Sunday Round-Up: The main stories from yesterday's City pages

Monday 15 November 1993 00:02 GMT
Comments

The Independent on Sunday

The Government's monetary advisers have been warned to expect a Budget that will put more upward pressure on inflation, suggesting that a further extension of VAT or increases in excise duties are on the cards.

Eugene Anderson, chairman and chief executive of Ferranti, stands to collect a pay-off of up to pounds 1m if GEC's token 1p a share rescue bid for the stricken electronics group goes through.

Bidders for the new national lottery will have to guarantee a minimum annual payment to charity without knowing what their revenues will be, according to the terms laid down by the Government.

Lawyers acting for Stanhope Properties have obtained an injunction preventing publication of proposals for restructuring its finances. A copy of the draft proposals was obtained by the property trade magazine, Estates Times.

The Securities and Futures Authority faces a legal challenge to its exoneration of Singer & Friedlander of allegations that the merchant bank misled investors. Bankers to Euro Disney are to meet in Paris to discuss the future of the troubled Paris theme park.

The Mail on Sunday

Directors of Hammerson, the property group, have bowed to investor pressure and cut the length of their service contracts. All executive directors' contracts will be cut from five years to three.

Harpur Group, the company behind the Dialcard and Overdrive fuel cards displayed outside filling stations, is planning a pounds 90m stock market flotation next year.

Zeneca's vegetarian health food Quorn is still costing it heavily, 25 years after its invention. In 1992 the manufacturing offshoot, Marlow Foods, increased sales by only 14 per cent to pounds 3.9m, which meant the company made a pounds 4m pre-tax loss.

The Observer

London Weekend Television is thought to be exploring ways of boosting its 15 per cent shareholding in Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television by seeking to swap publisher Pearson's 15 per cent stake in the broadcaster for a share of Yorkshire's programme library.

The future of the troubled Norton motorcycle business is up in the air. A deal in which Wildrose Ventures, a Canadian shell, planned to rescue Norton through a pounds 2m cash injection is in limbo.

Profits are soaring at Nuclear Electric, the state-owned nuclear generator. Trading figures for the half year to 30 September, out next month, are likely to disclose that Nuclear Electric's operating profits have climbed above pounds 450m.

A stable pound is the greatest threat to the growth of company profits, according to research by Nomura to be published tomorrow.

Industry will this week tell Chancellor Kenneth Clarke not to block the faltering economic recovery by raising taxes in his Budget later this month.

Insurance companies could be faced with a multimillion-pound bill to compensate people who have bought unsuitable personal pension plans. The scale of the problems resulting from the mis-selling of personal pensions will embarrass the Government as it gears up to make a new assault on state provision.

The Sunday Times

Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor, has accelerated moves to give the Bank of England a significantly greater degree of independence from the Treasury.

The Government has suggested to Saudi Arabia that it should buy a near pounds 2bn package of armoured vehicles to create a British equipped brigade for its army. Whitehall sources say the arms package would include Challenger 2 tanks, Warrior armoured vehicles and AS90 self- propelled howitzers.

British Airways today reaffirms its status as the world's most profitable airline, eclipsing rivals such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, when it announces first-half pre-tax profits of around pounds 227m.

Ferranti is heading for collapse as concern grows that GEC's 1p a share bid will fail to win sufficient acceptances from shareholders.

Nervous investors may be about to pull the plug on the Japanese stock market, pushing it below 16,000, according to a bearish note from Nomura Research Institute.

With Christmas only six weeks away, many of the biggest clothing retailers are resorting to special promotions to pump up flagging sales.

The Sunday Telegraph

The Department of Trade and Industry has launched an investigation into alleged insider dealing of shares in Development Securities, the property group previously called Clayform Holdings.

Peter Simon, owner of the Monsoon fashion group, is one of Britain's highest-paid businessmen, earning almost pounds 3.6m in the year to August 1992.

Nottingham Group, which designs and manufactures educational equipment, is to float in the spring with a market value estimated at pounds 75m. The company was the subject of a pounds 37m management buyout from parent Coats Viyella four years ago.

Electra, Michael Stoddart's development group, is talking to Hanson about buying some of the industrial combine's smaller holdings. The disposal is expected to raise between pounds 80m and pounds 90m and is part of the rationalisation programme of Hanson's chief executive, Derek Bonham.

British Gas's chief executive, Cedric Brown, will call this week for Cadbury-style non-executives to be appointed to advise utility regulators and limit arbitrary decisions.

Lloyd's of London's new investment trusts are poised to take the Lime Steet revolution into a new phase as more flotations complete this week. They plan to bid for the managing agencies of the insurance syndicates they are backing with up to pounds 2bn of new underwriting capacity.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in