Economics
Manufacturing Robust activity eased last month, according to the latest
CIPS purchasing managers’ survey of industry. Slower output and a dip in
orders pushed CIPS’s headline index of conditions down to 55.1 for last
month (from 56.1 in August) a three-month low. Any figure over 50 indicates
expansion. Doubts over the prospect of an early cut in interest rates grew
after the CIPS survey also showed that manufacturers’ output prices, for
goods leaving factories, rose last month at their fastest pace since 1999.
Housing Evidence emerged of a slowdown in the British housing market.
Bank of England data showed that mortgage approvals in August dropped to
109,000, from 115,000. With the exception of April, this was the lowest
level since 2005. Net mortgage lending also dropped in August to £8.5
billion, from a downwardly revised £8.9 billion in July.
Lending Total net lending to individuals fell to £9.5 billion in
August, from £10 billion in July, the Bank of England reported. Unsecured
consumer borrowing edged down to £1 billion in August, from £1.1 billion in
the previous month. Housing equity withdrawal also fell, to £10 billion in
the second quarter, from £12.7 billion in the previous three months, the
Bank of England said.
Banking
& finance
Citigroup and UBS revealed a $10 billion (£4.8 billion) reversal in
their fortunes as they gave warning of massive hits to their third-quarter
results.
Northern Rock shares slumped almost a third to a record low amid
renewed speculation that it could be forced into a cut-price sale.
Debtmatters shares dropped by nearly 70 per cent, wiping £12.5 million
off its market value, after the personal insolvency specialist said that it
was conducting a strategic review that could lead to a sale of the business.
Bank of England The Bank will hold a second auction of £10 billion in
the three-month interbank market today, despite the lack of demand at a
similar auction last week.
M&A activity in the first nine months of 2007 was up 50 per cent
over the same period last year to reach $3.6 trillion (£1.76 trillion),
according to data compiled by Thomson Financial.
TSB, American Express and Tesco Personal Finance will face the Office
of Fair Trading in the House of Lords today in a bid to end their
responsibility to refund cardholders who buy faulty goods abroad.
Construction
& property
New Star Asset Management said that it had equity commitments of $50
million (£24.5 billion) and that it wanted to raise up to $400 million for
its new real estate hedge fund. The New Star Real Estate Hedge Fund,
launched yesterday, will invest mainly in European-listed property
securities.
Spain A study by facilisimo.com, an online real estate site, showed
that nationwide prices of existing houses in Spain fell 0.32 per cent in
September.
Rok, the quoted local builders group, has bought Avonside Services, a
Northern plumbing-to-electrical services company, for £16.5 million,
comprising £11.55 million in cash and £4.95 million in Rok shares.
St Modwen, the urban regeneration specialist, said it was confident
that it could meet its own target to double its net asset value per share
every five years, despite a softening in UK property yields.
Quintain Estates, the Wembley-to-Greenwich developer, has bought the
Wembley Retail Park for £85 million.
Interior Services Group, one of the biggest City office fit-out
companies, has bought the remaining 80 per cent that it did not own already
in Interior Alpha for £13.5 million in cash and shares.
Consumer
goods
Imperial Tobacco The European Commission said that it had extended the
deadline for its inquiry into the proposed acquisition by Imperial Tobacco
of Altadis to October 18.
Engineering
Rolls-Royce said that it had bought Seaworthy Systems, the American
naval architecture and engineering company, for an undisclosed sum to
improve its marine support services operations.
Health
Bristol-Myers Squibb has agreed to pay more than $515 million (£252
million) to settle fraud allegations involving kickbacks to doctors and
inflated drug prices, the US Justice Department said. Bristol-Myers agreed
to settle charges that it had illegally compensated doctors to induce them
to prescribe Bristol-Myers drugs.
Industrials
Akzo Nobel, the Dutch group, published details of a shareholder meeting
for its offer for Britain’s Imperial Chemical Industries, saying that it
expected the deal to close in three months.
Leisure
Holidaybreak, the travel group, has acquired NST Holdings, a provider
of group travel to schools, for £47.2 million.
Roadchef, the motorway services operator owned by Delek Belron
International, has appointed Simon Turl, managing director of SSP’s UK
airports concessions division, as chief executive.
Ubet2win, the loss-making racecourse pitch and online gaming operator,
has suspended trading in its shares after failing to publish its half-year
results on time.
FishWorks, the restaurant operator, promoted Paul Goodale from chief
operating officer to chief executive, replacing Mitch Tonks, its founder,
who will stay on the board as an executive director.
Jurys Inns Quinlan Private, the Dublin-based investment firm, is
believed to be seeking to raise €400 million (£280 million) of equity from
its wealth clients to fund the recent €1.165 billion acquisition of Jurys
Inns.
Media
Lonely Planet founders netted £40 million after selling a controlling
stake in the publisher to the BBC.
BSkyB plans to offer broadband, telephone and a subscription TV service
showing premium sports and movies through a set-top box called Picnic, to
head off new entrants in an increasingly competitive market.
Trinity Mirror Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror,
defended her decision not to sell its Midlands newspapers, as it offloaded
the Racing Post for a lower-than-expected £170 million to FL Partners, the
Irish private equity firm.
FT.com, the internet arm of Pearson’s Financial Times, will introduce a
new charging system, expand its website and make more content free to online
readers.
Natural
resources
Shell has become the first company in the UK to take a pension holiday
for five years after suspending payments into its £12 billion retirement
fund. The final salary pension plan had a £2.9 billion surplus in the 12
months to July. Trustees have told investment managers to reduce their
holdings in equities to 50 per cent and put more into bonds.
StatoilHydro Shares in the Norwegian oil and gas major, were hit on
their first day of trading after the group revealed that its subsidiary in
Libya was being investigated over the possible payment of sweeteners to
partners in the country. StatoilHydro fell nearly 1 per cent to SwKr182.25.
De Beers’ joint venture in Botswana submitted an application for a
licence to run a new mine with an average yearly output of one million
carats.
Retailing
Benetton A group of Iranian MPs have called for the Italian clothing
retailer to leave Iran, calling its fashions a bad influence on female
consumers. The reformist Etemad-e Melli said that the five MPs had issued
their warning in a written protest to parliament.
Goldsmiths Pre-tax losses at the jeweller widened to £14.3 million in
the year to January as the company sold off its loss-making wholesale
operation and merged with Mappin & Webb.
Support
services
Biffa, the waste management group, hailed an encouraging performance as
landfill volumes continued to grow. Shares in the company rose as much as 8
per cent on the news.
Carillion said that it had sold the cleaning company Pall Mall Holdings
and Sovereign Soft Services for £22 million to Resource (NI), a subsidiary
of Resource Services Group.
Technology
EBay, the internet auction site, admitted that it had overpaid hugely
for Skype, the internet telephone company.
Acxiom, the American marketing data business, began a search for a new
chief executive after it called off its $2.25 billion (£1.1 billion)
takeover by the private equity firms Silver Lake and ValueAct Capital.
Adobe has launched its Flash Lite 3 software, which allows users to
view Flash Player-compatible videos on mobile phones and to surf
Flash-enabled internet sites. The company said that Nokia Corp and NTT
DoCoMo plan to make handsets that support Flash Lite 3.
Sony is to launch an ultra-thin flat television in December, the
world’s first TV to be based on organic light-emitting diode technology,
into an $82 billion (£40 billion) market dominated by LCD and plasma models.
Qualcomm European Union investigators said that they were ramping up
their investigation of Qualcomm, the wireless technology company, over
possible anti-trust practices.
Telecoms
Nokia is to pay $8.1 billion (£4 billion) for Navteq, an American
digital map supplier, in an attempt to develop new revenue streams and to
defend its number one position in the mobile phone market against internet
groups such as Google.
AT&T said that its Indian unit had applied for licences to provide
services in the world’s fastest-growing wireless market in partnership with
Mahindra Group.
Transport
Vueling, the Spanish airline, issued its second profit warning in three
months by stating that its 2007 ebitda would be below a previously forecast
range of €23 million (£16 million) to €42 million.
Vietnam Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding to buy ten
Airbus A350 XWB-900 aircraft, as well as adding 20 A321 aircraft to its
fleet. Airbus did not say when the aircraft will be delivered.
Utilities
Scottish & Southern Energy expected pre-tax profits to beat
forecasts this year and unveiled plans to spend £600 million on more
environmentally friendly power plants.
British Gas has stepped up the online energy price war by launching the
cheapest internet tariff on the market. Average dual-fuel bills on Click
Energy 4 will be £749, more than £150 cheaper than standard British Gas
rates.
OMV The Hungarian Finance Minister has dismissed calls from the
Austrian Government for it to partly renationalise MOL, the oil group, to
facilitate a bid approach by OMV, of Austria.
EDF plans to build its first nuclear plant in Ameria in 2015, Pierre
Gadonneix, its chairman, said. EDF has teamed up with Constellation Energy
to participate in the relaunch of nuclear energy in the United States and
Canada.
