Member Info for MY21

Zoopla to buy uSwitch as it aims for web dominance: Online property portal Zoopla is to buy online price comparison site uSwitch for in a deal worth up to £190 million.

Tragic Arria: Shareholders needed no such interpretative brilliance to realise that a 7.3 % cut in production costs at the oil major was bad news for the Aim-quoted tech start-up. Arria told them Shell had canned a contract worth $5 million-$10 million. Such sums, spread over three years, would not have been enough to turn Arria losses to profits. But it would have helped. As importantly, the deal gave the Aberdeen University spinout validation from a big name client. The shares dropped 66 % on Thursday, with the result that a meaningful equity raising would heavily dilute current shareholders who chose not to participate. Arria says it can cite big corporate customers other than Shell. A glance at the archives shows the most recent to sign up was BG Group. Which is being taken over by Shell. Gulp.

Royal Dutch Shell: the ugly American: Royal Dutch Shell’s earnings, on Thursday, showed how this works in practice. Its refining and marketing (downstream) business had a good quarter as product demand was decent and input costs — oil prices — fell. The unit’s profits rose two-thirds, contributing 80 % of the group’s net earnings of $3.2 billion. Those were better than expected. Its rivals have posted good downstream results too. Yet the boost from downstream masks the persistent problem in Shell’s exploration business in the Americas. This once provided a sixth of upstream earnings; it is lossmaking now. The problem relates to its unconventional assets — those requiring special production techniques such as fracking. This unconventional production is mostly gas, which trades in the U.S. at $2.50 per million cubic feet. The Americas upstream division — mostly the U.S. and Canada — posted a $1 billion loss in the first quarter. Almost half of that is down to unconventional production. This is the second consecutive quarterly loss. Given the plunge in oil prices, that is understandable. Yet the unit also suffered a loss in 2013, at much higher prices. Good thing that the bulk of upstream earnings, from the rest of the world, have not fallen nearly as much in recent years.

IAG proposal to buy Aer Lingus set to be resolved: The fate of Aer Lingus is close to being decided as International Airlines Group and the Dublin government near a compromise over the terms of the U.K. based airline’s €1.4 billion bid for Ireland’s national carrier.

Foxtons’ sales revenues fall as election looms: Foxtons, the London estate agent which this week saw an angry crowd smash the windows of one of its branches, reported a drop in sales revenues as the downturn in the capital’s luxury housing market continues.

London’s luxury housing market suffers slowdown: The number of houses sold for more than £1 million has fallen, according to official figures, suggesting the luxury London market has been hit by tax changes and pre-election jitters.

Statoil takes $4 billion write-down on U.S. shale assets: Statoil, Norway’s biggest energy group, on Thursday wrote down the value of its shale and oil sands assets in the U.S. and Canada by $4 billion after the sharp fall in crude prices.

Vedanta records $3.1 billion write-down on oil explorer Cairn India: Vedanta Resources, the London-listed natural resources group, has recorded a $3.1 billion write-down on Cairn India, the Mumbai-based oil and gas explorer.

Shell suffers crude awakening but profit fall defies worst expectations: Shell’s profits dived by 56 % in the first quarter as the FTSE 100 energy company became the latest victim of the sliding oil price.

Build-to-rent call to tackle housing crisis: As much as £30 billion of investment could flow into an American-style build-to-rent sector in Britain in the next five years if the future government helps to tackle the country’s housing crisis.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.18% or $0.12 lower at $66.66 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract climbed 1.43% or $0.94, to settle at $66.78 per barrel, extending its gains from the previous session, after supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the biggest US storage hub, fell for the first time since November, showing signs that the US supply glut was easing.

WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - US crude oil surged to end higher for a third straight session on Thursday, on some upbeat jobless claims for unemployment benefits data from the US with the dollar continuing to slide. Yesterday, official data from the Energy Information Administration showed a decline in crude supplies at the US storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, fueling expectations the supply glut scenario would continue to ease. Crude oil futures surged 25% for the month, the highest in nearly six years. The recent rally has been fueled by a weaker dollar and concerns about supplies from the Middle East, where an escalating civil war in Yemen threatens to embroil Saudi Arabia and Iran. Signs of a slowdown in US shale oil production also lifted prices. US weekly oil stockpiles rose by 1.9 million barrels last week to 490.1 million barrels, official data showed. Stockpiles climbed for the 16th straight week since the week ended January 9, but supplies at the US storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma fell 514,000 barrels last week-end. Some upbeat economic news also supported oil prices with the weekly jobless claims for unemployment benefits in the US dropping more than expected to a 15-year low, while a report from MNI Indicators showed a substantial rebound in Chicago-area business activity in April. Light Sweet Crude Oil futures for June delivery, the most actively traded contract, jumped USD1.05 or 1.8%, to settle at USD59.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday. Oil prices are at its highest since mid-December. Crude prices for June delivery scaled a high of USD59.78 a barrel intraday and a low of USD58.38. On Tuesday, crude oil surged USD1.52 or 2.7%, to settle at USD58.58 a barrel, the highest settlement price of the year, with the dollar weakening sharply and crude supplies at the storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma declining, even as inventories rose less than expected. The dollar index, which tracks the US unit against six major currencies, traded at 94.77 on Thursday, down from its previous close of 95.21 on Wednesday in late North American trade. The dollar scaled a high of 95.45 intraday and a low of 94.40. The euro trended higher against the dollar at USD1.1259 on Thursday, as compared to its previous close of USD1.1130 in North American trade late Wednesday. The euro scaled a high of USD1.1262 intraday and a low of USD1.1073.

Annual house price growth edged up in April, the latest House Price Index from Nationwide has revealed, increasing by 5.2% year-on-year, up from the annual growth rate of 5.1% recorded in March. This is the first time the annual rate has increased in seven months, but it's still well below the peak increase of 11.8% recorded in June 2014. Prices also increased substantially on a monthly basis, with the price of a typical UK home rising by 1% between March and April, the largest monthly increase since June last year and a sharp turnaround from the modest monthly increase of 0.1% recorded in March. "The pick-up in price growth has occurred even though the pace of activity in the housing market has remained fairly subdued in recent months," said Robert Gardner of Nationwide, with the number of mortgage approvals being 20% below the levels recorded in early 2014. "It is possible that heightened uncertainty ahead of the election is weighing on activity, though there is no compelling evidence from previous UK elections to suggest a strong impact. [Nonetheless], healthy labour market conditions and continued low mortgage rates should help underpin housing demand in the quarters ahead." The average price of a home in the UK now stands at £193,048, up from £189,454 in March, with the overall index rising from 380.9 to 384.7 in the same period.

Foxtons has echoed property industry sentiment this morning with a quarterly trading update that warns of a muted sales market but growing lettings demand.

Royal Bank of Scotland made a £446m loss in the first quarter of the year, more than double what had been feared as it was hit by £453m of restructuring costs and set aside £856m for litigation and conduct charges. RBS, which had been expected to lose £176m, did raise adjusted operating profits 16% to £1.6bn.

Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant set to take over BG Group, said unadjusted profits sank 56% in the first quarter as the impact of depressed crude prices hit its upstream division. Current cost of supplies (CCS) earnings excluding so-called identified items totalled just $3.25bn in the first three months of 2015, compared with $7.33bn the year before. The company also shaved its capital investment budget for 2015 by $2bn to "$33bn or less".

Liberum reports sparkling results: Liberum, the employee-owned investment bank, has enjoyed a record year, with profits after bonuses of £8.2 million (£0.7 million the previous year) from revenues of £55 million.

TSB takeover offer looks better than going it alone: S&P’s fire and brimstone forecast for the British banking sector this week warned that the biggest U.K. institutions are facing their worst year to date for fines and other costs. So a set of results showing that a high street bank has more than doubled its quarterly profits, increased mortgage lending and required no provisions for misbehaviour to boot might have been greeted with a sigh of relief and some confetti. However, TSB’s quarterly figures barely raised a shrug, with its shares closing less than a penny higher at 335p. TSB at £3.35 (+0.4p). Questor Says “Accept the offer”.

Greggs serves up a special dividend: Questor last got its teeth into Greggs, the high street baker best known for sausage rolls and pasties, in September last year. The company had just delivered a trading update in which it forecast profits would be “materially ahead of expectations” on the back of rising sales, as Chief executive Roger Whiteside’s strategy of updating its offering in the face of competition from coffee shops and supermarket convenience stores began to bear fruit. The announcement triggered a 12% one-day increase in Greggs’ share price and sent brokers rushing to upgrade their positions, having previously taken a dim view of the FTSE 250 business following a run of profit warnings over the preceding 12 months. Greggs at £11.15 +39.39p. Questor Says “Hold”.

Pyramid scheme: The Chief Executive of J Sainsbury would make an odd addition to any roll call of international fugitives from justice. However, the affable grocer narrowly avoided joining Interpol’s wanted list by attending a court hearing in Giza, Egypt at the weekend. Sainsbury is at loggerheads with Amr El Nasharty, an erstwhile Egyptian partner. He alleges that 14 years ago the store chain sold him back a business that proved to be insolvent. Sainsbury claims his cheques bounced. Long-running legal disputes have had a habit of blowing up and embarrassing Bosses recently. Let us hope Sainsbury can placate the judicial geezers of Giza.