Economic and Market News for 14 December 2018

London Stock Exchange Group said it had appointed Donald Robert as its new chairman. Robert was currently chairman of information services company Experian. He would succeed outgoing LSE chairman...

Greencoat UK Wind said it had acquired the Church Hill and Crighshane wind farms near Omagh in Northern Ireland for £87m. The assets, with a combined generation capacity of 50.6 megawatts, were...

Altona Energy said another holder of South Australian coal assets was 'very interested' in applying pyrolysis technology to its project. Altona had an exclusive licence, granted by Leinad, to use...

Block Energy said it would move to restart production at the West Rustavi field in Georgia after completing testing operations. More than 200 barrels of oil were recovered from the legacy vertical...

Cyber security consultancy Crossword Cybersecurity said its shares had commenced trading on AIM following their switch from the NEX index. On admission, the company had a market capitalisation of...

US retail sales sales rose 0.2% in November to $513.5bn, according to the Census Bureau. The rise beat expectations for a 0.1% gain. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

MOD Resources and Metal Tiger said all prospecting licences held by their mining joint venture in Botswana had been granted two-year extensions. The extensions were granted ahead of the scheduled...

Jersey-focused power utility Jersey Electricity said chairman Geoffrey Grime would retire at its annual general meeting in February. He would be replaced by current board member Phil Austin. A...

Broking group TP ICAP said it had appointed Richard Berliand as its new chairman to succeed Rupert Robson. Berliand would joint the board as chairman designate in the first quarter of 2019, though...

Modern Water said it had sold an AquaPak desalination plant in Oman to a theme park operator, for an undisclosed sum. The plant would be used to produce water on a large safari theme park designed...

Agricultural feed supplier Walcom said chief executive Albert SF Wong was standing down to take-up early retirement and pursue other interests. He had left the board with immediate effect but...

Go-Ahead Group said Friday it had awarded a contract from Sydney for Transport to modernised the city's rail infrastructure. Go-Ahead Group, as part of the Network Rail Consulting team, would...

London Stock Exchange Group said Friday it it had purchased a 14.6% stake in LCH Group from certain minority shareholders for €424.5m, increasing its total stake in the company to 82.6%. At...

British American Tobacco announced a major management shake-up as it presses ahead with its transformation plan. The company created two new division New Categories and Digital and Information....

Cadence Minerals said that Macarthur Minerals had reduced both its operating expenses and capital expenditure estimates for the Moonshine magnetite and Ularring hematite projects in Australia....

Firestone Diamond said Friday it had recovered a 46 carat white, makeable diamond from its Liqhobong Mine in Lesotho. The stone was recovered undamaged and would go on sale at the next tender...

Consumer foods group Kerry said Friday it had reached agreement to acquire Ariake USA, and Southeastern Mills for a total of about €325m. These acquisitions would further enhance the Kerry's...

Eqtec said Friday it borrowed a further $0.864m from its $10m financing facility provided by Cuart Investments Fund and associates. The total amount drawdown to date under the financing facility...

Esports company Gfinity said Friday it would host four events as part of the EA Sports Fifa 19 Global Series. The tournaments included one FUT Champions Cup and three Licensed Qualifiers. The...

Shale oil drilling group TomCo Energy said it had raised £550k from a share issue to advance its key projects. New shares in the company were issued at 2p each. At 8:21am: (LON:TOM) TomCo Energy...

Embattled LED lighting company PhotonStar LED Group said it had raised £0.1m from a share issue. New shares in the company were issued to new and existing investors at 0.02p each. Proceeds would...

Litigation financing company Manolete Partners confirmed its shares would commence trading on AIM on Friday. Based on a placing price of 175p per share, the market capitalisation of the company on...

AO World confirmed Friday the acquisition of Mobile Phones Direct was expected to be completed on 17 December. This update comes after the company confirmed Thursday it had made an application...

Ormonde Mining said construction of the Barruecopardo tungsten project in Salamanca, Spain was progressing in line with guidance, with first production expected from the beginning of February....

Supply chain solutions company Wincanton had amended and extended a key £141.2m debt facility. The multi-currency revolving credit facility would now expire two years' later on October 2023. The...

Obesity, diabetes and skin care treatment developer OptiBiotix Health said subsidiary ProBiotix Health had raised around £1.0 million through a note issue to help fund its separate share market...

Aggreko said Friday it had been awarded a $200m supply contract by The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to supply temporary electricity systems. As part of the...

Balfour Beatty said Friday full-year performance would be above previous expectations in the wake of an additional infrastructure investments sale in December. The group forecasts that the 2018...