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Skandia becomes latest happy customer to follow Woodford: Neil Woodford’s new fund has been given a £640 million boost by a former client. Skandia, the asset manager, is shifting money to Woodford Investment Management from Invesco Perpetual funds, which he previously managed.

Landlords have been warned to check the terms they get from their letting agent after research showed the difference between the cheapest and most expensive agents can be equivalent to more than 10 per cent of rental returns. Tricks including double-charging tenants and landlords for the same service and charging hundreds of pounds for contracts where only the date had changes were also revealed in the research by insurer Direct Line for Business. - The Daily Mail

Gem Diamonds shares sparkle: Chinese demand is driving up the prices for diamonds and that has resulted in a strong set of first half results at Gem Diamonds. What’s more, with a maiden dividend on the horizon and a new mine up and running, the shares could have further to run. Clifford Elphick, the Chief Executive at the South Africa-focused precious gem miner, said the Chinese are becoming increasingly active in the diamond market. At the company’s rough diamond auctions, where only a select group of about 150 bidders are invited, about a quarter now come from China – double the number five years ago. Gem Diamonds increased production at its Letseng mine in Lesotho by almost 30% to 54,678 carats during the first half. The mine, located in the kingdom within South Africa, generates almost all the revenue and profits for the group. Mr Elphick is confident there is still more to come. He expects the company to pay its first dividend next March and analysts expect a 3p final. There is also the development of a new diamond mine at Ghaghoo in Botswana. It is hoped that Ghaghoo will be producing enough diamonds within the next four months to calculate the mine’s value at full production. Analysts from Westhouse currently only ascribe a value of about 6p per share to the mine – but this could rise significantly. The shares have been on a strong run this year up 47%, but they still look reasonable, trading on 11 times forecast earnings. A speculative buy. Gem Diamonds at 221.5p+13.75p. Questor Says “Buy”.

Hold British Land: British Land, one of the U.K.’s largest real estate investment trusts, said it had completed the sale of a £26 million office property in London’s Soho area to Amazon. The deal underlines the strength of the London property market. But the best of the company’s share price gains might be behind it. The property group manages a £11.9 billion portfolio of property split roughly equally between office space and retail. Last month the company reported results for the three months to the end of June, which indicated that the property market is still in rude health. The group’s shops are almost all let, with retail occupancy having edged up to 98.6%. British Land’s portfolio of retail property makes up 53% of the group total and are spread across the U.K. By focusing on larger shopping centres, which are still proving a draw, the property group was able to report footfall up 2.5% across the first quarter, well above the national average of a 0.8% decline during the same period. The letting activity across the portfolio was also encouraging. The rents that came up for review during the first quarter were increased by 4.8% for retail space and 0.7% for offices. The performance gave the company the confidence to increase the first quarter dividend by 2.5% to 6.92p, ex-dividend October 1 and payable November 7. In the full-year results to March 31 the 2014 net asset value per share was 688p, so the shares are currently trading at a 5% premium to that. The long-term average for U.K. real estate has been for shares to trade at an 11% discount to the net asset value. British Land shares have had a strong run, increasing more than 15% so far this year, well ahead of the wider FTSE 100, which has been flat. British Land at 723p-1p. Questor Says “Hold”.

Ryanair steps up bid for debt-ridden Cyprus Airways: Ryanair has moved a step closer to buying the loss-making Cyprus Airways as it continues to manoeuvre for a license to charter flights to Russia and the Middle East from the Mediterranean country.

Put out fewer flags for U.S.’s World Bank regulator role: Foreign paranoiacs have received another bruise to brood over this week. The DFS – not to be confused with the U.K. sofa store of that name – fined the U.K.’s Standard Chartered bank $300 million for failings in money laundering compliance. The penalty connected circuitously with a $340 million fine from the same body two years ago for technical breaches of U.S. sanctions against Iran. France, nettled by a $9 billion money laundering fine for BNP Paribas, will have a following wind in challenging U.S. extraterritoriality in bank regulation at a forthcoming G20 meeting. You can hardly argue that U.S. banks are treated leniently in the wake of a $16.6 billion fine for Bank of America. However the U.S.’s Balkanised system of regulation fosters misunderstandings. Local watchdogs such as the DFS, whose Boss Ben Lawsky radiates ambition like a log-burning stove on a winter night, scrabble for fines and influence in competition with state and federal rivals. The foreign policies of the U.S. are formulated by its government and articulated by its President. No single authority fulfils that role for extraterritorial financial regulation. The result is unpredictability, raised costs for banks and growing resentment abroad. There needs to be a mature discussion on the validity and proportionality of U.S. oversight of foreign banks. For this to flourish, participants should leave national flags at home. They get in the way.

StanChart’s NY settlement draws UAE ire United Arab Emirates warns of possible litigation from customers as lender is forced to ‘exit’ Gulf country under terms of anti-money laundering deal

Rosneft hit by western sanctions as $2bn Vitol deal scrapped: "A planned $2bn deal between Rosneft and oil trader Vitol has been shelved, in the latest sign that tougher western sanctions are hampering the Russian state oil group’s ambitions. Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, had been in talks for several months to raise about $2bn from US and European banks to make an advance payment to Rosneft in exchange for future oil supplies." (Financial Times)

WH Smith Plc (SMWH.L) Announced, in its pre close update, that its travel business continues good performance and the new store opening programme remains on track both in the UK and internationally. In the high street business, its focus on gross margin gains and tight cost control continues to deliver a good performance. Both businesses remain highly cash generative. The company expects the outcome for the year to 31 August 2014 to be in line with market expectations.

Balfour to revalue public-private deals Analysts predict a revaluation of contracts to build and run UK schools, hospitals and university accommodation could more than double its book value

Under-fire Ladbrokes Boss bags £1 million just days after bookmaker posts 50% profits slump: The under-fire Boss of Ladbrokes has been handed shares worth £1 million just days after the bookmaker reported a 50% fall in profits.

Imperial Tobacco 5.6% dividend is attractive: Imperial Tobacco is a solid, defensive share that offers a 5.6% prospective dividend. Management said trading was on track to hit full year market expectations and, for investors looking for income, the stock remains a solid option. The FTSE 100-listed tobacco giant, which makes Davidoff and Gauloises Blondes, said it sold 91.7 billion cigarettes in the nine months ended June 30, a 1% fall. Revenues also dropped 1%, to £4.75 billion, in the period. In fact, the results for the nine-month period show a marked improvement at Imperial. The company was showing cigarette volumes down 3% and revenues down 5% at the half year stage. The company is spending £4.2 billion on buying U.S. cigarette brands Winston and Kool, as part of the $25 billion (£15 billion) merger between two of the world’s biggest tobacco groups – Reynolds American and Lorillard. Alison Cooper, one of the few female Chief Executives of a FTSE 100-listed company, reassured Imperial investors that a rights issue would not be needed to complete the deal, as debt financing had already been agreed. However, the group said it would suspend its share buy-back programme to speed up debt repayment. Imperial has been slowly moving into the growing e-cigarettes sector, and is due to launch its own version this year through its Fontem Ventures unit. It has been trailing its main U.K. rival, British American Tobacco (BAT), which launched its first e-cigarette last year. Over the long term, the tobacco industry is not expected to have a problem increasing prices to combat falling volumes. Imperial’s balance sheet is strong and the company remains an excellent place to park cash. Imperial Tobacco at 25.85+59p Questor Says “Hold”.

Wood Group dividend up 25%: The U.S. shale boom helped Wood Group report a strong set of first half results in which pretax profits rose 15% and investors were rewarded with a 25% increase in the interim dividend. The oil service company’s figures for the six months ended June 30 were boosted by strong demand from the shale gas industry in the U.S. The group’s PSN production services division, which assists with shale drilling, reported pretax profits up 46.7%, on revenues up 22%. Wood Group increased its exposure to the U.S. shale market when it purchased Wyoming-based services firm Elkhorn last November, and Chief Executive Bob Keiller said the acquisition should help deliver growth this year. Strong performance in the energy sector helped offset Wood Group’s weaker engineering division, which accounts for 46% of the company’s profit and about a third of revenues. The engineering arm provides equipment and pipelines, as well as maintenance work, for oil wells on land and at sea. The company said that engineering profits fell 9% during the first half despite revenues climbing 4%. The division is being hit as oil majors cut back on new projects and Canada’s heavy oil sands market suffers a sharp reduction in activity. Mr Keiller said he is confident of hitting full year revenue and profit targets. Market expectations are for pretax profits of $444 million (£266 million), on revenues of $7.23 billion, giving 99c, or 59.5p, in earnings per share. Questor thinks that the full year dividend increase could be nudged above 25%. The payout is covered five times by the adjusted earnings and provides a yield of 2.3%. The shares, trading on 12.6 times forecast earnings, are a hold. Wood Group at 788½p+37p Questor Says “Hold”.

Carlsberg: red tied: Carlsberg’s half year report, released on Wednesday, amounts to a nasty headache. And the company’s stock chart since the bet was made shows how little merriment preceded the pain. Russia represents about a third of Carlsberg’s profit. It owns Baltika, the country’s largest brewer, and has held a stake since 1992. Thus, when Carlsberg increased this stake in Baltika, first when it bought the eastern half of Scottish and Newcastle in 2008, and again 2012, one might have thought it knew the risks. Apparently not. The situation in Russia and Ukraine is bad enough that the 2014 goal for operating profit growth has been cut to low from high single-digits. In the period 2004-06, when Russia did not regulate beer as an alcoholic beverage, Baltika’s volumes leapt 43%. A recent campaign against alcoholism has removed the lampshade from the heads of revellers, and the shine from local brewers. Its shares have outrun Carlsberg’s by nearly 19 percentage points this year; until recently the two traded at roughly the same valuation. This is a reminder that big bets on emerging markets are very risky. Development does not follow a straight line. Carlsberg needs to rebalance its portfolio again.

pple: why so tasty?: After a swoon that bottomed in the middle of last year, Apple’s share price is ever so slightly higher than the previous peak in September 2012. That was the day Apple released a flawed maps programme, for which Boss Tim Cook later apologised. This year, the price is up 25%. At $100, Apple’s shares are trading at 14 times next year’s expected earnings, their highest multiple in three-and-a-half years. What has happened? Not a return to vigorous growth – Apple’s revenue growth has been stuck in the mid-single digits for a year. The company has, however, been paying shareholders to hang around. It has spent $72 billion on share repurchases and dividends in the past two years. Apple can afford it: it has $165 billion in cash on hand and generated $49 billion in free cash flow last year (more than a quarter of revenues). The iPhone 6, with a big screen, is expected to launch in September. Analysts’ estimates, which call for Apple’s sales in the final quarter of the year to hit $63 billion, a $5 billion, or 9%, rise over the prior year. That implies a bigger launch, in both absolute and percentage terms, than that of the iPhone 5s. The market may find even this conservative. Anticipating the success of new products is speculative in any case.

U.S. clears Astrazeneca over trial data for new heart drug Brilinta: British drug giant Astrazeneca has been cleared by the U.S. government over concerns about the trial process for its new heart drug Brilinta.

London office market heats up in July: Office space in central London fell by 21% year-on-year in July as improved business confidence and rising employment prompted more firms to move. Data out by DTZ showed firms had taken up 8 million sq ft in the year to date, up 17% on the same period last year

Imperial Tobacco hit by weak sales in Russia and Middle East unrest: Imperial Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company, has been hit by weaker sales in Russia and unrest in the Middle East.

Lombard: BHP’s spin-off will go with the flow: The new business, valued at about $12 billion by Investec, will comprise a raft of unfashionable assets such as aluminium, manganese and nickel. BHP will thus unpick a chunk of its 200 merger with Billiton. The group will lumber away on the four elephantine legs of iron ore, copper, coal and oil (swishing a tail of potash) at an implied valuation of $176 billion. We may surmise that Raftco, as we shall call it, owns mines BHP did not get decent offers for during a two-year disposal programme that, in the event, raised $6.5 billion. Hardly surprising, with commodities in retreat and investment growth braking. Raftco resembles a floating platform from which such wares as the world’s largest silver mine may be displayed for sale when economic tides lift mineral prices again. Will Messrs Kerr and Harris invent a raison d’être for Raftco more inspiring than relieving BHP of part of its conglomerate discount? Or will they go with the flow established by low-key BHP Boss Andrew Mackenzie, whittling down to an irreducible core? Imagination may not be their strong point, judging from Raftco’s real, though temporary, name: Newco. But investors stopped rewarding mining Bosses for bold mental leaps back when the commodities cycle turned.

BHP Billiton: imperial overstretch: BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, is on a slightly different historical scale from Rome. Even so, it is an empire whose vastness has become a problem; it trades at a nasty conglomerate discount. So on Tuesday, it announced plans to demerge assets that it cannot manage properly into a separate listed entity. These assets – should investors approve the split – would include the two biggest silver and manganese mines on earth; span four continents; and have a market capitalisation of perhaps $15 billion. BHP’s U.K. shares fell 4% following the announcement. Investors might be annoyed for short-term reasons. Some in the U.K. may not – under investing mandates – be able to hold on to Australia- and South Africa-listed spin-off paper. Others will be unhappy that BHP is not buying back more of their shares. A promise to “extend our strong record of capital management” at half year results in February became a weaker “return excess cash to shareholders in the most efficient way” by the full year on Tuesday.