Business and City in Brief

Dollars 1m reward offered for Schneider

A German bank has offered a dollars 1m reward in Paraguay for information on the whereabouts of the fugitive German property tycoon Jurgen Schneider, according to Die Welt newspaper. It quoted Interpol as saying Mr Schneider, who disappeared from Germany a month ago leaving a property empire facing bankruptcy, might have gone to Paraguay.

Interpol's office in Asuncion said that an unnamed German bank had offered the reward.

Air turbulence

Prospects for an Anglo-French confrontation at Paris's Orly airport on Monday escalated as British Airways and Air UK insisted they would start flights there, despite a ban by the French government. BA said the first flight would leave Heathrow at 6.50am and air traffic control would direct the plane into Orly.

Irish float

DCC, Ireland's largest industrial holding company, is joining the London and Irish stock markets with a value of Ir pounds 182m. It is placing 3.3 million shares at Ir250p to raise Ir pounds 6m.

Drug-link death

Wardell Lazard, founder and chairman of WR Lazard and Co, the US investment company, and possibly the biggest black money manager in the country, was found dead in a Pittsburgh hotel room yesterday, apparently from a drug overdose.

Fiat loss

Fiat, the Italian car maker, announced the first loss in its history. It said it lost 1,780bn lire ( pounds 760m) last year. It paid no dividend to ordinary shareholders.

Pepkor offer

Pepkor is likely to offer to sell its discount shops in Scotland to Brown & Jackson if its bid for B&J succeeds. B&J published details of the offer, arguing that Pepkor would make an immediate injection of pounds 2m more than that offered by Gerald and Vera Weisfeld.

Zurich ahead

Zurich Insurance, which has acquired the business of Municipal Mutual Insurance, reported a 25 per cent increase in profits to pounds 280.7m. Gross premiums were up 19 per cent to pounds 11.4bn.

Ofgas restrictions

Ofgas, the gas industry regulator, may impose restrictions on electricity companies that want to enter the domestic market in competition with British Gas.

Charges settled

A senior executive at Time Warner settled charges yesterday of having traded on inside information about the media group's 1991 share-rights plan. Oded Aboodi, the right-hand man to former Time Warner chief executive Steven Ross, will pay dollars 900,000 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Auditor quits

(First Edition)

KPMG, the accountancy firm, has resigned as auditor of Enterprise Computer Holdings, the computer services group, following a dispute over fees.

Orlando inquiry

(First Edition)

Florida authorities are investigating brokers at the Orlando office of Merrill Lynch who apparently sold shares in Euro Disney before the issue received local regulatory clearance

WORLD MARKETS

New York: The Dow Jones average gave up some gains as a rally in bonds lost steam. By the close the index was 23.80 points to the good at 3,652.84.

Tokyo: Prices moved little in a tug-of-war between foreign investors and domestic sellers. The Nikkei average finished 74.11 points ahead at 20,224.24.

Hong Kong: Shares closed mixed after two days of sharp rises. The Hang Seng index, at 8,878.86, was 27.3 points easier.

Sydney: Buyers resurfaced after an early bout of selling, leaving the All Ordinaries index 6.8 points higher at 2,041.4.

Wellington: Hectic trading saw the 40-share Capital index add 29.66 points to 2,093.5.

Milan: Banca di Roma was one of the day's biggest gainers as shares ended on a strong note.

Budapest: The market closed steady to lower on the back of falling turnover. The index was 2.93 points lighter at 1,611.92.

Bombay, Johannesburg, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich: Exchanges closed for holidays.

London: Report, page 30.