International Airlines Share News (IAG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The Greek government delivered a new economic reform proposal on time late Thursday, reviving market optimism that a debt deal can be concluded at the weekend and lifting European share prices early Friday.

The London, Frankfurt and Paris stock markets all have opened higher.

IAG shares are up 2.3% after Ryannair agreed to accept the British Airways owner's takeover offer for Aer Lingus.

However, it is IHG that leads the FTSE 100, up 3.7%, after the hotel group said it agreed the sale of the InterContinental Hong Kong for USD938 million.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.9% at 6,637.88
FTSE 250: up 0.9% at 17,457.01
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 746.74
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Chinese stocks continued to rally Friday amid aggressive measures by the authorities to shore up share prices that had dropped sharply over the past month. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.05% at opening, but then climbed nearly 6% in morning trading and was up 4.5% at the London open. The index closed up 5.8% on Thursday. In the latest measures to support the market, China's central bank said it had injected CNY35 billion into the money market by buying bonds. Hundreds of companies stopped trading this week, bringing the total to about 1,300 stocks halted, freezing about USD2.6 trillion worth of shares. The Shanghai Composite Index has tumbled by around 30% since a peak on June 12, although it is still over 60% higher than a year ago.
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Hang Seng: up 1.9% at 24,860.16
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.4% at 19,779.83
DJIA: closed up 0.2% at 17,548.62
S&P 500: closed up 0.2% at 2,051.31
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GBP: up at USD1.5431
EUR: up at USD1.1112

GOLD: up at USD1,162.70 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD59.56 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

09:00 Italy Industrial Output
09:30 UK Trade Balance
13:30 Canada Unemployment Rate
15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
16:35 US Fed Boston President Rosengren Speech
17:00 US Fed Chair Yellen Speech
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Greece submitted new reform proposals to Brussels late Thursday, moving one step closer to the potential resumption of bailout talks with its creditors, with just days believed to be left before the country goes bankrupt. The country has requested a new rescue package from the European currency area, but first had to suggest economic reforms that it would implement in return for the aid. The proposals must now be assessed ahead of emergency meetings of eurozone and EU leaders on Sunday afternoon. These talks have been presented as the last chance for a deal. The new list of reforms makes concessions to creditors' demands in key areas including VAT and pension reform, according to a copy of the document seen by dpa.
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Talks on a far-reaching nuclear deal with Iran were on knife's edge when US Secretary of State John Kerry warned he would break off the negotiations unless Tehran quickly took the last necessary steps to clinch the agreement. But Kerry also made clear that he and his team would not leave just yet, given the progress that had been made on the accord that would prevent Tehran from using civilian technology to make nuclear weapons.
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EU interior ministers failed Thursday to meet a much-heralded goal of relocating 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, but still hoped to achieve a breakthrough this month in response to a migration surge that has challenged Europe for months. "It's a very sensitive debate," said Luxembourg Immigration Minister Jean Asselborn, who chaired the talks since his country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.
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French industrial output recovered as expected in May, the statistical office Insee reported. Industrial output grew 0.4% month-on-month in May, reversing a 0.8% fall in April. This was the fastest growth in three months. The monthly rate matched economists' expectations.
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Japan's consumer morale improved as expected in June, after falling slightly in the prior month, survey figures from Cabinet Office showed. The consumer confidence index rose to 41.7 in June, in line with expectations, from 41.3 in May. in April, the score was 41.5.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BERENBERG RAISES BAE SYSTEMS TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 570 (530) PENCE
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CITIGROUP RAISES BHP BILLITON TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET 1400 (1500) PENCE
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CITIGROUP RAISES RIO TINTO TO 'BUY' - PRICE TARGET 2800 (2950) PENCE
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JEFFERIES STARTS NATIONAL GRID WITH 'BUY' - PRICE TARGET 900 PENCE
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UBS CUTS LONMIN TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 75 (130) PENCE
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SOCGEN INITIATES CRODA WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 3050 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Irish budget carrier Ryanair Holdings said its board has voted unanimously to accept International Consolidated Airlines Group's offer for its stake in Aer Lingus Group, removing the final barrier in the way of IAG's takeover bid. The owner of British Airways and Spain's Iberia made a EUR1.4 billion takeover offer for Aer Lingus earlier this year and has already secured the Irish government's support for the bid, along with that of the Irish flag carrier's board. Ryanair said its board voted unanimously to accept the bid for its 29.8% stake in Aer Lingus, saying it thinks the takeover "maximises Ryanair shareholder value".
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InterContinental Hotels Group said it has agreed to sell its stake in the InterContinental Hong Kong to Supreme Key Ltd for USD938 million. FTSE 100-listed IHG said Supreme Key is a consortium of investors advised and managed by Gaw Capital Partners, the Hong Kong-based investment house. IHG will retain a 37-year management contract for the hotel, with three ten-year extension rights. It expects to be paid management fees of around USD8 million a year, which will increase after a refurbishment of the five-star hotel on the Kowloon waterfront is completed.
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Property developer Hammerson said it has sold its stake in the Grand Maine shopping centre, located south west of Angers in France, to an unnamed French institutional investor for EUR63.2 million. The shopping centre has 8,600 square metres of retail space and was refurbished by Hammerson in 2013. It has a 95% occupancy rate and generates a gross rental income of EUR3.3 million a year.
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Medical devices company Smith & Nephew said it has struck a deal to acquire the Russian distribution and manufacturing business of DeOst LLC and DC LLC, a unit of Russian manufacturing company DeOst. Smith & Nephew did not provide any financial details on the deal but said that taking on the manufacturing business will help it to reach more customers in Russia following recent changes to state tender rules supporting Russian-produced products.
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BT Group upped the stakes in its battle with Sky as the head of its consumer arm called on UK media and communications regulator Ofcom to amend the scope of its Digital Communications Review to include pay-TV, claiming high prices and poor outcomes for consumers arise from a lack of competition in the sector. Speaking to the Broadcasting Press Guild on Thursday, BT Consumer Chief Executive John Petter drew comparisons between the UK broadband market and the pay-TV sector, hitting back at calls Sky has made recently for a break-up of BT and claiming this push is a "smokescreen" designed to obscure the failings in the pay-TV market, which Sky dominates.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Petrofac said it has been awarded a project worth around USD780 million to supply engineering, procurement and construction work to assist Kuwait Oil Co's plans to increase oil production. Petrofac said the EPC project work will be completed toward the end of 2017, and focus on Kuwait Oil's manifold trunkline system, which provides feedstock to Kuwait Oil's gathering centres via a network of independent networks and pipelines, it said in a statement.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Sirius Minerals said it is "rapidly moving" to progress what will be the world's largest potash mine in Yorkshire after securing approval from authorities at the beginning of July. The North York Moors National Park Authority, which regulates the national park in Yorkshire where the potash mine is to be built, gave Sirius the green light to build the UK's first new potash mine in 40 years on July 1. Sirius said it is "now rapidly moving to the next phases of financing and construction" of the project, and aims to deliver the definitive feasibility study for the mine before the end of 2015 and secure the first tranche of financing in the first quarter of 2016.
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Dragon Oil said it is just shy of producing the 100,000 barrels of oil per day it is aiming to achieve by the end of 2015 and said two further exploration wells will be drilled on Block 9 in Iraq in the second half to fast track its development. Average gross production in the first half of the year was 92,060 barrels of oil per day, representing a substantial rise from the rate of 73,440 barrels per day a year earlier.
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Volution Group said it has struck a deal to acquire Ventilair Group International and its Belgian and Dutch subsidiaries for EUR16.3 million in cash. Volution, which supplies ventilation products to the residential construction market, said Ventilair, which is based in Kuurne in Belgium, is a manufacturing of residential ventilation products, primarily in Belgium and the Netherlands.
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LSL Property Services said it has hired Adam Castleton as its new chief financial officer, poaching him from fashion retailer French Connection Group. Castleton's start date has not yet been set but Andrew Burchall, currently LSL's interim finance director, will remain in the role until Castleton starts. French Connection said it has started the search for Castleton's replacement and will also confirm his departure date in due course.
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Ilika said it has appointed Mike Inglis, who used to be ARM Holdings' chief commercial officer, as a non-executive director, naming him the future successor to Chairman Jack Boyer. The news came as Ilika said its pretax loss narrowed to GBP3.04 million in the year ended April 30, from GBP3.09 million in the prior year.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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eBay suffered a blow in its effort to sell its eBay Enterprise unit as one of the division's biggest customers, Toys"R"Us, said it plans to bring its US e-commerce operations in-house. Toys"R"Us announced that it plans to bring its US e-commerce operations in-house, including building and managing a new platform for Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com and FAO.com. It expects to launch its own online platform by the end of Summer 2016. The announcement comes at an inopportune time for eBay, which has been in talks with Thomas H. Lee Partners LP to sell the unit for as much as USD1 billion, according to reports.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed that the proposed separation of Ferrari from itself, does not and will not entail a change in the tax residence of Ferrari. The announcement by Fiat is in response to comments and opinions that are now circulating regarding the shift of the fiscal residence of Ferrari SpA. away from Italy. Fiat said Ferrari will continue to be organized under Italian law and tax resident in Italy, Fiat said. Ferrari will pay Italian taxes on its income as all Italian tax resident corporations.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Aurasian Minerals
Graphene Nanochem
JPMorgan European Smaller Companies Trust
Perpetual Income & Growth Investment Trust
Value & Income Trust
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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