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

(Adds new items, updates futures) Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening higher, with futures up 0.08% on Monday. * CAPRICORN: Shareholder proxy advisor Glass Lewis had recommended Capricorn Energy’s shareholders vote against the group’s proposed merger with Israel’s NewMed Energy, activist investor Palliser said.

* FULLER SMITH & TURNER: Fuller Smith & Turner said it expects its full-year earnings to come below market expectations, as several tube and train strikes affected the British pub operator’s sales.

* NATIONAL EXPRESS: National Express Group said its German rail transport business had

won a 1 billion euro

($1.09 billion) contract to operate two lines of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express in Germany until 2033.

* SAGA GROUP: Saga Plc said it was in

discussions to sell

Acromas Insurance Company, which is the underwriting unit of its wider insurance division.

* DIGNITY: Dignity Plc said it

would be acquired

by a consortium comprising investment firms SPWOne V Ltd, Castelnau Group CGL.L and Phoenix Asset Management Partners, valuing the funeral services provider at 281 million pounds ($349 million). * NATIONAL GRID: National Grid said it would pay customers to use less power in the evening and that it had asked for three coal-powered generators to be warmed up in case they are needed as the country faces a snap of cold weather. * ASDA: British supermarket chain Asda could be merged with petrol forecourts business EG Group under plans being explored by the owners of both companies, the London-based Times reported on Saturday. * STRIKE: Junior doctors in England have voted for strike action in a dispute over pay, HCSA, a hospital doctors’ union, said on Friday. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:

TODAY’S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines (Reporting By Sruthi Narasimha Chari in Bengaluru)