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Market overview: 23 April

US buys more Rolls-Royce engines; SABMiller Chairman quits; AstraZeneca buys US biotech firm Ardea Biosciences; plus updates from Vodafone, Stagecoach, British Land and others.
April 23, 2012

• Power systems developer Rolls-Royce is to supply engines for the US Marine Corps and Air Force V-22 aircraft.

• Brewing giant SABMiller has announced a raft of senior management changes as its Chairman, Meyer Kahn, retires after 46 years with the firm.

• Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca has announced that it has agreed to acquired California-based biotechnology company Ardea Biosciences, whose lead product 'Lesinurad' (RDEA594) is currently in Phase III development as a potential treatment for the chronic management of hyperuricaemia in patients with gout.

Vodafone has finally struck a deal to buy Cable & Wireless Worldwide in a deal worth just over one billion pounds (IC COMMENT).

• Transport group Stagecoach said current trading remains good and it expects to at least maintain operating profit levels in the year to 30 April 2013.

British Land, the FTSE 100 real estate investment trust, is to reduce its exposure to the health club racket with the sale of five of clubs in the Virgin Active estate.

• Investors were tucking away shares of Lok'n'Store after the storage facilities provider racked up record turnover and adjusted earnings at the interim stage (IC COMMENT).

• Pub chain owner Greene King said it saw strong trading momentum continue through the final quarter, helped by the launch of new spring menus.

• Pharmaceuticals group BTG says Varisolve, a new treatment for varicose veins, has been successful in VANISH-1, the second and final phase III trial in the US.

• Speech recognition company Eckoh said it continues to experience significant growth across its operations and expects results for the year ended 31 March 2012 to be in line with market expectations.

International Power, the UK subsidiary of French utility GDF SUEZ, is to expand its jointly-owned Tihama power production sites in Saudi Arabia after winning a contract extension through to 2026 from oil company Saudi Aramco.

Imagination Technologies Group, the system-on-chip intellectual property developer, has signed a licence agreement with US mobile technologies giant Qualcomm.

• Shares in machine gun maker Manroy plummeted on Monday after the company said it had failed to confirm an eight million pound contract.

• Oil and gas explorer Borders & Southern said it made a significant discovery of gas condensate off the coast of the Falkland Islands.

• Europe-focused Aurelian Oil & Gas said 2011 had been overshadowed by operational difficulties and poor results at its Siekierki gas field in Poland.

• Printing technology group Domino Printing Sciences has been awarded the Queen's Award for Continuous Achievement in International Trade, in recognition of its long record of exports growth.

• British natural gas producer, BG Group, says production has started at its part-owned Greater Bongkot South field in the Gulf of Thailand.

GW Pharmaceuticals, the developer of cannabis-based medicinal products, has released a puff piece about a favourable review of its Sativex product in a US medical journal.

Imperial Innovations, which invests in the commercialisation of technology, kept piling cash into new ventures despite profits falling in the first half.

• Mozambique-focused Ncondezi Coal Company posted big losses in 2011 but said it expects significant developments this year.

• Robert Murphy, a member of the defence group BAE Systems' Executive Committee, is to leave the company to take up the Chief Executive Officer role at sector peer Cobham

• Satellite communications services provider Inmarsat has unveiled the first 12 members of the global network of dealers it is building for its XpressLink broadband service.

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