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Royal Dutch Shell is preparing to dispose of its 50 per cent stake in a Louisiana gasfield to Blackstone for $1.2bn, as the oil and gas group retreats from one of its souring investments in North America. A person familiar with the situation said Blackstone, the private equity group, is set to acquire Shell’s stake in the Haynesville Shale formation, that rests under large parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, as soon as this week. (Financial Times)

Interim results to decide Ladbrokes Chief’s future: Ladbrokes Chief Executive Richard Glynn has been warned by leading investors that his job will be under threat unless he can show signs of a turnaround at the struggling betting giant this week.

William Hill allows lone workers after policy U-turn amid ‘rising costs’ despite safety concerns: Britain’s biggest betting shop chain William Hill has come under fire from MPs after abandoning its pledge to ensure that no employee was ever expected to work alone late at night.

Serco set to flounder in the red and seek funding from investors after tagging scandal results in loss of contracts: Serco, the troubled outsourcing giant being probed by the Serious Fraud Office, is set to plunge into the red and is believed to be poised to ask investors for hundreds of millions of pounds.

Buy Bellway as shares look cheap: Housebuilder Bellway has been boosted by the Help to Buy scheme. The company has seen a dramatic increase in the number of houses sold and the prices it has received ever since the scheme was introduced in April last year. Profits are soaring and investors have been rewarded with a significant increase in the dividend. The FTSE 250-listed housebuilder said it had “significantly increased output” of houses to meet “strong” consumer demand during the year ended July. The company added that housing completions increased by 21.1% to 6,851 and the average selling price increased by 10% to £213,000 during the year ended July. In particular sales of homes in London jumped 43% to 1,236. The forward order book increased by 36% to £924.3 million by 31 July up from £679.5 million a year earlier. Bellway believes that the extension of the Help to Buy equity loan scheme until 2020 will help sustain demand. The balance sheet is in a strong position with net cash of £5 million at the end of the year, up from net debt of £5.8 million at the same stage last year. Questor picked the shares as one of its tips of the year due to the assistance it is getting from Help to Buy, and that recommendation remains. Questor says “Buy.”

Sage veteran to leave with £6 million: The Boss of the British software developer Sage could pocket a leaving package of as much as £6 million when he retires in March. Guy Berruyer has accumulated a share pot worth £2.7 million since joining the FTSE 100 company in 1997.

The Dixons Carphone merger creates a company well-equipped to deal with increasing levels of connectivity and convergence in technologies with mobile devices an important part of daily life Investec was about about the retailer's prospects as the shares in the newly-merged company made their debut on the stock exchange

Aviva boasts rising profits in first half of the year: Aviva has reported a four% rise in profit before tax reaching over £1 billion for the half year to 7 August. Furthermore, the insurance provider’s operating expenses are £129 million lower, at £1.4 billion.

Sell RSA as turnaround labours: RSA Insurance’s first set of results, following some major balance sheet surgery under Stephen Hester, was an opportunity to show shareholders the promise of a brighter future. RSA, formerly known as Royal and Sun Alliance, first hit problems in November last year. A black hole was discovered in the Irish division’s accounts, which required a near-doubling of reserves from £70 million to £130 million. The gap in the Irish arm’s insurance loss reserves was compounded by a £220 million fraud. RSA launched a £748 million discounted rights issue in March, the Baltic and Polish divisions were sold in April to raise a further £300 million, and the share price was consolidated five-for-one in May. This offset a strong performance in Scandinavia. Looking at the company as a whole, the amount of insurance it is writing is falling, with net written premiums down 9% to £3.9 billion. And the core insurance business is only just breaking even, with a profit from underwriting of £2 million, down from £188 million in the same period last year. The problem for RSA is that with record low bond yields, investment returns are also falling, down from £192 million to £166 million. Once you add in head office, interest and restructuring costs, the company reported first-half, pretax profits of £69 million, down from £250 million at the same stage last year. Questor picked RSA as a very high risk buy last year (92½p, December 16) on the basis that the core business would attract buyers and it would resolve its problems. Questor thinks this is as good a time as any to bail out of this speculative tip, and downgrades to a sell. RSA Insurance at 430½p-13.4p. Questor says “Sell”

House prices more than five times earnings for first time since crisis: Strong house price growth has taken the multiple of average home values to more than five times earnings for the first time since the financial crisis.

House price inflation highest since 2007 with homes now more expensive compared to wages than at peak of the 1980s boom: House prices jumped £2,500 in July despite reports of a mortgage slowdown, and now stand 10.2% higher than they were a year ago, according to the latest figures from Halifax.

The Rubicon, recrossed: What could possibly have motivated senior civil servant Stephen Kelly to become Chief Executive of Sage? Does he relish the adrenalin-drenched thrill of selling accounting software to small businesses? Or is he attracted by the £790,000 salary and £1 million sign-on bonus, payable if six-year performance targets are met? A bit of both, maybe. Mandarins get knighthoods and defined benefit pensions in lieu of fat salaries. Mr Kelly is described as “the government’s Chief operating officer”. In reality, operational power – of which there is far less than politicians pretend – is jealously guarded within departments. Outgoing Sage Chief Executive Guy Berruyer has left Mr Kelly to continue the process he started. Sage wants to switch customers from software installed on their own PCs to online services.

Lombard: Sands of time may be running out for StanChart Boss: Half year profits have dropped 20% to $3.27 billion. Waning enthusiasm for emerging markets has lowered the bank in investors’ estimation. The credibility of Chief Executive Peter Sands and Chairman Sir John Peace are damagingly counterpoised. The penalty was disproportionate to the offence. But it damaged StanChart’s reputation, hastening the departure of smart, outspoken finance Director Richard Meddings, a favourite with City investors. The revelation that the bank may have to pay Mr Lawsky a second, smaller penalty for related compliance cock-ups rebounds poorly on Mr Sands. The cerebral ex-McKinseyite and Sir John are now being punished for a strategy that once won them acclaim: expanding Asian lending and securities trading. It is for investors to decide whether this was wrong conceptually, or only in execution. The latter gets Sir John off the hook. He already has Aberdeen Asset Management’s support.

China cars: hot pursuit: Car manufacturers are the latest victims. On Monday, antitrust officers raided the Shanghai offices of Daimler subsidiary Mercedes-Benz. Others in trouble include Chrysler, Audi and BMW. Shares in Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW are down one-tenth since mid-July, when investigation murmurs began. China’s complaint has already started to have an impact on pricing, with Daimler, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover cutting prices pre-emptively. The financial hit could also be significant. China accounts for 15% of Daimler’s revenues and one-fifth of BMW’s. Neither company reveals China profits, but foreign automakers, which dominate two-thirds of that market, seem to be raking it in. Bernstein estimates that at least half of BMW’s earnings before interest and tax comes from Chinese sources, including royalties and the company’s local joint venture. Not only will operating income suffer. China can levy up to a tenth of sales as punishment for monopolistic practices. Applied to BMW’s China sales last year, that would wipe out around half, or €1.5 billion, of BMW’s stellar net profits from this year’s first half.

China Life poised to take $250 million stake in TPG: China Life is set to inject $250 million into TPG, in one of the first Chinese investments in the buyout industry since CIC took a $3 billion stake in U.S. private equity group Blackstone in 2007 – and suffered bruising initial losses.

L&G beats hit on annuities with strategy of bulk buying: Legal & General shrugged off concerns about the impact of George Osborne’s pension reforms as it reported an increase in profits that beat forecasts and bumped up its half-year dividend by more than a fifth.

Asos slumps to 18-month low: Shares in online clothing retailer Asos hit an 18 month low after Liberum said it expected shares to fall a further 38% in coming months as its first mover advantage was eroded by market competitors.

Boots falls into hands of U.S. rival: American giant Walgreens set to complete acquisition of store in a deal worth £5 billion: American drugs stores giant Walgreens is set to complete its acquisition of Boots in a deal worth around £5 billion.

Price competition hits Telecity shares: Shares in Telecity fell almost 4% as the company stuck with expansion plans despite increased competition hitting prices for its services. Questor thinks that investors should look past the chunky increase in the dividend for now and wait for evidence of prices stabilising. Demand has been fuelled by people choosing to watch films and music online as DVDs and CDs disappear from the home. The Manchester-based technology company has seen its pretax profits more than double during the past five years as it has built data warehouses across Europe. Telecity faces stiff competition from Amazon, which offers its own data service called EC2. So while growth is still encouraging, it could become less profitable. Telecity reported first half pretax profits up 13% to £50 million, on revenue up 9% to £174.1 million in the first six months ended June 30. The amount of data space provided to customers, which is measured in megawatts (mW) of power, increased 18.1% to 106.3mW. However, the company said the amount of money it makes from selling the data services is falling. Revenue per kilowatt (kW) of power fell by 8.6% to £4,682 during the first half. That explains why the group revenue only increased at about half the rate of the increase in power. The company has used borrowing to fund expansion and net debt increased to £296 million at June 30, up from £288 million at the same stage last year. Telecity is a fast growing and cash generative company but the shares are looking expensive, trading on 20 times forecast earnings. The interim dividend was given a chunky 29% increase to 4.5p, but we’d avoid until there is more clarity on pricing. Telecity at 756p-35p Questor Says “Avoid”.

Meggitt’s air shot: A friend, atomising clays with her shotgun, remarked: “hitting moving targets is easy when you have the knack”. That knack evades Lombard, who missed repeatedly, and Meggitt, whose half year underlying earnings undershot Bloomberg consensus by 13% at £151.4 million. Meggitt has therefore lowered its sights to target low single-digit sales growth this year. That still requires a rebound in the second half. Organic revenues, which exclude currency revenues, fell 3% at the interim stage. The shares dropped 7% as analysts cut forecasts. The feeling that Meggitt is drifting will be reinforced if these estimates are also shots in the dark. A market valuation of 14 times earnings partly reflects takeover rumours that tipped United Technologies of the U.S. as an acquirer. Consolidation is likely in the defence industry, though such boil-downs are rarely as inevitable as theorists imagine. Meggitt could at least boast of an order from the Indian navy for 160 Banshee target drones. They should give Indian gunners better aim than City forecasters, Lombard or Meggitt itself.