BP hopes for Russia pact

THE dispute between BP and its Russian partners in TNK-BP could be resolved within days after meetings between the main players in Moscow. Robert Dudley, chief executive of TNK-BP, said yesterday he hoped the conflict could be resolved. Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, met Mikhail Friedman, one of the Russian partners, in Moscow last week, and is expected to hold further meetings this week in an attempt to sort out the dispute.

BP and its partners have fallen out over strategy and management of the group in the run-up to an expected deal with Gazprom, the state-backed energy group. The Russian owners have demanded the resignation of Dudley, which BP has resisted.

Bowling along for a sale

THE tenpin-bowling operator Georgica is preparing to put itself up for sale six months after it ended talks to sell its operations to a private-equity investor. Georgica is set to hire an investment bank to advise on a sale of the company, which has a market value of £36m. The company trades as Tenpin and is the leading operator in the UK. Analysts say the business could appeal to an investor wanting to consolidate the sector.

The other main players are Hollywood Bowl, part of the Mitchells & Butlers pubs group, and privately owned chains AMF and Bowlplex.

Warning on falling beer sales

BOSSES at one of Britain’s biggest pub groups have warned that sales of beer in the on-trade are likely to fall by more than 40% in the next decade. In a presentation to stockbroker Blue Oar Securities, management at Mitchells & Butlers, owner of the Harvester chain, said beer sales were likely to fall from 17m barrels this year to 10m by 2018. They were as high as 37m in 1979.

They said the main reason for the decline was the wide availability of cheap beer from supermarkets. Such a fall in on-trade beer sales will be catastrophic for UK pubs. Data suggest four are closing each day.

B&B rights issue talks

THE Association of British Insurers will discuss tomorrow with its investment committee concerns about the circumstances surrounding Bradford & Bingley’s decision to abandon a £300m rights issue. One of the key issues is whether the £179m sale of new shares, at 55p, to the US private-equity group Texas Pacific was in breach of the principle that gives existing shareholders first call on any new shares being issued. The ABI has until next month to put out an advisory document, ahead of the mortgage lender’s extraordinary meeting scheduled for mid-July.

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