It hardly catapults S&N into China one added

“It hardly catapults S&N into China,” one added.The City focused on Tuesday’s disappointing fourth-quarter results from BBH, the Russian brewing group S&N co-owns with Carlsberg. Following complaints from rivals and customers, a spokeswoman for the commission said it would be seeking to improve “commitments” given by the airlines, although she added: “The commission is still optimistic that it can approve the deal.”. The Wallenbergs, one of Sweden’s richest families, yesterday sold £555m of shares in AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Investor, the family investment vehicle run by Marcus Wallenberg, cut its stake in AstraZeneca from 5 per cent to 3.75 per cent, raising cash that it said would be used to pay down debt.Speculation swirled in Stockholm, however, that the Wallenbergs intend to acquire a big stake in Scania, the Swedish truckmaker which is 45 per cent owned by Volvo.Mr Wallenberg said: “We have decided to reduce our leverage and strengthen our financial flexibility. Although one analyst said the price paid for S&N’s 19.5 per cent stake in Chongqing looked “toppy”, others noted that it represented less than 1 per cent of the UK brewer’s market valuation.Chongqing is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange.. This compares with flat markets in the UK and growth of 18 per cent in Russia in the last three months of 2003. S&N shares fell 5.75p to 407.75p after some analysts trimmed their 2004 forecasts for BBH, which owns the Baltika beer brand.S&N, which has worked with the Chinese brewer for the past 10 years, said it would appoint a representative to the Chongqing board.

John Nicolson, the chairman of S&N’s international beer division, said building on its relationship with Chongqing was an “excellent way to become part of one of the biggest and fastest growing beer markets in the world”.In 2002, the Chinese beer market enjoyed compound growth of 5 per cent. Scottish & Newcastle failed to deflect attention away from stalling growth at its Russian beer arm yesterday despite taking its first footstep in China with the £35m purchase of a 20 per cent stake in the country’s sixth-biggest brewer.
Analysts said the Chinese deal had raised concerns that S&N’s management would be prevented from giving more pressing problems, such as the brewer’s waning UK market share, its full attention. Some rivals are sceptical about the profitability of an alliance without job reductions, and the industry reaction was measured.A spokesman for BA said: “We don’t oppose the merger in principle but we just want to look at the decision in detail to ensure that it addresses the competition issues raised.”In a separate move the commission said Air France and Alitalia, Italy’s largest airline, might need to cut their dominance of some routes to win clearance for a more limited alliance. It should also give the airlines new room for manoeuvre as they combat the combined effects of a downturn in the economy and fierce competition from low-cost carriers.The surrender of 94 take off and landing slots – 47 pairs per day – will give others the chance to operate on 14 routes including Amsterdam-Paris, Amsterdam-Rome and links between Amsterdam and several French regional centres. Intercontinental routes include Amsterdam-New York, Paris-Detroit, Amsterdam-Atlanta and Paris-Lagos.The commission would prefer one carrier to take up most of these slots to provide maximum competition for travellers.

It decided to allow the merger through because it believed the two companies’ networks were “largely complementary”.Air France has a stronger stake than KLM in southern Europe and Africa, while KLM has more routes to Northern Europe and the Far East.Air France has said the merger cost savings will rise from between €65m (£44m) and €75m in 2004-05 to €385m to €495m in 2008-09, but there are no plans to cut jobs. Deficit reduction, he said, should be achieved by cuts in spending, rather than by raising taxes.Either way, he said, if investors were to become “significantly more doubtful that Congress will take the necessary fiscal measures, an appreciable back-up in long-term interest rates is possible”.Mr Greenspan listed other risks which could ambush the US economy in the year ahead, including a sudden increase in oil prices imposed by producers alarmed by the steady decline in the value of the dollar, or a surge in protectionism.. The other half was due to the volume and mix of cars sold, with Peugeot’s French home market suffering a serious downturn.Despite the pound’s weakness and intense price competition in the UK, which reduced Peugeot’s sales here by 9 per cent, the group’s chief executive, Jean-Martin Folz, said Britain remained a profitable market.He also delivered a vote of confidence in Peugeot’s Ryton plant in Coventry, saying production would continue until at least 2008 because of the success of the 206 model being built there. The original management of Berkeley Jacobs no longer have any involvement with the firm.. Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, painted a rosy short-term picture for the US economy yesterday, but warned that soaring and untackled budget and trade deficits could sooner or later push up interest rates and upset currency markets. Co-operation to address the issues only took place after the FSA went to the board of IFG, which bought the firm in 2000. It says pension unlocking should only be carried out when the customer has an “overwhelming need” for cash.

A number of other firms are also being investigated over similar issues after the FSA warned firms in January last year it would be cracking down on unscrupulous practices.Berkeley Jacobs was found to have failed to ask customers what level of retirement income they needed, nor had it considered what annuity options would give the customer the best income.After discovering these failings, the regulator met with resistance from Berkeley Jacobs. The firm tried to unlock as much cash from the consumer’s pension as possible, often much more than the consumer needed or wanted.”Savers can lose out on up to 80 per cent of the income they would have been entitled to by removing cash from their pension fund before they retire, according to the FSA. The firm only promoted the short-term benefits of withdrawing cash from pension funds before retirement, without explaining that the customer would be sacrificing their future pension income by doing so.David Kenmir, director of investment firms at the FSA, said: “We will not tolerate firms showing such a blatant disregard for consumers’ interests. The Financial Services Authority yesterday slapped a £175,000 fine on a financial adviser for duping customers into unlocking thousands of pounds from their pension funds, a move that put their retirement income at risk.