Babcock International: Jefferies increases target price from 1080p to 1250p and maintains a buy recommendation.

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Authorities attempts to create a challenger to the main established lending groups – RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC - are in a state of disarrray after Moody´s six notch downgrade of Co-op last week. Simply put, creating a large new lender is far more difficult and risky than many appreciate. In any case, the fact remains that the sector´s main players continue to dominate the current account market, of which they still possess over 70 per cent. The lesson to be drawn from the above may be that a bunch of focused, niche banks - such as Aldermore – could be a bigger threat to the big four banks than any Frankenstein-like creation which the government may try to spawn, says the FT´s Lex column.

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Petropavlovsk plans to make cash savings and cost cuts in response to volatility in gold prices. The Russia-focused miner said it has approved adjustments to its business plan this year, including estimated cash savings of 160m dollars to strengthen its financial position against falling commodity prices.

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