UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on May 23

(Adds company news items, futures)
May 23 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 27
points lower at 7,307 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers, with
futures FFIc1 down 0.58% ahead of the cash market open.
* LondonMetric Property: Warehouse owner LondonMetric Property LMPL.L said
on Thursday it had agreed to buy real estate investment trust A & J Mucklow
MKLW.L in a cash and stock deal that values the Midlands-based peer at 414.7
million pounds ($524.22 million).
* B&M European: British discounter B&M European Value Retail BMEB.L
reported an 8.7% rise in full-year profit and said it had entered its new
financial year with renewed trading momentum. * JOHN MENZIES: UK airline servicing company John Menzies Plc MNZS.L has
appointed Swiss private equity fund manager Christian Kappelhoff-Wulff to its
board and formed two new committees to consider strategic and structural options
for the company.
* TALKTALK: British broadband provider TalkTalk TALK.L reported a 17% rise
in full-year core earnings to 237 million pounds ($300 million), in line with
expectations, as it benefited from lower costs and customers switching to faster
fibre products. * SERCO: British outsourcer Serco SRP.L will buy Alion's Naval Systems
Business Unit (NSBU), a provider of ship and submarine engineering services to
the U.S. Navy, for $225 million, Serco said on Thursday. * EnQuest: British North Sea focused oil producer EnQuest ENQ.L had
reduced its net debt to $1.724 billion by the end of April from $1.774 billion
at the end of 2018, it said on Thursday, reaffirming its output guidance.
* United Utilities: United Utilities UU.L reported a rise in annual
earnings on Thursday and was the second UK regional water provider this week to
warn that the possibility of renationalisation under a future Labour government
was a key area of uncertainty.
* MERLIN: Activist investor ValueAct confirmed an earlier Financial Times
report which stated that it urged Merlin Entertainments MERL.L , the owner of
Madame Tussauds, the London Eye, Alton Towers, to go private. * ACACIA: Barrick Gold Corp's ABX.TO proposal to take full control of its
Acacia Mining Plc ACAA.L unit to resolve a long-standing tax dispute with
Tanzania has drawn the ire of Acacia's minority shareholders, who may have the
ultimate vote on a deal. * LLOYD'S OF LONDON: Lloyd's of London SOLYD.UL is proposing merging two
of its governance bodies, the council and the board which together oversee the
insurance market, to reduce overlap, a source familiar with the matter said.
* ARCADIA: British retail tycoon Philip Green's Arcadia Group said on
Wednesday it planned to close 23 of its 566 stores in the UK and Ireland in a
major restructuring of the fashion business that could also see its
Topshop/Topman stores close in the U.S.
* EX-DIVS: Bunzl BNZL.L , Carnival CCL.L , DCC DCC.L , Imperial Brands
IMB.L and Morrison MRW.L will trade without entitlement to their latest
dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 3.02 points off the FTSE 100 according to
Reuters calculations.
* The UK blue chip index closed 0.1% higher on Wednesday. Brexit sensitive
housebuilders and airlines slid as rumours circulated that ministers could oust
Theresa May after her latest EU exit plan failed to win support, while exporters
lifted the FTSE 100 as the pound weakened. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:
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TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times PRESS/FT
> Other business headlines PRESS/GB