Business & City summary

Henderson quintet wins 33% pay rise

The salaries of the five highest- paid directors at Henderson Administration increased by nearly a third last year because of profits boosted by the fund manager's acquisition of Touche Remnant. The total amount of profit-related pay Henderson paid out to directors soared by nearly 70 per cent from pounds 383,000 to pounds 644,000.

The increase came on the back of a 43 per cent rise in profits from pounds 9.7m to pounds 13.9m. But Paul Johnson, group finance director, said most of the jump in profit was because of the integration of the two businesses. The top five highest-paid directors in the company received between pounds 240,000 and pounds 295,000 last year, compared with between pounds 185,000 and pounds 215,000 the previous year.

Mazda on the make

Mazda Motor Cororation of Japan will ask Ford, its US partner, to assemble compact passenger cars at its British plant, Japanese newspaper reports said. Mazda will design the passenger car, while Ford will provide parts including platforms, engines and transmissions, with production expected to start in two or three years.

C&G options

A protest group has asked more than 100 supporters to back a call for a special meeting to question the pounds 1.8bn proposed takeover of Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society by Lloyds Bank.

Export supporters

Chambers of Commerce offer the most proactive export support services while the Government's Training and Enterprise Councils come bottom of the league, according to a survey by the Institute of Export and NCM Credit Insurance.

Merrill loans

Merrill Lynch plans to challenge commercial banks in their own backyard, providing commercial loans of between dollars 100m and dollars 500m to its business customers.

Estate approved

Redrow and Alfred MacAlpine, the housebuilders, have won planning consent for a plot of land in Cheshire which they own jointly. Development of Kingsmead, near Northwich, will see 1,800 homes built over 10 years. The estimated finished value will be pounds 145m.

Debt sale

The sale of pounds 1.5bn worth of privatised companies' debt, organised by Salomon Brothers, will take place on 18 July.

World Markets

New York: Inflation fears continued to hit shares, and by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was in arrears by 34.88 points at 3,741.90.

Tokyo: The yen's gains against the dollar undermined sentiment. The Nikkei average fell 351.27 points to 21,152.03.

Hong Kong: Depressed by the weekend fall on Wall Street, the Hang Seng index surrendered 115.78 points to 8,998.18.

Sydney: The firm gold price limited losses caused by renewed bond weakness. The All Ordinaries dropped 26.8 to 2,024.4.

Bombay: Local buyers drove the index to a 26-month high, gaining 45.99 points to 4,328.58.

Johannesburg: With gold off highs and other sectors weak ahead of tomorrow's budget, the index lost 72 points to 5,712.

Frankfurt: Moderate trade hit by weak bonds and futures sent the DAX tumbling 81.9 to 1,968.82.

Paris: The CAC-40 index pulled back more than half of its midday losses to close nursing a 32.91-point deficit at 1,903.04.

Zurich: Fears of higher interest rates helped to lower the SPI 50.85 points to 1,690.38.

London: Report, page 26.