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BHP Billiton beats expectations but disappoints with guidance: Mining giant BHP Billiton smashed through iron ore production guidance in the year ended 30 June, posting output of 233 million tonnes against a projected 230 million tonnes.

Surge for City spaces propels LandSec sales: Property giant Land Securities said momentum continues to grow after logging strong annual results earlier this year, with healthy take-up in London, low vacancy rates and rising rental values

Warning: Oil and gas services sector weakness could hit broader Scottish economy: Major weakness in the oil and gas services sector could hit the broader economy north of the Border, Scottish Chambers of Commerce has warned

Country’s worst landlord blames tenants for property convictions: A London landlord has been convicted for property offences seven times but believes she is the victim, not her tenants.

Most 20 to 39-year-olds will be in private rented homes by 2025, warns PwC: More than half of 20 to 39-year-olds will be renting property from private landlords rather than living in their own homes a decade from now, according to a new report

Shell banned from Arctic oil drilling without emergency equipment: Royal Dutch Shell has been granted two final permits to explore for crude in the Arctic this summer, but the U.S. has banned the company from drilling for oil until emergency equipment arrives in the region.

Sage and SAP: software shake-up: Both U.K.-based Sage and Germany’s SAP face a common conundrum. Companies such as Salesforce and NetSuite are winning market share by selling subscription-based software, while users increasingly prefer remotely hosted “cloud” applications that require less internal IT support. Both trends are a threat to licence-based software that users run on their own networks. Sage and SAP are adapting to this new world in very different ways. SAP has spent big, acquiring $18 billion worth of cloud-related companies since 2011. This has had a predictable impact on cloud revenues; they rose 130% in the first half. But at a price. Adjusted for exchange-rate movements, operating margins fell 2 percentage points to 28% and net profit dropped too — partly because of interest charges on the €10 billion of debt taken on to pay for acquisitions. Sage is pursuing an internal transformation, gradually migrating customers to subscription-based products. A trading statement on Wednesday showed more sedate revenue growth; subscription revenue was up 9.7% and overall revenue grew 7.5%. Operating margins were maintained at 28%. Of the two, Sage is in the stronger position. Small business customers are conservative, giving it more time to complete the transition; meanwhile, it can fall back on other self-help measures such as cost cutting to maintain profitability. It is also small enough to be a potential takeover target.

Cairn Energy to vote against Vedanta offer: U.K.-based explorer Cairn Energy is set to vote against an offer by Vedanta Ltd to buy out minority shareholders in its former subsidiary Cairn India, according to people familiar with the situation.

Not so grim up north as Scottish house prices soar: Soaring house prices in Edinburgh and Aberdeen have helped Scotland to produce the fastest-growing property values of any U.K. region in the first half of the year.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading marginally higher at $56.13 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract declined 1.6% or $0.91, to settle at $56.13 per barrel, after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a sudden increase in commercial crude stockpiles by 2.5 million oil barrels to reach 463.9 million barrels for the week ending July 17.

KLG remains on track for a new resource estimate in calendar Q3 and a completed PEA during calendar Q1 of 2016. With near-surface copper grades like these, I think that it is increasingly likely that an SX-EW copper deposit of significant size, with attractive potential profit margins is shaping up, even in this very low copper price environment.

Land Securities has had a solid start to the year and maintained good momentum, with healthy take-up in London, low vacancy rates and rental values rising. In its interim statement for the first quarter, the company said that in retail, the transformation of its portfolio is continuing to pay off. By focusing on assets which offer customers an excellent experience, while either being dominant in their catchment or highly convenient, it has seen footfall up 2.5%, same store sales up 3.8% and same centre sales up 5.4% on the same quarter last year.

Experian sells its business intelligence arm FootFall to U.S. firm Tyco for £38.5 million: Global information services firm Experian announced that it had divested itself of retail intelligence business FootFall for £38.5 million to Tyco.

British home transactions jump in June: The housing market picked up pace in June as both buyers and sellers returned to the market after shaking off uncertainty from the General Election

Two banks, one problem: What is it about Barclays and Standard Chartered? The more you look, the more there seems to be a kind of yin-yang thing going on, writes Patrick Jenkins. Britain’s third and fifth biggest banks have little obviously in common. One is a U.K. retail lender with an investment bank on the side. The other is a retail and commercial bank with an emerging markets bent. But their stories seem intertwined these days. StanChart Chairman Sir John Peace recently ousted then Chief Executive Peter Sands, delighting investors. This month, Barclays’ Chairman John McFarlane ejected Antony Jenkins. Both banks are now likely to be rejigged thoroughly, with management shake-ups and mass job cuts. There are those echoing boardroom links, too. StanChart’s senior independent Director, Naguib Kheraj, is a former Barclays finance Director and the former subordinate of Bill Winters, when the new StanChart Chief was at JPMorgan. The current Barclays finance Director, Tushar Morzaria, was Mr Winters’ FD at JPMorgan’s investment bank. All of which will titillate committed City observers.

More will pay rent than own a mortgage by 2025: The number of people renting homes will overtake those with a mortgage in the next decade as the rise in Owner-occupation since the Second World War goes into reverse.

UK public sector net borrowing reported a surplus in June In the UK, the public sector net borrowing (excluding temporary effects of financial interventions) reported a surplus £9.40 billion in June, from a revised surplus of £9.10 billion in the previous month. UK public sector net borrowing recorded a surplus in June In the UK, in June, the public sector net borrowing reported a surplus £8.60 billion, from a revised surplus of £8.40 billion in the previous month. Markets were expecting public sector net borrowing to post a surplus of £8.70 billion.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.89% or $0.51 lower at $56.53 per barrel, ahead of the Energy Information Administration weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract climbed 0.69% or $0.39, to settle at $57.04 per barrel, amid a weaker dollar and hopes of a decline in crude inventory in the EIA report. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly oil report indicated that US stockpiles increased by 2.3 million barrels for the week ending July 17.

Standard Chartered: act one: A neat trick, Mr Winters. Appearing to push power out to the regions while simultaneously concentrating it at the centre is a rare skill. But Bill Winters, new Chief Executive of U.K.-based bank Standard Chartered, has managed to pull it off. In a management rejig he has given himself more direct control over the business (mostly at the expense of Mike Rees, his deputy.) But he has also merged eight regions into four and given the newly appointed heads of those regions more control over how their businesses are run (mostly at the expense of centralised teams). Such shuffling of the furniture invites scepticism. Will it really make much difference to how the businesses are run on the ground? But there is much to like about Mr Winters’ new management structure. First, there is less of it. StanChart needs to cut costs — its cost-to-income ratio jumped by 4 percentage points to 59% last year — and slimming management will help. Managing the business along regional lines (with the exception of the investment bank) is also a good move. In many cases, StanChart’s competitors are local or regional banks rather than big global institutions. Still, this is only stage one. If Mr Winters is to win back investor confidence — the bank’s shares have fallen a third in two years — there must be more to come. A strategy update is due later this year. Further cost cuts may well be part of it. But he also needs to provide more clarity on the health of the loan book, perhaps as soon as the first-half results due next month. And he needs to be clear about whether he plans to raise capital. StanChart is not the only bank with new management, and shareholders may soon face a string of requests for more money. If Mr Winters plans to ask, he should do so sooner rather than later.

Crude supertanker operators cash in on oil market rout: For Owners of the supertankers capable of hauling more than 2 million barrels of crude around the world, the crash in oil prices has been good for business.