Shares News

European shares traded broadly higher on Thursday, as investors focused on positively received news from French drinks group Remy Cointreau and telecom Swisscom. The French CAC-40index rose 0.23% at 5,464.83, boosted by gains of more than 1% from Mittal Steeland electronics group Thomson. Also in Paris, Remy Cointreaushares reached levels not seen for ten years after it said that it has deci ...

PARIS (AFX) - Eurotunnel SA/Eurotunnel PLC is confident of winning the required level of backing for its debt restructuring proposals at Monday's creditors' meeting but is more anxious that the required quorum may not be achieved for the vote to be valid, a spokesman said. Monday's event, which is for the holders of about two-thirds of the Channel tunnel operator's 6.2 bln stg/9.1 bln eur debt pi ...

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- Shares of Remy Cointreau rose as much as 9% on Thursday after the company said it would break out of a joint venture in a bid to boost Asian sales. Remy Cointreau, in a brief statement, said it plans to terminate its agreement with Maxxium as of March 30, 2009, to help it find "alternative distribution options in priority markets such as Asia." Maxxium Worldwide is a dist ...

Jacques Chirac and Romano Prodi are to discuss the future of troubled Italian airline Alitalia amid talk of a possible merger with Air France-KLM. Loss-making Alitalia is on the hunt for strategic partners and speculation has focused on Air France-KLM, which holds a small stake in its counterpart. But Italian Prime Minister Prodi said he had reservations about any tie-up. Air France-KLM shares fell 2% on Thursday after it reported a sharp fall in quarterly pre-tax profits. Motives questioned ...

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- Daily Mail and General Trust on Thursday reported a 69% rise in profit for the year, buoyed by a gain from disposals, as the U.K. newspaper publisher said it has seen signs of a gentle recovery in some sectors of the national advertising market. Profit for the year ending Oct. 1 jumped to 239.8 million pounds ($455.2 million) from 142.1 million pounds a year ago. Adjust ...

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices finished the day firmer, with the index closing at a fresh record high, led by property stocks, but the gains were capped by profit-taking in mainland financials in the afternoon, dealers said. They noted that the government's upcoming land auction next week boosted sentiment in property stocks. The Hang Seng Index closed up 14.53 points or 0.08 pct at a recor ...

LONDON (AFX) - Works Media Group lost 32 pct of its value, sliding 1.87 pence to 4.00 in reaction to a 1.25 mln placing at 2 pence a share In 2005, the feature film rights distribution and sales group refocused its business on what the board believed to be a more profitable part of the film industry, and launched a UK Distribution subsidiary. It has incurred losses in starting up this business a ...

SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - Gold Fields Ltd will take a 17 pct share in Sino Gold Ltd and form a joint venture to explore for gold in China, the two companies said in a statement. They said the alliance would merge Sino Gold's expertise in China with Gold Fields' technical and financial resources. Gold Fields will become Sino Gold's largest shareholder through a placement of 6.5 mln shares, at a price o ...

LONDON (AFX) - Transport, property and regeneration company Sutton Harbour Holdings PLC posted increased profits and revenue in the first half and said it remains "very confident" for the company's future. The company's first-half pretax profits rose to 2.0 mln stg from 1.96 mln in the year-ago period, with turnover growing to 16.628 mln stg from 14.007 mln a year ago. Sutton also incr ...

LONDON (AFX) - Cairn Energy PLC topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard after it revealed a 210 mln-share placing by Cairn India Ltd, raising 822 mln usd ahead of the unit's initial share sale next month. The shares, equivalent to almost 12 pct of Cairn India, were priced at 176.48 rupees each, giving the business a potential market capitalisation of 6.92 bln usd, broadly consistent with analysts' expect ...