British Sky Broadcasting is set to be the biggest casualty when FTSE International the index

British Sky Broadcasting is set to be the biggest casualty when FTSE International, the index provider, announces a reweighting of the UK indices this morning.
FTSE is changing the way it calculates indices such as the FTSE 100, so less weight is given to companies with a small free float, where many of the shares are held for the long-term by strategic investors, parent companies or directors.Around 60 per cent of BSkyB shares are tied up with investors unlikely to sell, including almost 40 per cent with Sky Global Networks, the umbrella company for Rupert Murdoch’s satellite interests.The changes will not come into effect until next June, giving fund managers time to adjust and to reduce the market impact of the sell-off that firms such as BSkyB will experience. Tracker funds, which replicate the index, will have to dump 60 per cent of their BSkyB stock.Graham Colbourne, director at FTSE, said fund managers requested the change in response to the growth of tracker funds and the trend towards partial flotations.Anomalies occur if only a small proportion of a company’s equity is being offered for sale. If BT were to sell, say, just 20 per cent of its BT Wireless unit, tracker funds anticipating its inclusion in the FTSE 100 would be forced to buy most of the available stock. That extra demand would mean all investors paying a premium to the underlying value of the business.Analysts argue the technology bubble of last winter would have been less severe if free float-adjusted weighting had been used by FTSE. Strong demand for tech stocks with low free floats pushed shares higher and boosted the company’s weighting in the index. That created even more demand from tracker funds which were forced to increase their holdings.”Passive fund managers are particularly keen because it means they are not scrambling after stock that is not there,” Mr Colbourne said.Since last summer, newly listed companies have been added to the index in proportion to their free float. Today’s FTSE announcement will be scrutinised by fund managers anxious to learn the extent of the reshuffle they will need to make to their portfolios when the new rules are applied.

Rival index provider Stoxx changed its pan-European indices to a free float-based calculation earlier this month. That prompted a big switch into UK equities from continental markets, where governments still hold large chunks of privatised utilities.. Technology company BTG is to raise £121.5 million, the company said. Technology company BTG is to raise £121.5 million, the company said.
A rights issue issue will help to fund development of a new treatment for varicose veins and it will also invest in developing drugs for use in oncology and neurodegenerative diseases.The chief executive Ian Harvey said that it was also spending an extra £21 million to recruit staff in the UK and US, invest in IT and set up a US west coast office.It also plans to form a new company to invest in genomics-based technologies.. Ronson, the ailing British cigarette lighter company rescued by the veteran entrepreneur Victor Kiam, yesterday said sales have slid as the result of restructuring, including an extensive overhaul of its product lines. Ronson, the ailing British cigarette lighter company rescued by the veteran entrepreneur Victor Kiam, yesterday said sales have slid as the result of restructuring, including an extensive overhaul of its product lines.
Many of the company’s lighters, particularly the disposable models, hold “limited appeal to today’s consumer” and its gift lighters have proved uncompetitive in international markets, it admitted.

Sales fell 31 per cent to £3.5m in the six months to 30 June, with the company making a loss of £473,000, increased from £223,000.The ebullient Mr Kiam, who is in his 70s and famous for his gadget-promoting television appearances, stepped in as chairman in 1998, following the ousting of the chief executive, Howard Hodgson, the previous summer, a year in which the company made a loss of £11m. Shares in the company yesterday remained unchanged at 1.15p.Pam Hulme, the finance director, said: “The company has obviously gone through a very traumatic period. Last year was about stabilising and stopping the leak, and this year is about repositioning. It’s about removing products that are not part of the Ronson heritage.”She was confident the second half of the year would see improved sales and said links with distribution partners who lacked commitment or muscle had been severed. An e-venture was also axed after a feasibility study showed funds would be better spent on partnerships and product development.Ronson has now switched focus from distribution to brand management and plans to become a design-led consumer products brand, having hired the New York designer Karim Rash to develop an identity, which it wants to extend to products other than lighters.The company, founded in the late 19th century, saw losses escalate in the mid-1990s, when fire destroyed its warehouse in Newcastle and the launch of a range of lighters failed to re-ignite the brand.. Paul Chisholm, chief executive of Colt Telecom, Europe’s biggest competitive local exchange carrier, yesterday added to the growing pressure on British Telecom and Oftel to speed up local loop unbundling.

Paul Chisholm, chief executive of Colt Telecom, Europe’s biggest competitive local exchange carrier, yesterday added to the growing pressure on British Telecom and Oftel to speed up local loop unbundling.
“The UK process that was set up between BT and Oftel doesn’t work,” Mr Chisholm said. “Are we annoyed? Absolutely.”He brushed aside claims by e-commerce minister Patricia Hewitt that Britain had not fallen behind Germany in unbundling “I can get an unbundled loop in Germany,” Mr Chisholm said. “I can’t get one here.” He added: “We would like [unbundling] accelerated. BT is being given an unfair advantage.”Local loop unbundling is to become law across Europe from 1 January. The directive is meant to stimulate market competition by giving alternative telecoms service providers access to the copper wires that link businesses and households to the national phone network.Mr Chisholm also disputed BT claims that its local exchanges lack the space to install competitor’s high-speed Net access equipment known as asymmetric digital subscriber lines.