the week

UNILEVER paid £250m for Reckitt & Colman's food and drink businesses, including the famous Colman's mustard, and sold the drinks businesses - notably Robinsons Barley Water - to Bass for £103m.

ING, the new Dutch owner of Barings merchant bank, accepted the resignations of 21 executives and managers connected with the bank's Singapore derivatives operation.

Lord Swaythling, a non-executive director of the Telegraph, said he was annoyed to read in the Independent on Sunday that Conrad Black would not pay more than 500p for the Telegraph shares he does not own.

SG Warburg said it was in talks with Swiss Bank Corporation about selling its banking operations and later warned that its 1994 profits would be "very significantly" below forecasts.