Thursday 15 December, 10:15 AM GMT (Thomson Financial): European markets
have opened lower, led by the oil & gas and basic resources sectors. The
personal and household goods sector is bucking the trend as Philips
announced a separate legal structure for its semiconductors business, seen
as a prelude to a possible public offering, merger or sale.
Elsewhere, Whitbread has posted a third quarter trading update with total
sales growing by 8%, while Macquarie Bank has launched its formal bid for
the London Stock Exchange, with an offer worth 580 pence per LSE share,
unchanged from previous announcements.
London's FTSE-100 Index is down 3.10 points or 0.06% to 5518.20, while
Paris's CAC-40 Index is down 6.66 points or 0.14% to 4668.19. Frankfurt's
DAX Index is up 1.17 points or 0.02% to 5287.85 and Milan's S&P MIB Index
is down 4.0 points or 0.01% to 34998.0. The pan-European blue chip Dow
Jones Stoxx 50 Index is down 8.22 points or 0.25% to 3325.46.
* Philips Electronics says it will start the process to create a separate
legal structure for its semiconductors business, giving the group
flexibility to pursue strategic options for further strengthening the
longer-term performance of these activities. This has been interpreted by
many observers as a prelude to a possible public offering, merger or sale.
* Whitbread has posted a third quarter trading update with total sales
growing by 8%. Underlying total sales, excluding the Premier Lodge
acquisition, have grown by 3.0% and like for like sales are down 0.5%.
Premier Travel Inn operations continue to perform strongly, with year to
date occupancy levels now standing at 81.9% having recovered well
following a weaker July and August. In Pub Restaurants, trading remains
disappointing, while in David Lloyd Leisure, the new management team has
developed detailed plans for improving operational performance and for
driving future growth.
* French pharmaceuticals group Sanofi-Aventis says clinical trials of its
experimental vaccine designed to protect humans from the bird-flu virus
has showed a "a good immune response" in a significant number of 300 human
volunteers.
* Macquarie Bank has launched its formal bid for the London Stock
Exchange, with an offer worth 580 pence per LSE share, therefore, valuing
the entire issued share capital of the LSE at approximately 1.5 billion
pounds.
* Swiss private banking group Vontobel is to acquire a 56% stake in
Harcourt Investment Consulting, one of the internationally established
suppliers of hedge fund products for institutional investors in
particular, from the Dutch firm NIBCapital for 80 million Swiss francs.
Harcourt reported assets under management of 4.1 billion Swiss francs as
at end-November 2005.
Simon.Tse@Thomson.com; Thomson Financial
This is Thomson Financial Corporate Services Europe Market Commentary.
The information herein is believed to be true and accurate. If you have
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SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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