A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Glencar Mining begins AIM trading
Shares in Glencar Mining yesterday started trading on London's Alternative Investment Market. They will also continue to trade on the Ireland's IEX.
Glencar, which mines for gold in West Africa, said the London listing would help increase its visibility in the UK where it has several London institutions on its share register.
The company also said it recently signed a non-binding indicative offer with Gold Fields relating to some of its exploration interests in the Sankarani region of Mali. Under the terms of the offer, Gold Fields may earn up to a 65 per cent interest in the Boroko, Sanioumale and Farasaba licences in return for exploration expenditure of as much as $12 million.
Renminbi trading band widened
China widened the renminbi's trading band against non-dollar currencies yesterday in a largely technical move that took on added symbolic significance in the markets because of its announcement hours before the meeting in Washington of the G7 leading industrialised nations.
China said it would double the renminbi's trading range against currencies such as the euro and yen to plus or minus 3 per cent, a small step towards Beijing's long-term goal of a floating exchange rate.
China dumped a decade-old peg to the US dollar in late July, revaluing the renminbi by 2.1 per cent against the greenback and allowing it to fluctuate plus or minus 0.3 per cent a day. - (Financial Times Service)
Profits down 50% at Pan Andean
Profits at the John Teeling-chaired oil and gas producer, Pan Andean Resources, almost halved in the year to the end of March, the company said yesterday.
Results for period show that turnover for the year was down over 35 per cent to £2.1 million (€3 million) sterling from £3.5 million in the 12 months to the end of March 2004.
Profits before tax plummeted by over £500,000 to £673,000 at the end of last March from £1.2 million a year earlier. The fall in earnings per share was of a similar order, to 41 pence sterling from 86 pence.
New voting in absentia rules
The European Commission may put forward new rules to make sure that shareholders can vote at company meetings they cannot attend in person, according to Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.
Enabling shareholders to vote in absentia is a key issue for Europe, where about 40 per cent of the market capitalisation of listed companies is held by foreign investors who often cannot attend company meetings in person.
Mr McCreevy, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, also said he was contemplating bringing forward "light touch" regulation to abolish share blocking.
Share blocking occurs when investors are prevented from trading their shares for a certain period before an annual meeting. - (Reuters)
Smurfit Stone seeks amendment
Smurfit Stone, the US packaging company spun off from Jefferson Smurfit in 2002, said yesterday it had requested an amendment from lenders to avoid a possible violation of a credit agreement from last year.
The Chicago-based company said that during the first half of 2005, it endured falling prices and sales volumes, particularly in its cardboard and box businesses. - (Reuters)
