Business and City Summary

Swegmark Nelson in pounds 20m buyout

Swegmark Nelson, one of Britain's leading lingerie manufacturers, has joined forces with the Ballet and Figfort brands in a pounds 20m management buyout from their parent company Swegmark Invest of Sweden.

Backed by Electra Investment Trust, the three businesses will be known in future as Premoda Group.

Optimism on closures

The worst may be over for site closures and job losses in the manufacturing sector, according to Remploy Manufacturing Services. Its annual survey of 7,300 sites shows 4 per cent had shut compared with 8 per cent a year before while numbers employed fell by 1 per cent compared with 3 per cent in 1993.

Gas platform order

Shell and Esso have awarded an engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation contract worth around pounds 35m to Heerema Havenbedrijf of the Netherlands for the platform for the Schooner gasfield in the southern North Sea.

Engineering deal

Industrial Control Systems, the high-tech engineer, has bought Transmitton from Balfour Beatty for pounds 1.5m. Transmitton designs, manufactures and supplies computer-based control and monitoring equipment to the mining, oil and gas industries.

Trusts popular

Contributions to investment trust savings schemes rose by 20 per cent to pounds 122m in the first half of this year, according to the Association of Investment Trust Companies.

TODAY 8.8.94

Producer price index (July), Credit business (June).

Interims: British Airways (1st qtr), Gartmore American Securities (1st qtr), Inspec Group, Saatchi & Saatchi (amd), Trade Indemnity.

Finals: CRT Group, Mid Wynd International, Tiphook.

TOMORROW: 9.8.94

Balance of visible trade (May).

Interims: BPP Holdings, Barclays, CU Environmental Trust, Edinburgh Oil & Gas, Fleming Mercantile Inv, General Accident, Hemingway Properties, Holliday Chemical Holdings, Kleinwort Overdseas Inv, Lilleshall, Microvitec, New Ireland Holdings, Shires High- Yielding, Thornton Pan Euro IT, Transport Development.

Finals: Howard Hldgs, Wyko.

WEDNESDAY: 10.8.94

Bank lending to UK residents (2nd qtr), index of production for Scotland (1st qtr).

Interims: Anglo American Industrial, Capital Shopping Centres, Commercial Union, Flying Flowers, Foreign & Colonial Enterprise, GKN, Hickson International, London & Overseas Fr (1st qtr), Metal Bulletin, J N Nichols (Vimto), Standard Chartered, Union, WPP Group, Vektra Corp.

Finals: Beales Hunter, Scholes, Westminster Health Care.

THURSDAY: 11.8.94

Capital issues and redemptions (July).

Interims: CIA Group, Division Group, Drayton Far Eastern, Foreign & Colonial Inv Trust, Horace Small Apparel, Johnson Group Cleaners, Reed Executive, Reed International, Royal Dutch Petroleum, Royal Insurance, Shell Transport & Trading, SKF, Smith & Nephew, TransAtlantic Holdings, Ward Holdings, Wembley.

Finals: BOC Group (3rd qtr), Unit Group.

FRIDAY: 12.8.94

Usable steel production (July).

Interims: English & Caledonian Inv, Haden Maclellan Holdings, Jupiter Intnl Green IT, Newcastle Building Society, Nightfreight, Unilever.

Finals: Birkdale Group, Fleming Enterprise Inv.