The bid lifted Leigh’s share price 27

The bid lifted Leigh’s share price 27.5p to 146.5p, valuing the company just short of pounds 98m.
Investors will be suspicious of another false dawn. Waste management had all the features of a fantastic sector in the mid-Eighties. Yesterday’s confirmation of a possible bid for Leigh from General Utilities, the British arm of French giant Compagnie Generale des Eaux, may signal a slow, but sure turning point for the industry. He said public health, schools and welfare programmes would be unaffected, but the political consequences of implementing such measures may be disastrous for the government, and diplomats remain sceptical that the Bangkok administration will find the political will to implement them all..

Whatever happened to Britain’s waste management industry? Lauded as one of the great green growth industries in the 1980’s on the back of increasing environmental awareness, investors have seen a mixture of lack of demand and falling landfill prices combine to drive down share prices of companies like Shanks & McEwan, Leigh Interests and Caird

That could be about to change. In Bangkok, Chaturon Chaisaeng, the Thai deputy finance minister, said the government had already agreed to more than $2bn of cuts in public spending demanded by the IMF. But his fallback on the IMF is being viewed as a tacit admission of failure.Few details have been finalised, but in exchange for the rescue plan, the IMF is demanding stringent control over the Thai economy. As stringent IMF reforms, such as tax rises and public spending cuts, are implemented, concerns are growing of political instability in Thailand, a country in the past prone to military intervention.The government of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the prime minister, was elected on a pledge to return the country to the prosperity and the economic boom times that have, over the past 20 years, made Thailand one of the world’s most dynamic Asian Tiger economies. Drops in crucial exports, an overstretched banking sector dogged by bad loans to property developers, and high unemployment have combined with government inaction to present Thailand with its biggest economic crisis.The decision to seek IMF help was taken last month after a bitter de facto devaluation of the baht, heavily defended by the Thai central bank on the currency markets. “This is a natural development for Japan, as there is an implicit rule in the international community that the strongest country takes the lead,” said Robert Feldman, economist at Salomon Brothers Asia.Once the world’s fastest-growing economy, in recent years Thailand has lost much of its lustre.

“It indicates that certain countries in the region are concerned about stabilising Thailand’s economic situation to prevent the damage from spreading.”Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s financial secretary, confirmed those concerns that a failing Thai economy might bring down the economies of its neighbours: “As a regional finance centre, we can’t just sit idly by.”Japan’s role in brokering the offer signals a stronger role for Japan in an increasingly interdependent region. It will be the world’s second-largest economic rescue plan, after the $50bn offered to Mexico in 1994.Analysts said the large portion offered by Asian countries indicated a new concern for region-wide economic stability.”This is quite unusual,” said Mark Sunberg, a regional economist at Salomon Brothers in Hong Kong. China is also participating in the scheme designed to shake Thailand out of its dire economic malaise.”The impressive part of this package is the extremely significant contributions from countries in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Eisuke Sakakibara, Japan’s vice finance minister for international affairs. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore each agreed to lend Thailand $1bn; South Korea and Indonesia are to contribute $500m in loans. Japan is to play the biggest role of any nation in the bailout, pledging Thailand $4bn, a figure matched only by the IMF in a package which could be expanded to $20bn in loans for Thailand to bolster its tarnished image with investors.
The money is intended to shore up Thailand’s foreign reserves in a bid to calm flagging confidence in the country, which sparked a currency crisis last month, sending the Thai baht plummeting by 25 per cent.The crisis also affected other economies in the region and 10 countries from four continents, including eight from Asia, are to help in the bailout. The ongoing deregulation of Tokyo’s financial markets, which allows banks to compete with brokerages, is further adding to its troubles.. Negotiators meeting in Japan have agreed a big rescue package for the ailing Thai economy, with a total of $16bn in emergency loans being approved by the International Monetary Fund along with several Asian and Pacific countries.

Yamaichi is the smallest of Japan’s so-called Big Four brokerages, and is already hurting badly from the scandal.According to Shoji Saotome, the new chairman, two corporations have dispensed with Yamaichi’s services as an underwriter of bonds since the raid on the brokerage’s offices.Between April and June, Yamaichi posted 5.43bn yen (pounds 29m) in losses. Sokaiya extort money from companies by threatening to disrupt their annual general meetings and publicising the sexual and financial improprieties of their management.Since a tightening up of the law in 1983 it has been technically illegal to pay them off, but the practice has remained routine among image-conscious companies.Similar revelations involving Mr Koike have already shaken up Nomura Securities and the Dai-Ichi Bank, which last month were ordered by the Japanese Finance Ministry to close down some of their most profitable operations as a punishment. All of the men resigning denied personal responsibility for the scandal, which is still being investigated by prosecutors.
Police raided the homes and offices of several of the company’s senior executives last month on the suspicion that Yamaichi made some 79 million yen (pounds 429,000) of illegal payments to a sokaiya named Ryuichi Koike as “compensation” for trading losses. “Our firm is determined to make a clean break with the negative legacy of the past,” said Yamaichi’s new president, Shohei Nozawa. Yamaichi Securities announced the resignation of 11 of its senior executives yesterday in the latest act of contrition by a Japanese financial institution enmeshed in the country’s corporate racketeer scandal.

The company’s president, Atsuo Miki, formally resigned along with the chairman, Tsugio Yukihira, and nine other board members in the wake of a scandal concerning the firm’s links with a sokaiya, or corporate blackmailer. The Securities and Futures Authority is investigating the wild fluctuations in price in its capacity as regulator of JP Jenkins, the market maker which runs the Ofex market. Ofex has already raised over pounds 100m for around 170 companies.Display IT’s suspension stemmed from its relationship with a Luxembourg company, Alsina.The company originally said it had a pounds 5.7m contract with Alsina to supply share prices culled from the Internet, but two weeks ago said that the contract had “failed”.Mr Ward has stepped in as chairman of Display IT, and together with Dr Hanif will prepare an interim report for the egm.. The resignation of these last remaining directors has cleared the way for a shareholder-led rescue of the Ofex-listed company.