Business and City in Brief

Heaviest fine yet on life insurer

Aegon Life, a small UK life office owned by the Dutch insurer Aegon, has been fined a record pounds 225,000 plus pounds 20,000 costs for putting investors at risk by failing to make adequate checks on its salesmen.

This is the first of the heavier penalties that Lautro, the life insurance regulator, has warned it will impose on companies that fail its second round of inspection visits.

Akers payout

IBM said in a proxy statement for its 1993 annual meeting that the former chairman and chief executive officer, John Akers, will receive about dollars 3.95m for his 1993 service, including dollars 308,333 in salary, dollars 125,000 in bonuses, dollars 97,000 in share options and dollars 3.42m in other compensations.

MGI open to claims

More than 5,000 personal customers of Municipal General Insurance, placed in provisional liquidation on Wednesday, will be able to make claims on the Policyholders Protection Board. MGI, part of the troubled Municipal Mutual Insurance, has become insolvent because of rising claims from Lloyd's members with personal stop-loss cover.

Tories query PIA

Labour has called on Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor, to clarify his position on the Personal Investment Authority and self- regulation after seven Tory MPs strongly criticised the new regulator in an Early Day Motion.

Intel loses

Intel, the US computer chip group, lost a patent suit yesterday, freeing a rival semiconductor maker to sell computer chips based on its designs. A jury awarded Advanced Micro Devices the right to use an Intel 'microcode' that it originally licensed from the company in the early 1980s. Intel said it would appeal.

Volvo losses deepen

The Swedish vehicle maker Volvo booked a charge of Skr5.2bn ( pounds 436m) against its 1993 profits as a result of the decision to dissolve cross-ownership ties with Renault. Its group net loss of Skr3.47bn was slightly deeper than 1992's Skr3.32bn. The charge contained two writedown elements, one of which was the entire surplus value of the holding in Renault.

Grumman bid war

Grumman, the US defence group that has agreed to a dollars 1.9bn takeover by Martin Marietta, became the target of a bidding war yesterday with rival aerospace contractor Northrop offering dollars 2.04bn.

Tiphook go-ahead

Shareholders in Tiphook passed a resolution allowing the board to sell the company's container division to Transamerica. Robert Montague has relinquished the chairmanship to Rupert Hambro but remains chief executive. The deal still has to be approved by bondholders.

World Markets

New York: Worries that the Whitewater scandal may affect the President's ability to run the economy lowered the Dow Jones average 22.79 points to 3,830.62.

Tokyo: The Nikkei average moved up 251.53 points to 20,090.71 in moderate trading.

Hong Kong: The Hang Seng index slipped nearly 1 per cent, losing 95.33 points to 10,129.05.

Sydney: Continuing to look overseas for direction, investors pushed the All Ordinaries index up 8.3 points to 2,155.1.

Bombay: Closed (holiday).

Johannesburg: Gold shares ended higher in cautious reaction to a firmer bullion price. With industrials still strong, the overall index added 49 points to 5,137.

Frankfurt: Buying of selected blue chips carried the DAX index 25.01 points higher to 2,141.1.

Paris: Still on the slide, the CAC-40 index gave up 15.06 points to close at 2,184.58.

Zurich: Mixed trade took share prices slightly higher, with the Swiss Performance Index 4.92 points firmer at 1,842.06.

London: Report, page 32.