Breaking News: New Star H1 revenue up 39%

New Star H1 revenue up 39%, Enterprise Inns delays refinancing. Smith & Nephew unit to settle with New Jersey attorney and Tate sees H1 sugars operations loss.

* Enterprise Inns business performing well; in line with expectations; average ebitda per pub up more than 6% in past year; still difficult to evaluate impact of smoking bans; Reit discussions with HMRC ongoing; delays £750 million refinancing into 2008; continues buybacks
* Smith & Nephew unit to settle with US Attorney in New Jersey; to pay $28.9 million in civil restitution; external monitor will oversee surgeon contracts
* Tate & Lyle sees Spenda first-half results similar to last year; sees first-half sugars operations loss vs profit £15 million last year; sees dollar weakness impacting first-half pre-tax by £12 million; sees US and Europe ingredients operations first-half results similar to last year; sees ingredients and Europe operations severely hit by higher corn costs; sees modest second-half profit from ingredients and European operations; sees sugar trading profitable in second half
* New Star Asset Management first-half net revenue £86.5 million, up 39%; operating earnings £48.1 million, up 58%; dividend 4p; sees full-year divided at least 9p; sees more challenging environment; remains robust about full-year prospects
* Pear Assurance thinks Resolution market price affected by speculation
* Zodiac and Carlyle agree merger of Zodiac marine operations with Jandy Pool Products
* Cardpoint in agreed merger with Alphyra; to go under newly-formed parent company; machine installation since April increased to over 60 per month; views 2008 positively
* AstraZeneca appoints Simon Lowth chief financial officer from November 5
* Hamworthy performing in line with expectations; progress made in all of its principal product areas; order book at August 31 at £301 million for delivery over next three years
* Network Group first-half proforma revenue up 5% at £26.6 million; first-half pretax profit £1.2 million vs loss £700,000; encouraged by second-half progress
* FKI improved operating performance at group level in first half; sales up 7% at constant currency; well-positioned to improve full-year trading performance; sees first-half profit at Logistex operations hit by project rescheduling
* KCom sees first-half trading in line with expectations; maintaining tight operational control after recent financial market turmoil
* BSS confident that it will at least meet its expectations in second half
* Great Portland Estates sells Met building for £107 million
* FirstGroup confirms Laidlaw purchase to close Monday as US regulator clears deal
* JJB Sports first-half pre-tax profit £11.2 million vs £18.2 million; underlying pre-tax profit £8.3 million vs £19.9 million; dividend maintained at 3p; eight weeks to September 23 total revenue up 4.9%; like-for-like revenue up 5.2%; gross margin up 380 basis points; still sees second-half trading result similar to last year's outcome
* Qinetiq full-year trading outlook in line with prior guidance; confident about current year; underlying cash conversion remains strong; US business showing very strong organic trading; sees healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities in North America; Emea business trading in line with prior year
* Celtic Resources received approach from party, not Severstal
* RPC sees first-half pre-exceptionals operating similar to last year; sales volumes are encouraging; sees first-half exceptionals and finance charges higher vs last year
* SMG first-half sales £89 million, unchanged from year earlier; Virgin Radio IPO remains an option; significant interest from buyer; appoints Richard Huntingford executive chairman at Virgin Radio ; first-half pre-tax profit in line at £1 million vs £8 million
* Dawnay Day Carpathian buys Romanian land for £8.3 million; end-June net asset value 112.41p vs 114.15p end-December ; dividend 3.33p; sees total full-year dividend at 10p; monitoring share buyback opportunities; first-half pre-tax £7.2 million vs £5.2 million
* Silverdell sees full-year results at upper end of market forecasts
* Infonic sees trading in rest of year 2007 buoyant and outlook positive
* Ridge Mining swings to first-half pre-tax profit of $9.2 million from loss $1.6 million; Blue Ridge production to start fourth quarter 2008; Sheba remains on target
* Japan August housing starts down 43.3% year-on-year; decline bigger than forecast; August orders received by 50 largest contractors down 14.2% year-on-year
* Alcatel-Lucent taking necessary steps to improve financial performance
* German August retail sales down 1.4% vs July, down 2.2% year-on-year
* 32Red shares suspended