Business & City in Brief

PosTel spends pounds 62m on Heron properties

Heron, the property group on the brink of having its pounds 1.4bn restructuring deal approved by the UK courts, sold three properties to PosTel Investment Management for a total of pounds 62m.

Gerald Ronson, chairman, said the sale of the Pipps Hill Retail Warehouse Park at Basildon, Essex, Heron House in Reading and Crown House, City Road, London, were at better prices than those assumed in the restructuring business plan.

Pounds 45m Pilkington buy

Pilkington and Techint Finanziaria will jointly acquire the state-owned Italian flat and safety glass manufacturer Societa Italiana Vetro for L210bn (pounds 90m) with Pilkington's share L105bn. The deal must be approved by European competition authorities. Roger Leverton, chief executive of Pilkington, said SIV plants in southern Europe 'complement those of Pilkington, which are largely Northern European based'.

Cooper-Rolls nets dollars 70m

The Cooper-Rolls joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Cooper Industries won orders worth dollars 70m for seven Coberra 6000 gas turbines for offshore oil and gas use in North Sea and Malaysian waters.

Japan car sales down

Japan's overall vehicle exports fell 3.6 per cent from a year ago to 2,791,049 in the first half of 1993, industry sources said. The sale of cars was down 3.5 per cent at 2,189,280 while commercial vehicles fell 4.1 per cent to 601,769.

Shake-up at Fisons

Fisons, the pharmaceutical and horticultural product maker, is reorganising its scientific equipment division through a management restructuring. Robert Lankester, managing director, will leave the company and has resigned as a director of Fisons.

Pension funds act

Pension funds are voting more often at shareholder meetings, according to a survey by the Institutional Shareholders Committee. They exercised 44 per cent of their votes in May, the period of the survey, up from 20 per cent in 1991. Insurance companies exercised 70 per cent of their votes.

W German prices flat

Producer prices in western Germany were unchanged in June from May to stand 0.4 per cent below the same month a year earlier.

Yorkshire Water deal

Yorkshire Water paid pounds 100 for the share capital of JHSW Leasing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of J Henry Schroder Wagg with a portfolio of finance leases involving rentals of pounds 65.6m. Yorkshire will also refinance pounds 30m of loan facilities.

Trust beats target

Kleinwort Benson Investment Trusts raised pounds 28.2m in its new Emerging Markets Trust - pounds 14.6m of it through the public offer - nearly doubling the minimum target of pounds 15m.

World Markets

New York: Technology shares continued to dampen sentiment, but by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 6.99 points higher at 3,535.28.

Tokyo: Investors pulled back from the market in the wake of the general election. The Nikkei average fell 180.61 points to 20,150.92.

Hong Kong: Heavy selling by foreign institutions brought a 111.5- point fall - more than 1.6 per cent - by the Hang Seng to 6,813.72.

Sydney: Most early losses were made good as the All Ordinaries closed 3.6 points easier at 1,796.2.

Bombay: The index fell 32.35 points to 2,098.86 in thin trade.

Johannesburg: Gold shares came off their lows late in the day but industrials remained weak. The overall index lost 17 points to 4,089.

Paris: In a quiet market reassured by the strengthening franc the CAC-40 index added 6.77 to 1,981.7.

Frankfurt: With overseas investors re-entering the market, the DAX index climbed 22.83 to 1,836.29.

Zurich: Profit-taking caused sharp falls in some shares as the SPI gave up 9.46 points to 1,501.75.

Milan: Olivetti was one of the few stocks that rose steadily as the MIB eased 0.16 per cent to 1,223.

London: Report, page 22.