Member Info for MY21

Rue barb: A banknote printer has a licence to print money, but only for others. Pretax full year profits have dropped 35% to £39 million at De La Rue, one of the world’s main suppliers of wampum. The market for bank note printing is imperfect, with state-owned printers willing to run at a loss. The solutions offered by new Chief Executive Martin Sutherland sound a lot like those from Mr Cobbold, including a focus on the fast-growing plastic notes business. Some market veterans may still refer to the group as “Danny La Rue”, in homage to a bygone drag artist. He had a talent for reinvention. The company does not. Chairman Philip Rogerson should give Oberthur a call.

Saudi Arabia: outta gas: Natural gas has been Saudi Arabia’s chosen energy source for power generation. The country produces slightly more gas than it consumes at almost four trillion cubic feet per year. Although it appears to already have a huge supply, worth 77 years of consumption, much of this gas can only be produced together with the oil that the country has in reserve. Only increasing oil production excessively would enable the extraction of this associated gas. But that is not an option for a so-called global swing producer of crude. So it will need to look elsewhere to meet its future consumption needs. The country’s natural gas shortage has not come for lack of effort. Saudi Arabia, through its national oil company Aramco, has long searched for more natural gas resources to help expand its supply. With power demand growing at around seven% annually according to Aramco, it has increased its exploration efforts. The Baker Hughes gas rig count for Saudi Arabia has doubled to a near record 45 over the past two years. As a result, solar has increasing appeal as a power source. Solar panels have become cheaper, while sunlight comes free. Plans are afoot to expand solar power generation by 41 gigawatts by 2032, roughly two-thirds of its planned overall capacity expansion to about 180GW.

Trafigura becomes major exporter of Russian oil: Swiss commodity trader Trafigura has become a major exporter of Russian oil as sanctions have squeezed Kremlin-backed companies’ access to credit and led to a shake-up of how Moscow sells its crude.

Housing market brought to standstill by election nerves: The number of first-time buyers dwindled across Britain at the start of the year as pre-election jitters caused a slump in the housing market

Call for new housing on wedges of green belt: Green belts around cities must be abolished and replaced with “green fingers” flanked by thousands of new homes built in the countryside, according to a former government planning adviser Election certainty builds confidence at Telford Homes: Telford Homes declared that the Conservatives’ unexpected win in the general election had provided “certainty and stability” for Britain’s housing market.

Magnate donates £4.5 million to Aberdeen for when the oil runs out: Sir Ian Wood has given £4.5 million to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, to help secure the future of the city, “long after” North Sea energy resources have run out

Oil and gas groups prove to be masters of the big deal: Companies in the oil and gas sector are more likely to carry out successful mergers and acquisitions that generate long-term value for shareholders than those of any other industry.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.71% or $0.44 higher at $62.50 per barrel, ahead of the Energy Information Administration weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract declined 2.61% or $1.66, to settle at $62.06 per barrel. The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed that the US crude stockpiles rose by 1.3 million barrels in the previous week.

Serco appoints City veteran as chairman Choice of Sir Roy Gardner is part of outsourcing group’s efforts to rebuild business

BSA mortgage lending "strong" Building societies approved 91,489 mortgages in the first quarter of the year, slightly down on the 92,606 approved a year earlier, showed new data released by the Building Societies Association (BSA). It also revealed £12.7 billion of gross new mortgage lending in the first three months of the year, accounting for 29% of all new lending across the market. Mortgage lending by building societies, net of repayments, was £3.5 billion in Q1; across all other lenders net lending was negative at -£0.5 billion. "Lending by building societies has been strong," said Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the BSA. "Without the contribution of this section of the market the stock of mortgage loans across the UK would have shrunk."

Aberdeen oil services business expands through £10.25 million takeover: Oteac, the Aberdeen-based fire and safety specialist, has bought the HVAC & Refrigeration Engineering business in a £10.25 million deal.

More North Sea job losses on the way warns industry leader: The new Chief Executive of Oil & Gas U.K., Deirdre Michie, has said more job losses are likely in the North Sea and raised the prospect of a permanent fall in the numbers employed in the industry.

U.K. consumer confidence hits pre-crisis levels of 2006: U.K. consumers are at their most upbeat for nine years on the back of improving job prospects and low inflation, according to the latest report to suggest spending power is recovering.

London asking prices jump 17% after the election: London homes that were put up for sale following the general election are 17% more expensive than properties that were already listed, reviving memories of the heady days of last year’s hot housing market.

Still shirty at 30: A 30th birthday bears with it the danger of respectability. Ryanair is no exception to that rule. Chief Executive Michael O’Leary has toned down the braggadocio that alienated some customers. Full year post-tax profits 66% higher at €867 million proclaim the virtues of the Irish airline’s low-cost model compared with rivals’ as loudly as Mr O’Leary ever could. Investors liked these numbers partly because unit costs before fuel were flat, despite new routes to destinations that are costlier, such as Rome Fiumicino. They were also impressed that the crucial bums-on-seats quotient rose from 83% to 88%. This fosters confidence that Ryanair can take the figure to 90% this year, when the airline expects to make post-tax profits of €940 million to €970 million. The fate of Ryanair’s 29.8% stake in Aer Lingus is something of a sideshow in comparison. Nevertheless, Mr O’Leary railed against the decree of U.K. competition watchdogs that he should sell shares which International Airlines Group would gladly buy. A chap has to let off steam that way if he can’t make jokes about portly folk and the Manneken Pis any more

Ryanair: Ryan high: Can it keep up the momentum? The shares trade at a premium to rivals, but Tuesday’s 6% price rise suggests plenty of confidence in the company. And Ryanair’s own cautious optimism does not look out of place. True, it has hedged nine-tenths of its fuel purchases this year at a painful $92 a barrel (against a market price of $63). So it looks to have less wiggle room than less-hedged IAG. But not all hedges work badly for Ryanair. The company generates much of its income in euros but buys fuel in dollars. It has hedged the exchange rate at $1.33 per euro, against a market rate of $1.09. Price competition will still hurt — it expects its average winter fares to fall 4-8%. But better service will help. Ryanair’s website update, business-friendly schedules to primary airports, allocated seats and extra cabin baggage translate into more passengers, and 88% of seats being filled. Apply the volume gains from those changes to Ryanair’s low cost base (excluding fuel, costs were flat last year), add its ability to push up average fares and other revenue and it is easy to see why its net margin rose to 15% from 10 a year ago. That is serious wiggle room. This is not an airline slowing down. With its discovery that a little love goes a long way, Ryanair has realised that market share is to lose.

UK CBI distributive trade survey's retail sales balance registered a rise in May In the UK, the CBI distributive trade survey's retail sales balance rose to a level of 51.00% in May, higher than market expectations of an advance to a level of 20.00%. In the previous month, the CBI distributive trade survey's retail sales balance had registered a level of 12.00%.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.27% or $0.17 higher at $63.89 per barrel, ahead of the American Petroleum Institute weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract declined 2.75% or $1.80, to settle at $63.72 per barrel, on the back of a strengthening greenback and as the US shale outlook indicated a likelihood of an increase in drilling activity.

BUZZ-Taylor Wimpey, Barratt: hit near 8-yr highs as DB hikes targets Tue, 26th May 2015 11:07 ** Taylor Wimpey & Barratt Developments both hit near 8-yr highs in decent volume as Deutsche Bank hikes target prices for pair ** Both stocks beneficiaries of MSCI rebalance on May 29; one trader cites this as additional catalyst ** DB hikes TP for Taylor Wimpey to 210p vs 173p, & for Barratt to 659p vs 576p (DB rated at 5 stars for recommendation accuracy on Barratt, according to StarMine) ** Broker sees dividend yield as increasingly important valuation tool; notes avg divi yield of 4% in 2015E & selected cos paying 6%+ & that UK housebuilders feature strongly in the top ranks of yields in the FTSE indexes ** Taylor Wimpey, Barratt & Bovis remain its top sector picks (DB lifts Bovis's TP to 1,266p vs 1,114p, stock up 0.2 pct) ** Upside to broker's TPs for Taylor Wimpey & Barratt now more moderate after strong performance, but sees further upside for those valuing solely on divi; Bovis is its growth stock of choice ** Taylor Wimpey & Barratt 3rd & 4th top FTSE 100 risers, up 1.6 pct & 1.5 pct respectively; also 3rd & 4th most actively traded stocks on the index, respectively (RM: tricia.wright1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

Shell to shut crude unit at Singapore refinery for maintenance -traders Tue, 26th May 2015 07:16 SINGAPORE, May 26 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell will shut a crude unit at its 500,000 barrels-per-day Bukom refinery in Singapore for planned maintenance in the third quarter, several traders from outside the company said. A Shell spokeswoman declined to provide details related to any work, citing the company's disclosure policy. She added that Shell routinely planned maintenance on equipment. The refiner will shut the 210,000 bpd crude distillation unit (CDU), its largest such unit at the facility, for around one or two months, the traders said. Three of them said the work would start on July 20, while two others said it could start later in the quarter. One of them said a diesel-producing hydrocracker unit might also be shut during the period. The maintenance work at Bukom is expected to boost oil product margins in Singapore, traders said. (Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan and Jane Xie; Editing by Joseph Radford)