Bond to serve his country

VISIT BRITAIN, the agency that promotes tourism to the country, is teaming up with the new James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, to help boost visitor numbers.

The government body will be the official tourism and destination partner to the film, and will this month launch a marketing campaign based on the movie, the 22nd in the long-running series.

The initiative will incorporate the chance to win a “Live Like Bond” short break in Britain. The film will be released next month.

TUC attacks super-rich

TRADE UNIONS will this week call for higher taxes on high earners and curbs on the City as part of a campaign against the super-rich.

At this week’s TUC annual meeting in Brighton, union leaders will release a pamphlet arguing there is a greater gap between the poor and the wealthy elite than in Victorian times, and that the rise of the super-rich has harmed society.

The TUC wants higher minimum tax rates for those earning more than £100,000 a year, a tougher line on offshore tax havens, the treatment of capital gains as income and a tightening of nondomicile tax status.

Ferrovial’s Belfast sale

FERROVIAL, the Spanish group that owns BAA, has sold Belfast City airport. It said yesterday it had sold it to the ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund for £130m, representing a capital gain of £85.6m.

Ferrovial bought Belfast City in 2003, three years before it bought BAA, which owns and operates seven other UK airports, including Heathrow. Belfast City handles 2m passengers a year.

The Spanish group said the disposal was part of its plan to focus on the BAA airports. Last month the Competition Commission said BAA would have to sell one of its two large Scottish airports, and two of the three London hubs.

Power plant bids due

THE auction of a £350m stake in Conoco Phillips’s Immingham power plant will move ahead next week when first-round bids are due. Citigroup is running the sale of the 50% holding in the 730MW plant on the Humber. Industry sources said that a financial or infrastructure buyer is most likely to win the asset because strategic buyers are thought to be less keen to buy a noncontrolling stake. The combined plant provides power to a pair of adjoining Conoco oil refineries and is undergoing a £210m expansion that will increase capacity to 1,200MW.

Informa shares slide after rejection of bid

7% The amount by which Informa shares fell on Friday after the media company’s board rejected a fresh offer from a bidding consortium led by Providence Equity.

11% The percentage difference between the Providence consortium’s initial 506p-a-share offer and its revised, lower bid of 450p, which was rejected.