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Bit of a rough diamond for around £60 million: Petra Diamonds took the wraps off their 122.52 carat blue diamond , no bigger than a strawberry, but potentially worth more than £60 million – and the sale process will begin next Monday, 18 August.

Diageo Bosses see payouts fall on slow growth: Diageo’s Ivan Menezes received a £7.8 million pay package in his first year as Chief Executive of the drinks giant, although it was almost £500,000 less than he picked up 
in his previous role as Chief operating officer.

Shell on brink of Nigeria oil sales: Oil giant set to announce multi-billion pound sale of four onshore oil blocks in region: Shell has taken a major step towards announcing the multi-billion pound sale of four onshore oil blocks in Nigeria, after wrapping up key sales and purchase agreements.

Avoid Mitie until it exits loss making business: Outsourcing group Mitie offers investors a steady dividend income backed by excellent revenue visibility, but Questor remains cautious. Mitie said it had made a “positive start” to the new financial year. The outsourcer has extended its £250 million contract with Vodafone, looking after the mobile phone group’s 1,500-strong U.K. property portfolio, for another five years. Signing long-term contracts to provide cleaning and general maintenance for buildings gives Mitie excellent visibility on its future revenues. The company said 90% of the budgeted revenue for the current financial year had been secured by June 30, a slight improvement from the 89% secured at the same stage last year. However, Mitie’s contracts are not risk-free. The company, which also installs wiring and lighting inside buildings, has to estimate the costs of delivering its service when bidding for work. There are two parts of Mitie’s business that are proving to be very painful at the moment. The company is exiting from its loss-making mechanical and electrical engineering construction business; and is drastically cutting back its asset management arm, where it built energy-from-waste plants. In terms of the balance sheet, the company is relatively sound. Management said the financial position at June 30 was similar to that reported at March 31, which Questor takes as net debt of around £187 million, against a net asset value of £401 million, or 110p per share. Questor is uncomfortable with the amount of exceptional costs recently and would rather wait to reassess the situation once the troublesome businesses have been fully exited. Mitie at 305.8p-0.7p Questor Says “Avoid.”

Legal & General ‘quitting Association of British Insurers’: Legal & General is to announce on Wednesday that it is leaving the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the industry’s trade body.

Lombard: Pru’s recurring Thiam risks joining the establishment: Tidjane Thiam has once again told the City that Prudential should have bought Asian insurer AIA Group for $36 billion in 2010. Sore point. Mr Thiam, super smart Chief Executive of the U.K. insurer, was in favour. Investors rejected the deal, dizzied by the scale of the accompanying $21 billion rights issue. It is Mr Thiam’s success in running the Pru that may embolden him to kick against the pricks, rather than an acquaintance with Sheryl Crowe. Despite a soaring pound and slowing Asian growth, the insurer beat half-year profits forecasts, raising net cash remittances 15% and the dividend by the same amount. Pru appears to have cracked a puzzle facing all multinationals: ensuring buffets in tough regions are smaller than boosts from strong ones. Jackson Life, Pru’s U.S. subsidiary, lifted profits 28% to £686 million in constant currencies, followed by Asia up 19% at £483 million. The rear was brought up by the U.K., whose citizens – or at least, insurers – are gripped with angst over annuities reform.

Royal Dutch Shell to cut 250 jobs in Aberdeen: Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil major, says it will cut around 250 jobs in Aberdeen as part of a reorganisation of its North Sea operations.

Sir Philip Green’s Topshop and Miss Selfridge brands are to push into China with an agreement to launch on the ShangPin.com fashion retail website next month. ShangPin.com is an online multi-brand retailer of designer and contemporary fashion, which says it has more than 5m customers. (Financial Times)

Hotel activity to hit new record high as investor appetite grows: Investors stepped up their spending on U.K. hotels in the first six months of the year as rising confidence and increased availability of debt helped boost activity in the sector.

BSkyB shoots for budget viewers with pay-weekly for Sky Sports: BSkyB looks set to double down on its bid to capitalise on budget TV customers, a strategy that has seen rival TalkTalk soar to record user growth, as the satellite broadcaster begins offering a £10.99 seven day pass for Sky Sports for its Now TV video streaming service.

Troubled Punch Taverns strikes a deal to stave off its collapse: The group was meant to announce plan to tackle £2.5 billion debt : Troubled Punch Taverns has negotiated a ten-day ‘grace period’ to come up with a plan to restructure its debts and secure its future.

Pubs closing at rate of 31 a week: The rate at which British pubs are closing down has accelerated to 31 a week and 3% of pubs in the suburbs have shut in the past six months, the real ale group Camra has warned.

Balfour brickbats: The gulf between Balfour Beatty and would-be merger partner Carillion appears unbridgeable. The construction group has rejected a revised £3 billion proposal from the support services company. Rightly so, since this was tweaked rather than significantly improved. Carillion – Tarmac, as was – seems to have problems thinking itself into the shoes of others. Initial talks foundered because Carillion unexpectedly demanded that Balfours retain Parsons Brinckerhoff, a consultancy it is auctioning. The best Carillion could then do by way of a sweetener was to suggest that it would keep that process alive, reimbursing bidders’ costs if the merger proceeded and took Parsons off the table. Carillion has been unrealistic about the flexibility that can be expected of counter parties. But Balfour is starry-eyed in believing it has much future as an independently-quoted business. Construction is low-margin, cyclical and risky. This was illustrated by a 53% fall in Balfour’s half year underlying profits to £22 million. The problems were in the U.K. Balfour is therefore focusing on the U.S. But diversification only works if the risk profile of the whole business can be improved. Some other quoted construction groups have judged this unachievable and quit the sector instead.

Balfour dangles £200 million in front of investors as it rejects merger again: Balfour Beatty offered a £200 million sweetener to shareholders, despite tumbling profits, as the building company rejected a second overture from rival Carillion over a £3 billion merger.

London house price growth ‘to slow to 3%’ Residential estate agent halves its 2015 forecast as impending general election and fears of a rate rise weigh on house price sentiment

After falling 21% in the past year, Standard Chartered's shares appear worth buying, Iain Dey argued in the Sunday Times. The bank got through the financial crisis without a glitch and it has an enviable network in emerging markets, Dey said in the Inside the City column. Rising bad debts and worries about lax controls or arrogance have stripped Standard Chartered of its premium valuation but it still makes lots of money and offers a yield of 4%. The bank could need new leadership or simply time to mend relations with the City but if you don't think China is heading for economic disaster, the shares are probably worth picking up.

BALFOUR BEATTY PLC RESULTS FOR THE HALF-YEAR ENDED 27 JUNE 2014 Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, reports its financial results for the half-year ended 27 June 2014. The Group is currently in an offer period which ends on 21 August 2014. This deadline may be extended by agreement between the parties and the consent of the Takeover Panel. The Group's income statements have been re-presented to classify the Mainland European rail business in Italy within discontinued operations. Summary · Overall first-half results are in line with our most recent trading update. · Review of the Directors' Valuation of our UK PPP portfolio has been completed over the first half to take into account current market conditions. An update will be released as soon as possible. · Competitive sale process of Parsons Brinckerhoff is well advanced. Subject to satisfying the interests of key stakeholders, it is anticipated that the Group will return up to £200 million to shareholders. · Operational issues in our UK mechanical & electrical engineering business significantly impacted overall first- half financial performance. Remedial action plan and cost efficiencies are being implemented. · Elsewhere in Construction Services the US performed strongly, with 14% revenue growth at constant currency whilst the order book remained stable. Good wins in Asia and the Middle East. · Professional Services performance is in line with 2013, increased profitability in Support Services. · Infrastructure Investments delivered another good performance, with disposal proceeds significantly above the Directors' Valuation. · Underlying2, 3 half-year pre-tax profit of £22 million (2013: £47 million) and underlying2, 3 EPS of 3.9 pence (2013: 6.6 pence). · Order book2 stable at £13.0 billion, down 1% from the year end at constant currency. · Interim dividend of 5.6 pence per ordinary share (2013: 5.6 pence per ordinary share).

Hold Randgold as gold output jumps: Gold miners have soared this year as investors rush into safe haven assets, and Randgold Resources is no exception. The company underlined its long-term credentials with a strong set of first-half results in which it promised to return more cash to shareholders. The second quarter figures saw profitability bounce back strongly. Mark Bristow, Chief Executive, said the group is now well positioned to beat production targets of 1 million ounces of gold for the full year. He added that, with capital spending set to drop sharply during the next five years, if gold prices remain stable then investors should “watch this space”, as the company will increase returns to shareholders. Production was down 2% on the first quarter, at 277,000 ounces, and cash costs inched up 2% to $701 an ounce. However, the big difference came when investors compared the results with the same period last year. Gold production jumped to 561,000 ounces in the six months ended June 30, up 42% on the same period in 2013. Cash costs have fallen 15% to $693 from a year ago. The amount of gold the group sold in the period was also up strongly, from 374,000 ounces in the second quarter of 2013 to 555,000 ounces in the same period this year. An average first-half gold price of $1,293 per ounce was 14% down on the same period last year, but with production up and costs lower, pretax profits increased 37% to $200.1 million (£118 million). A new project at Kibali produced 204,000 ounces during the first half, and Randgold holds a 45% interest in this mine. The shares are trading on a 2014 earnings multiple of 26.5, falling to 21.5 next year. Randgold is a quality gold miner but much of the good news looks to already be in the price. The shares remain a solid long-term hold. Randgold Resources at £50.70-85p Questor Says “Hold”.

Knight Frank reckons UK farmland values are up 200-plus per cent in a decade, against 130 per cent for residential property and a 50 per cent rise in the FTSE 100

Grosvenor plots first China development Property company owned by Duke of Westminster looks to exploit a market slump in China by building its first housing development project in the country