Santander Terminates Talks to RBS, BHP Vows to Fight Australian Tax Office

Sarla Buch
21 Sep, 2016
New York City

BHP vowed to defend $1 billion tax bill in Australia. Dise

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – BHP vowed to defend $1 billion tax bill in Australia. Diseño Textil profit jumped 8% on 11% increase in revenues. Majestic Wine tumbled on lower profit forecast. Santander withdraws from the talks to buy unit of RBS. Saga revenues declined 9%.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index rose 14.17 or 0.2% to 6,844.96 and in Frankfurt the DAX index gained 46.51 or 0.5% to 10,440.06.

In Paris, CAC 40 index increased 23.65 or 0.5% to 4,412.25.

BHP Billiton Plc gained 1% to 1,043 pence and the U.K.-based mining group vowed to fight in its dispute with the Australian Taxation Office over the taxes payable for selling Australian commodities to its Singapore Marketing business dating back to fiscal 2003.

BHP said it will challenge the ATO’s assessment and will continue to defend its position.

Industria de Diseño Textil SA fell 1.1% to €32.32 after the Spain-based fashion retail groups reported sales in the first-half ending in July soared 11% from a year ago to €10.47 billion.

Comparable store sales in the period surged 11%.

Net profit in the period jumped 8% from a year ago to €1.26 billion compared to the €1.17 billion.

The retailer said the group''s brands increased international presence and opened 83 new stores in 38 countries and reached to total stores of 7,096 and created 9,932 new jobs in the last 12 months.

Majestic Wine Plc tumbled 23.8% to 330.41 pence after the U.K.-based wine retailer said due to weak sales in its commercial business 2017 earnings are estimated to below expectations but the retailer is on track to meet its 2019 sales estimate of £500 million.

Banco Santander, S.A jumped 3.3% to €4 after Financial Times said Spain-based retail and commercial bank withdrew its negotiations to acquire 314 Williams & Glyn branches from Royal Bank of Scotland.

The negotiations were terminated for the second time and the UK's seventh largest bank was valued at about £1.9 billion with 1.7 million retail banking customers and 2% of the personal current accounts.

RBS was forced to divest businesses to meet EU state-aid rules linked to its £45.5 billion bailout during the financial crisis and the bank is already lagging in meeting the European Commission target to sell-off its branch network by the end of this year.

Saga Plc increased 0.6% to 223.10 pence after the U.K.-based insurance, travel and hotels operator said revenues in the first-half ending in July declined 8.6% from a year ago to £437.2 million.

Net profit in the period soared 12.8% from a year ago to £87.9 million compared to £77.9 million and diluted earnings per share rose to 7.9 pence from 7.3 pence.

Ubisoft Entertainment SA slipped 1.9% to €34.26 after the France-based video games maker plans to launch €400 million or $445 million convertible bonds offer in a private placement with maturity date of September 27, 2021.

The video games maker said proceeds may be used for acquisitions.