* IMPERIAL BRANDS: Imperial Brands, the world's fourth-biggest tobacco company, stuck by its full-year guidance on Thursday as it said it would match first-half earnings expectations at constant currency and reported rates.

* BOOKER: Booker, the British wholesaler that in January agreed to be taken over by Tesco for 3.7 billion pounds ($4.60 billion), said on Thursday sales growth had eased in its fourth quarter, with tobacco sales dented by a display ban and plain packaging restrictions.

* WILLIAM HILL: British bookmaker William Hill Plc named Ruth Prior as its new chief financial officer on Thursday.

* SSE: British energy supplier SSE expects dividend cover for its 2017/18 financial year to be at the lower range of its target due to the low capacity market clearing price and lower earnings in some of its networks businesses, it said on Thursday.

* LLOYD'S OF LONDON: Lloyd's of London, the world's largest specialty insurance market, has chosen Brussels for its European Union subsidiary because of its strong regulatory framework, it said on Thursday, confirming earlier reports.

* BHP BILLITON: Chile's Escondida named a new president to run a mine operated by BHP Billiton on Thursday, days after the company failed to clinch a wage deal with workers after an historically long strike.

* JOHNSTON PRESS: Top Johnston Press shareholder Crystal Amber has opened talks with the newspaper publisher's lenders about a debt-for-equity swap, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

* BREXIT: The British government will set out plans on Thursday to convert European Union laws into domestic legislation to give "businesses, workers and consumers the certainty they need" as Britain exits the bloc.

*OIL: Oil prices dipped on Thursday, ending two days of increases as record U.S. crude inventories outweighed a fall in gasoline stocks and disruptions in Libyan supplies.

* EX-DIVS: British Land Company, Old Mutual, Prudential , Schroders and Smith & Nephew will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 4.79 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations

* The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index ended up 0.4 percent at 7,373.72 points on Wednesday, after a choppy session following Britain's formal triggering of its departure from the European Union.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

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> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : http://topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Siju Varghese; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)