Business and City in Brief

BT BOOK-BUILDING ATTRACTS US

SG Warburg, global co-ordinator of the BT3 share offer, said indicative bids received since bookbuilding began on Thursday morning were enough to take up the 50 per cent of shares allocated to the international tender.

Bids have been received from 800 investors from the main international markets, with demand from the US particularly strong. The book closes on Friday.

Money, page 22

REICHMANN RETREAT

Toronto's Reichmann brothers abandoned moves to scupper a deal that would distance them from the US arm of their failed property empire, Olympia & York.

TAIWAN BACKS BAe

The Taiwan government says it will help finance development of an advanced passenger aircraft in a planned joint venture with British Aerospace, providing a no-interest loan of dollars 250m-dollars 300m.

BOC IN GERMANY

BOC, the industrial gases group, is expanding in Germany with the purchase of a hydrogen gas distribution and pipeline network from Veba, the chemicals group, at an estimated price of pounds 50m- pounds 75m.

FIAT TO LAY OFF 38,000

Fiat will temporarily lay off more than 38,000 workers in September to cut production by 54,800 cars. Sales of new cars in Italy in June fell 29.5 per cent to 159,895.

SECURIGUARD ACCEPTS

Rentokil's pounds 76m bid for Securiguard, worth 345p a share, was recommended by Securiguard's board. Rentokil accounts for 36.7 per cent of the shares.

100m POUNDS GPT CONTRACT

GPT, the telecommunications equipment maker, said its Telephone Cables unit had won a contract covering copper and optical fibre cables from BT worth more than pounds 100m over five years.

QUEENS MOAT CHANGES

Queens Moat Houses named Barry Maiden, 43, as finance director of its UK hotels division and said John Williams, the group's UK property executive, had resigned from the board.

COOKSON'S POUNDS 19m DEAL

Cookson Group has completed the sale of Monmouth Plastics and Texapol Corpits, its US plastics compounding businesses, to MA Hanna for pounds 19m.

THORN EMI TALKING

Thorn EMI dampened City hopes that it would receive pounds 160m from GEC for its remaining security businesses, but confirmed that the two companies were still in talks about the disposal.

READ FOR LOGICA

Martin Read, managing director of Marconi Radar and Control Systems, has been named chief executive of Logica, the computer software and services company. He succeeds David Mann, who becomes deputy chairman.

CREDIT LYONNAIS SALE

(First Edition)

Credit Lyonnais, the French bank, will sell a 12 per cent stake in International Moscow Bank after receiving a licence to set up its own bank in Russia.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: Gains in technology shares and firmer bond prices helped nudge the Dow Jones Average 6.64 points higher at 3,521.06 by the close.

TOKYO: Renewed hopes of a domestic revival lifted the Nikkei average 225 to 19,877.39.

HONG KONG: Investor disappointment at the outcome of Douglas Hurd's visit to Peking saw the Hang Seng index close down 51.78 points at 7,070.61.

SYDNEY: The All Ordinaries index closed up 0.4 points at 1,782.9 in moderate trading.

JOHANNESBURG: Selective foreign buying enabled the gold index to recover lost ground. It gained a point to 1,972 after a low of 1,903.

FRANKFURT: Prices closed firmer but off their highs in active trade, underpinned by heavy international and domestic buy orders. The DAX index was 13.71 points better at 1,797.41.

MILAN: In dull trading, the MIB index edged up 0.8 per cent to 1,201.

ZURICH: Demand for the insurance sector boosted the SMI 4.8 to 2,402.7.

PARIS: The CAC-40 gained 5.33 to 1,985.70 in a volatile session dominated by the weak franc.

LONDON: Report, page 21.