International Public Partnerships Share News (INPP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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Tullow Oil said it has plugged and abandoned an exploration well in an onshore block in Kenya after failing to find any significant oil or gas. In a statement, the oil company said it had drilled the Engomo-1 exploration well on Block 10BA in Kenya down to a total depth of 2,353 metres, but failed to find any significant oil or gas shows. The well was the first to be drilled in the large North Turkana Basin and is located west of Lake Turkana where the company said numerous naturally occurring oil slicks and seeps have been observed.
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Inkjet and laser printer maker Domino Printing Sciences said it has reached a deal to be acquired by Japanese electronics company Brother Industries Ltd for GBP1.03 billion. The offer is at 915 pence in cash per Domino share, which it said its a premium of around 26.9% to its closing price of 721.0 pence Tuesday. The board of Domino, which has been advised by Rothschild, is unanimously recommending that Domino shareholders vote in favour of the deal.
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Hikma Pharmaceuticals was one of the biggest fallers in the FTSE 250, despite posting a rise in pretax profit for 2014 due to strong growth in its injectibles business helping offset declines in its branded and generics businesses, as the strength of the dollar loomed over its revenue forecast for 2015. The pharmaceutical company is forecasting revenue growth of 6% at constant currency for 2015. However, it warned that the strength of the dollar since the beginning of 2015 could reduce revenue by around 3% for the year, or USD45 million, if current exchange rates continue. Hikma posted a pretax profit of USD362 million, up from USD298 million a year before, on a rise in revenue to USD1.49 billion from USD1.37 billion. Hikma is set to enter the FTSE 100 index on March 23, replacing Tullow.
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Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment said it swung to a loss in 2014, hit by a writedown on its poker operations as that business suffered a 29% decline in revenue due to the loss of its Greek market and challenging conditions in several other markets. Chairman Philip Yea also said the company had received a number of indicative proposals and had entered further talks with the parties that have approached the company. The online gaming company reported a pretax loss of EUR97.9 million for 2014 compared with a EUR44.9 million profit in 2013, as revenue dropped to EUR611.9 million from EUR652.4 million. It booked a EUR104.4 million non-cash impairment charge, mainly for the poker operations writedown.
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N Brown Group warned that pretax profit from continuing operations will be below its guidance and current market expectations of GBP88 million in the recently-ended financial year, after it further reduced prices in the fiscal fourth quarter to clear stock and compete in the fashion sector.
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Recruitment firm Michael Page International reported a rise in pretax profit for 2014 as revenue increased despite sterling headwinds, and it increased its dividend. The company said its pretax profit for the year was GBP80.4 million, up from GBP64.1 million a year earlier. Revenue increased to GBP1.05 billion from GBP1 billion a year earlier, though sterling dragged on its revenue growth heavily, with constant currency revenue increasing 9.9% compared to the 4.1% increase in reported revenue. The company increased its total annual dividend to 11 pence from 10.5 pence.
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Online fashion retailer boohoo.com said its UK sales growth continued to slow in the last two months of its financial year, although sales growth in Europe and the rest of the world accelerated, and it reiterated its profit margin guidance as it focused on protecting its margins ahead of increasing marketing spend later in 2015. The retailer sweetened the news, signalling a share buyback later in the year by saying it would ask its shareholders for authorisation to buy back up to 10% of its shares at its next annual general meeting after considering the levels of cash in the business. It had GBP54 million of cash on its balance sheet at the end of February. The company hasn't said when its 2015 AGM will be held, but the 2014 AGM took place in late September.
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Galliford Try said it has reached financial close on the North East batch of the Priority Schools Building Programme and has reached a deal with Flintshire Council on the Holywell Learning Campus in North Wales. The GBP160 million Priority School Building Programme contract, agreed with the Education Funding Agency, will see Galliford handle the construction of the schools being built in the North East of England under the programme, along with the ongoing maintenance of the schools for 25 years. International Public Partnerships and HICL Infrastructure both also released statements about their involvement in the North East batch.
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Ryanair Holdings launched its winter 2015 programme for London Stansted, adding two new routes and extra flights on 23 other routes. Europe's low-cost carrier added routes to Castellon in Spain and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, meaning it will have 110 routes from Stansted next winter, while it added extra flights on 23 routes including Berlin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Madrid, Milan, Prague, Rome and Warsaw. Ryanair said the 2015 winter schedule will be its biggest ever winter schedule at the airport north of London.
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MARKETS
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UK stocks are trading higher, recovering some of the ground lost on Tuesday, but are being held back slightly by weaker-that-expected UK industrial and manufacturing production data.
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FTSE 100: up 0.4% at 6,726.56
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 16,934.39
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 712.08
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The euro hit a fresh 12 year low as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said that the bank expanded policy tools in order to attain mandate, and the governing council backed the validity of asset purchases as a tool.
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.5059
EUR-USD: down at USD1.0564

GOLD: down at USD1156.76 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD56.23 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK industrial and manufacturing output declined unexpectedly in January, data from the Office for National Statistics revealed. Industrial output slid 0.1% month-on-month in January, following a 0.2% drop in December. Economists had forecast a 0.2% rise for January. Similarly, manufacturing output declined 0.5%, confounding expectations for a 0.2% rise. In December, output had increased 0.1%. On a yearly basis, industrial output increased 1.3% in January. There were increases in two of the four main sectors, with manufacturing output being the largest contributor, increasing by 1.9%.
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Bank of England's Ian McCafferty said the central bank should look through the temporary impact of oil price declines, even if this has a long-term impact on inflation. "The sharp fall of oil prices over the past six months, particularly if sustained in coming months, will depress annual inflation rates for a protracted period - quite possibly well into next year," McCafferty said. But he said that this effect on inflation will be temporary as supply rather than demand has been the dominant factor.
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Greece and its creditors were expected to launch a new round of negotiations on reforms that the country will have to implement in return for further bailout aid, amid fears that Athens could soon run out of money. The two sides have made halting progress on the bailout since the new government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came to power in January on a platform of ending bailout-related austerity. Eurozone finance ministers agreed two weeks ago to prolong the European portion of the Greek rescue package until the end of June. But they want the Tsipras government to agree to and start implementing reforms before it can access EUR7.2 billion in remaining international aid.
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China's industrial production and retail sales growth slowed more than expected in February, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Industrial production increased 6.8% year-on-year in January to February, while it was forecast to grow 7.7%. In December, production advanced 7.9%. During January to February, retail sales grew at a pace of 10.7%, slower than a 11.9% rise seen in December. Sales were expected to rise 11.6%.
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Iraqi forces started an assault on the Sunni Arab city of Tikrit, the main target of a major offensive launched eight days ago against the Islamic State extremist group, officials said. Troops were advancing slowly because the militants rigged large quantities of explosives inside the city and on its approach roads, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Soldiers had surrounded Tikrit on all sides after Monday night's capture of the centre of al-Alam, located a few kilometres north of the city on the other side of the Tigris river, they said.
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Hillary Clinton delivered a forceful defence of her use of private email when she was the country's top diplomat, trying to quell rising controversy over her silence on the issue. Facing a scrum of 250 reporters shouting questions, Clinton insisted there had been no security breaches and that she never sent classified material in the private system during her 2009-13 tenure as secretary of state. "I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work," she said at a news conference at the United Nations.
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