Some bankers estimate Tui AG shares are worth 20% more than their market price, currently €11.10. As a further sweetener, investors in Tui Travel, whose shares are worth £3.70 each, would get a 20.5p “second interim dividend”. Costs savings of £36 million a year are forecast. The response of the market to such blandishments has been studied neutrality, which is also the best response to fellow Brits moaning about “the foreigners” at your Mediterranean hotel. Beyond a 1.6% bounce for Tui Travel stock on Monday, the shares have traded in parallel. Mr Long, a member of the TUI AG supervisory board who becomes Chairman from 2016, has promised independent investors a place in the sun. Working with Tui AG Boss Fritz Joussen, he has much to do to deliver.

Beer: drinking competition: Heineken, as instructed by its founding family, has pronounced SABMiller’s bid approach “not actionable” – suggesting that a decision was not even possible. The family values Heineken’s independent heritage. Very nice. But the family has just a 26% economic stake (it owns half of a company that owns just over half of Heineken). The flat refusal raises the old question: whose company is this, anyway? SABMiller might persist. Financing a bid for Heineken (enterprise value €46 billion) would not be easy for SABMiller (EV £69 billion), but not impossible. If the deal is financed by equity, combined net debt would be under three times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. If financed entirely by debt it would be an unfeasible seven times. A mixture would be affordable. As well as a global brand, Heineken would give SABMiller exposure to Southeast Asia, although there could be regulatory challenges in Europe. And there would be cost savings. According to Barclays, SABMiller squeezed savings worth 7% of sales from its 2011 Fosters acquisition. Apply that proportion to Heineken and there are potential savings of €1.3 billion. If ABI can extract savings worth a tenth of sales (conservative, given its recent record) from SABMiller, there is $1.7 billion to go for. Combine SABMiller with Heineken, though, and the £106 billion enterprise value looks too big (and too daunting, from a regulatory perspective) for AB InBev to attempt. The share price moves on Monday – Heineken up 1%, SABMiller up 10% – show where the market expects the action to be.

Micro Focus to buy Attachmate for $1.2 billion: Shares in Micro Focus climbed 10% on Monday after the U.K. software group said it would acquire U.S. rival Attachmate in an all-share transaction valuing the combined business at $2.35 billion.

Offers this week for estate agents Chestertons: Potential buyers will put in offers for one of the U.K.’s oldest estate agents, Chestertons, this week, after it hung up a £50 million “for sale” sign earlier this summer.

Early buyers must wait for new iPhones: Customers who ordered the iPhone 6 in advance have been warned that they might not receive their handset until next month because of high demand, Apple has said.

ConocoPhillips, the US energy group, is auctioning its stake in the UK’s largest oilfield at a time when the future of North Sea oil has become a central battleground in the debate about Scottish independence. The Houston-based company has hired banks to sell its 24 per cent stake in the Clair oilfield, according to people familiar with the matter. The exact value of the stake could not be ascertained, but it could fetch between $2bn and $3bn. (Financial Times)

Cain Hoy and Sager lead £400 million Islington Square development: The U.S. private investment firm looking to buy Tottenham Hotspur is revealing another push into the London market with a £400 million development in Islington.

Diageo’s £10 million for start-ups: Scotland’s biggest whisky distiller, Diageo, is pumping £10 million into a business accelerator programme aimed at entrepreneurs developing new spirits brands.

Hold Ricardo for long term: Ricardo delivered a strong set of full year results, with revenues, profits and dividends all rising and a record order book leaving the company well placed for next year. Revenues during the year were up 6.5% to £236.2 million and pretax profits increased 13.5% to £23.5 million, as underlying pretax profit margins increased to 10.4%, up from 9.9% previously. The order book surged by £21 million to a record £142 million, made up of around two thirds engines and gearbox work. The engineering group’s orders are about 50% domestic, with the remainder split almost evenly between the U.S., Germany and Asia. This plugs the group into stable U.K., recovering U.S. and fast-growing Asian markets. Dave Shemmans, Chief Executive, said that China was very active in the new orders coming through, as they want to access Ricardo’s energy-efficient technology. The problem for Ricardo was that some of these orders were delayed, hitting the share price. Ricardo is growing sales and quality of sales. The rising margin bodes well for next year’s numbers. Mr Shemmans said that the new financial year had started well, with strong orders in July and August. Cash generation was down slightly, but this was largely due to the company taking on a lot of orders close to the year end. The balance sheet is still robust, with Ricardo doubling net cash to £12.6 million, from £6.1 million at the same stage last year. The full year dividend was increased by 9% to 15.2p; while the shares have risen 26% since we said buy, and the outlook is still good. However, we downgrade the shares to a hold as those orders are turned into cash. Ricardo at 622p+5½p Questor Says “Hold”.

Sell Next after stellar run: Retailer Next reported strong sales growth in the first half of the year, but its shares fell sharply as investors worried that the record run might be over. Questor thinks it is a good time to take stock of the company’s gains. A rise in interest rates could damage Next Directory sales, which are a key area of growth for the retailer. More than two thirds of its 3.94 million customers have a U.K. credit account, using the company’s offer of unsecured credit to buy products via the Next Directory Card. The size of the service charge is revealed in the small print of the company’s annual report. In 2014, this was £151.8 million, up from £140.4 million the previous year. That income could struggle in a higher interest rate environment. Earlier this year, Next overtook rival M&S to become the most profitable clothing retailer on the high street. Next has quietly gone about providing the U.K. with good quality, moderately priced clothing in its shops and online. In the latest results, Directory sales were up 16% to £694.3 million and retail sales up 7.5% to £1.07 billion for the six months ended July. The group’s total revenues increased 10.3% to £1.85 billion, and pretax profits were up 19.3% to £324.2 million in the first half. Analysts were hoping for income of about £330 million. The market is expecting the returns of cash to increase from about 300p this year to 380p next year, giving the shares a pretty decent 4.1% prospective yield, rising to 5.2% next year. Analysts are forecasting full year pretax profits rising to £800 million, on revenue up £4.05 billion, giving 408p in earnings per share for the year ended January 2015. It has been a fantastic run in the shares, but Questor thinks now is as good a time as any to take profits. Next at £69.50-215p Questor Says “Sell”.

Over-55s to fuel spending boom on kitchens and cars from pension reforms: A spending boom among the over-55s will be triggered by a relaxation of the rules how much cash people can take out of their pension pots, experts say.

Malmaison front runner to buy £10,000 a night London hotel: The Malmaison hotel group has emerged as the front runner to buy the original Scotland Yard headquarters, which is being transformed into a £10,000-a-night luxury hotel.

Cyber security: first mover disadvantage: Target. Home Depot. Jennifer Lawrence. Everyone gets hacked, and cyber security shares are rising. Palo Alto Networks is up 70% this year; Fortinet has risen a third. Gartner forecasts worldwide spending on cyber security will reach nearly $80 billion next year, growing 8%, more than twice as fast as IT spending overall. Profit remains behind the firewall, however. FireEye’s revenues more than doubled last year but it has never turned a profit. Palo Alto Networks saw revenues grow 50% last year to $600 million; its profit was all of $9 million last quarter – news that sent its stock price up a tenth when announced on Wednesday. The first movers say their products are superior, but the secrecy of the security industry works against them. Without information on attacks and breaches, it is nearly impossible to determine whose software is best. Anecdotal evidence is often the only kind. Independent testing is difficult and often irrelevant: attacks come in totally new forms. And once a new concept is proven – such as FireEye’s “simulated sandbox” approach – it is soon mimicked by bigger brands. Hence the marketing budgets. This is where the value is, too: FireEye’s enterprise value is seven times this year’s expected sales (even after its share price has fallen two-thirds from a March peak). Palo Alto Networks, at nine times, is more expensive, having turned the corner on profitability. Compare those valuations to the less sexy Symantec, trading at two times – and which is profitable. Despite firing its Chief Executive in March, Symantec’s plodding stock has risen 5% in the past year. That looks like the more secure bet.

IG Group launches share dealing platform: IG Group, the online trading company, has launched its first share dealing platform aimed at hands-on investors in the stock market

Heineken dismisses £80 billion SAB mega-merger: SABMiller has sounded out the Owners of Heineken about an £82 billion mega-merger as the FTSE 100 drinks group attempts a pre-emptive move against a possible bid by Anheuser-Busch InBev.