Business and City in Brief

Radio challenge can go ahead

Guardian Media, part of the Guardian newspaper group, last night won the first round in its battle to overturn the Radio Authority's decision to approve a complex takeover of the radio group Trans World Communications by the publisher Emap.

Guardian, which has 20 per cent of Trans World, successfully asked the High Court for leave to bring an action for judicial review of the Radio Authority's decision.

Cutting down waste

A 16-month project, jointly funded by the DTI and BOC, has pinpointed almost 400 ways of reducing the estimated 400 million tonnes of waste produced by British industry every year and simultaneously cutting costs. One of the consultants on the project, whose participants included Heinz, Lever Brothers, Manchester Airport and the Royal Mail, said the value of waste was at least pounds 40bn, with the disposal costs estimated at a further pounds 16bn.

Kemper bid surprise

The Battle for control of Kemper, the Chicago-based asset manager and brokerage firm, ended abruptly yesterday when a dollars 2.7bn offer by Conesco, a relatively unknown Midwest life insurer trumped a hostile bid from the giant General Electric Capital. Kemper agreed to a dollars 2.7bn cash-and-shares offer from Conseco after months of opposing a bid by GE Capital. .

Sale in defence

Arthur Andersen, receiver to the defence electronics group Ferranti, has sold its industrial systems division, which employs 285, to Thomson CSF, of France.

Past the post

Business Post, the parcel delivery company that floated last summer, has abandoned its preparations for direct competition with the Post Office. The decision accompanied the announcement of pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March, which grew from pounds 4.2m to pounds 5.3m.

Stagecoach buy

Stagecoach, the bus and coach company based in Perth, is raising pounds 27.5m through a placing to buy Busways, an operator in the North-east with a 600-strong vehicle fleet. About 3.3 million new Stagecoach shares are being placed at 173p.

Airport deal

(First Edition)

Chinese and British experts are to meet in the next two days to continue drafting a deal on funding Hong Kong's new airport, a Hong Kong government spokesman said.

German prices up

Consumer prices in western Germany rose 0.1 per cent in June from May and 2.9 per cent year-on-year, according to provisional figures from the Federal Statistics Office.

WORLD MARKETS

New York: Shares responded to more settled bond prices, and by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 50.51 points ahead at 3,687.45.

Tokyo: The dollar's continued slide against the yen helped to send the Nikkei average down 465.79 (2.2 per cent) to 20,300.96.

Hong Kong: Despite thin turnover the Hang Seng index tumbled 233.52 points to 8,647.48.

Sydney: Renewed bond weakness hit investor confidence, with the All Ordinaries losing 60.5, or 3 per cent, to 1,957.4.

Bombay: Selected stocks staged a mild recovery, but the index ended 38.61 weaker at 4,174.4.

Johannesburg: Gold's inability to make ground further depressed a weak market. The index gave up 139 points to 5,453.

Frankfurt: Hopes of an end to the decline were not fulfilled as the DAX index slipped another 16.71 points to 1,988.6.

Paris: Recovering from early losses, the CAC-40 index closed 4.58 points to the good at 1,911.6.

Zurich: The weak dollar and uncertainty over interest rates combined to push the SPI down 10.79 points to 1,700.4.

London: Report, page 28.