Business and City in Brief

Hasbro takes legal action over Spear

The US toy giant Hasbro has started legal action against trustees of trusts with key holdings in the Scrabble game maker JW Spear to force them to accept its pounds 46.9m bid for the company.

At issue is whether Spear family trusts can withdraw from an undertaking given on a 24.9 per cent stake after Hasbro's arch-rival Mattel launched a competing pounds 52m bid. The trusts have agreed not to sell their shares to anyone until a court hearing on June 14.

Dairy Crest cuts jobs

Dairy Crest, the milk and yoghurt business owned by the Milk Marketing Board, is cutting a further 600 jobs - 12.5 per cent of its workforce - to help it cope with growing competition in the milk industry. The cuts come days before the Government is due to announce its plans for the future of the MMB, which is expected to pave the way for a flotation of Dairy Crest.

Rolls deal 'suspended'

Concern is mounting over the future of Rolls-Royce's planned joint power engineering venture in Malaysia with EPE Power Corporation. The managing director of EPE is reported to have said the venture had been suspended because of attacks on Malaysian leaders in the British media, but Rolls said yesterday it was unaware of any hitch.

Honda to expand

Honda is to announce the expansion of its UK car-making capacity by up to 50 per cent, reports said last night. The growth at its Swindon plant is part of a new European strategy since BMW's takeover of Rover, Honda's British partner.

Blow for CE Heath

Australia's highest court overturned lower courts' decisions in favour of CE Heath's Australian subsidiary in a case against the Victoria state authorities involving workers' compensation insurance. The ruling will force Heath to write off about pounds 23m accrued in its balance sheet as a debt owed by the Victoria Accident Compensation Commission.

Eurorail withdrawal

London Electricity has been forced to withdraw from the Eurorail consortium, which is bidding to develop the Channel tunnel rail link. The Department of Transport warned of a potential conflict for London Electricity, whose chairman Sir Bob Reid is also chairman of British Rail.

Oftel demand

Oftel, the telecommunications watchdog, has told BT, Mercury and other network operators that they must publish better codes of pratice. Oftel wants customers to know their rights on standards of service.

French production

(First Edition)

France's industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2 per cent in March after a revised decline of 0.4 per cent in February, statistics office INSEE said.

Revised Rule Book

(First Edition)

The London Stock Exchange has published a completely revised version of its Rule Book for member firms, following consultation earlier this year. The last big rewrite of the Rule Book was in 1984.

WORLD MARKETS

New York: A PepsiCo warning of flat profits prompted caution, but by the close the Dow Jones Average had edged 3.69 points ahead to 3,753.14

Tokyo: Leading blue chips continued to meet active buying support. The Nikkei average gained 140.83 points to 21,402.78.

Hong Kong: Property shares led the market lower, with the Hang Seng index 100.54 off at 9,190.64.

Sydney: Rises in gold and other metals were offset by weaker industrials. The All Ordinaries shed three points to 2,076.7.

Bombay: A 91.56-point gain, or 2 per cent, carried the index to a three-month high of 4,125.22.

Johannesburg: A slightly firmer gold price helped the index to edge up six points to 5,589.

Paris: Most of Wednesday's gains were wiped out. The CAC- 40 index fell 18.42 to 2,028.39.

Frankfurt: Daimler-Benz was a notable loser as the DAX index gave up 15.88 points to 2,129.32.

Zurich: Consolidating recent gains, the Swiss Performance Index lost 12.61 points to 1,817.76.

London: Report, page 34.