TOM STEVENSON

PETER RODGERS

The chances of Rentokil having to increase its pounds 1.9bn bid for rival business group BET rose yesterday as the target company's shares continued to edge ahead on the back of a profits forecast.

Shares in Rank Organisation were up sharply after the company released an upbeat trading statement. The company said sales in continuing operations were up more than 5 per cent and operating profit was 11 per cent higher in the first 10 months compared with a year earlier.

UBS forecasts 2% house prices rise

Security slip: Second profits warning of the year sends investors scurrying

Lloyd Thompson, international insurance and reinsurance broker, predicts that reinsur- ance premiums will continue to fall until at least mid-1996, while insurance premiums are set for a lengthier decline.

Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) announced disappointing first-half results yesterday, which included a big leap in bad-debt provisions, reflecting the pain inflicted on Swiss small- and medium-sized business by the strong Swiss franc.

UBS suffers in hostile markets

COURT Cavendish Group, the nursing home operator that went public last year, is changing its City advisers.

HOUSING market commentators fall into two groups. There are those who are repeatedly discovering a 'fundamental change' in the underlying structure of the housing market. And there are those who view such claims as misinterpretations of minor bumps in its normal cyclical pattern.

Monday 3.10.94

AN ITEM published on 17 July referred to remarks made in a book by Mr Jim Parton about his former boss. These remarks were stated by us to refer to Mr Hector Sants, the head of equities at UBS Limited. It has been brought to our attention that this was incorrect and that Mr Hector Sants was not the person referred to in the book. We apologise to him for this error and for any embarrassment this may have caused him, in recognition of which we have agreed to make a donation to a charity nominated by Mr Sants.

TURMOIL in securities markets this spring savaged the Swiss banking giant UBS's half-year results, with trading profits down by 68 per cent, far worse than expected.