Mail on Sunday

Emi Trains Its Spotlight On Warner Again

BRITAIN'S EMI is preparing to make a takeover bid for US rival Warner Music in a deal that would create the second-biggest music group in the world. City sources indicate that EMI, under executive chairman Eric Nicoli, is likely to make an approach to Warner within weeks.

Retail Crisis May Force Cuts in Rent ; Landlords Aim to Lure Tenants As More Shops Stand Empty

A DEEPENING crisis in the retail industry could see owners of outoftown shopping centres and High Street outlets slashing rents in an unprecedented attempt to fill vacant premises and retain tenants. According to one major retailer, trading last week was the 'worst in memory'.

Russian'skeletons'alert

RUSSIA'S biggest foreign investor, William Browder, has warned that all 11 Russian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange have major corporate governance issues. His comments follow a high-profile threat last week from fund manager FC Asset Management that it would boycott the proposed London listing of Russia's stateowned oil giant Rosneft.

Emi Trains Its Spotlight On Warner Again

BRITAIN'S EMI is preparing to make a takeover bid for US rival Warner Music in a deal that would create the second-biggest music group in the world. City sources indicate that EMI, under executive chairman Eric Nicoli, is likely to make an approach to Warner within weeks.

Retail Crisis May Force Cuts in Rent ; Landlords Aim to Lure Tenants As More Shops Stand Empty

A DEEPENING crisis in the retail industry could see owners of outoftown shopping centres and High Street outlets slashing rents in an unprecedented attempt to fill vacant premises and retain tenants. According to one major retailer, trading last week was the 'worst in memory'.

Another Windfall for Hands

CITY financier Guy Hands is set to reap a second windfall from last year's Pounds 450 million acquisition of utilities giant East Surrey Holdings. He has appointed Citigroup to sell gas transportation business ES Pipelines only months after he sold East Surrey Water for Pounds 200 million to Deutsche Bank. The latest deal could make more than Pounds 250 million.

Waterstone Ready for a Pounds 280m Bid

HMV, the books and music shop chain, is holding talks this weekend with Tim Waterstone ahead of a possible Pounds 280 million bid by him for the book chain he founded in 1982. Waterstone, backed by Lazard European Private Equity Partners, has recruited former Penguin boss Anthony Forbes Watson as chief executive for the proposed venture. A bid could emerge this week.

Property Value Fraud Ensnares Major Lenders

TWO of the country's biggest lenders, Nationwide Building Society and HBoS, have become embroiled in a suspected multimillion pound fraud involving false valuations on properties. Cheshire Building Society and Societe Generale have already admitted they are victims of the fraud, based on the overvaluation of commercial properties against which they provided finance.

Premier Eyes Up Pounds 2bn Ub

PREMIER Foods, owner of Branston Pickle and Smash instant mashed potato, plans a takeover bid for United Biscuits, one of Britain's biggest snacks groups, in a deal that would value the business at more than Pounds 2 billion. It is understood that Premier has teamed up with another food group and a number of private equity groups to take over UB and break up the business.

Battling Levene Survives Challenge

LORD Levene, the high-profile chairman of Lloyd's of London, has seen off an attempt to unseat him by Stephen Merrett, once one of the most powerful underwriters in the insurance market, who was forced to quit over controversial policies. Merrett, who now lives in France in what one source described as 'self-imposed exile', challenged Levene's right to be chairman of Lloyd's as he had never been a working member of the 300-yearold institution before he took up his role in 2002.

Are There More Profits to Be Squeezed From Debenhams? ; As Investors Are Asked to Stake Money in Store Group,the Crucial Question Is:

He spruced up the DIY chain Homebase. He gave Halfords a lift. Now he is urging investors to put money into the department store group Debenhams after two-and-half years under his stewardship. This week, Rob Templeman will discover the result of his latest quest. On Thursday, Debenhams announces the price at which its shares will be sold to institutional investors.

Net Protest Delays Grocery Inquiry

AN internet campaign orchestrated by supermarket protest groups has forced a delay to the long-awaited Office of Fair Trading decision to refer the Pounds 95 billion-a-year grocery market to the Competition Commission. Hundreds of protesters have used online forms on the Tescopoly website to lobby the OFT after an analysis of the sector published last month.

Net Closes On City Dealers in Pounds 35 Million Tax Fraud Probe

TAX inspectors are closing in on a ring of high-rolling City dealers who they believe have defrauded the Treasury out of at least Pounds 35 million. Revenue Customs investigators have been granted an order requiring a top City bank to reveal full information on some of its superrich clients, including details of all their trading activities and copies of documents provided as part of the bank's checks, from utility bills to passports.

The Perils That Lurk in Foreign Firms' Listings

Clara Furse has done a grand job for the London Stock Exchange of late. She has managed to ensure that the LSE's share price has risen to levels that would have looked inconceivable not so long ago, so there will be rich pickings for many of her investors if or when one of her many suitors manages to wring the words 'I do' from the City's first lady.

Anger Over Fund Get-Out Clause

THE National Association of Pension Funds is demanding answers from the regulator for allowing a shipping company to walk away from its pension responsibilities to 30,000 workers. Christine Farnish, director-general of NAPF, has written to regulator David Norgrove to ask for clarification of his controversial decision last week that will see TH Global, previously known as Kvaerner and Trafalgar House, inject a little more than Pounds 100 million into the Kvaerner pension fund between now and ...

Bill for Pension Promises Soars

AT least 16 pension schemes underwritten by government guarantees against going bust could swell the Treasury's multibillion pound liabilities, Financial Mail can reveal. Among the schemes are nine plans for railway workers from when British Rail was privatised in 1996.

Allders Store Fights On

THE last Allders department store to bear the name of the 144- year-old chain has been given a two-year stay of execution. The store in Croydon, south London, was due to close next spring as part of landlord Minerva's plan for a Pounds 500 million shopping centre. But following talks between Allders' owner Harold Tillman, who rescued the store from administration last year, and Minerva, it has been agreed that it can continue to trade in Croydon until 2008.

Tchenguiz Behind a Network Revolution

PROPERTY tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz has joined forces with defence technology firm QinetiQ to develop a mobile phone mast that can be used by several network operators. Until now, phone companies have each used their own masts, but with Pounds 15 million of backing from Tchenguiz, QinetiQ has developed an aerial that can handle multiple operators.

Insurer Makes a Break with Past

AS corporate histories go, SVB Holdings has one of the unhappiest. In the late Nineties, the Lloyd's of London insurer went hell for leather to expand in America and came horribly unstuck. Its premiums were too low. Claims rolled in over the next few years and SVB suffered huge losses. In 2002, the company's very survival was in doubt. But survive it did. In 2003, it appointed Matthew Fosh as chief executive. And it even managed to raise Pounds 125 million to bolster its overstretched finances.

Hydrogen Plans Pounds 60m Aim Float

SPECIALIST recruitment company Hydrogen plans to join the junior Alternative Investment Market in the next couple of months in a move that analysts expect to value the business at about Pounds 60 million. Hydrogen, which targets mid to senior-level executives in financial services, commerce, industry and the public sector, could raise about Pounds 20 million in the float to fund expansion, including acquisitions.