The company recently admitted it had more short-sellers than any other stock in the UK

The company recently admitted it had more short-sellers than any other stock in the UK.At the end of last month, MFI shares slumped to five-year lows of 55.5p. However, it added that the security for the pension fund would remain in place for as long as it held its loan with Lloyds TSB.In a statement to the market yesterday, the company said it had received clearance from the Pensions Regulator for its new creditor structure, as well as the blessing of its pension scheme trustees.Commenting on the news, Matthew Ingle, the company’s chief executive, said: “This is good news for MFI. “At first sight it may appear good news, as it gives extended facilities and also means that it is likely that there will be no rights issue,” he said.”However, the previous facilities were unsecured, and this, now being reversed, together with the fact that the pension fund is also taking a charge, is a clear indication, in our view, that not only will the results on 28 February be awful, but so will the report on current trading.”Shares in MFI bounced 17 per cent on Tuesday, after the company announced it had sold its French Kitchens division, Hygena, for a better-than-expected £92m. The new facility will allow MFI to focus on its turnaround plans for UK retail and the growth of Howden.”In a brief note about the move, Richard Ratner, an analyst at Seymour Pierce, said he believed the debt restructuring was not as promising as it may appear. Asked what she would do if the Macquarie bid failed, Ms Furse said: “Go to China to get some business.”.

Thousands of current and former employees of MFI, the troubled furniture retailer, were finally given some reassurance over the safety of their pension savings yesterday, as the group became one of the first UK companies to promote its pension scheme to secured creditor status. The move means the MFI pension fund – which has one of the largest pension deficits in the UK relative to its parent company’s size – will have the first call on the assets of Howden Joinery, MFI’s most profitable subsidiary, in the event the group goes bust.
The scheme will also have the second call, after the group’s bank, on the rest of the company’s assets.Previously, the fund had been an unsecured creditor – putting it at risk of receiving nothing in the event that the company was forced into receivership.The news came as the company announced a new 39-month £150m secured banking facility, with Lloyds TSB, which will replace the group’s existing revolving credit facility. A spokesman for the Australian bank said: “There is nothing in the LSE document to cause us to change our view that the LSE is a fundamentally low-growth business which … remains strategically isolated.”The Australians suggest that because LSE lacks a futures dealing arm it is constrained by market conditions and cannot grow at any pace.The London Exchange has been under siege since failing to buy Liffe, the futures market, in 2001. If it gets no encouragement from shareholders to persist, it could withdraw next week.

Clara Furse dismissed the takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange from the Australian bank Macquarie yesterday as either “incoherent or disingenuous” but indicated she is open to offers from other bidders. As the LSE began its defence in earnest, the chief executive made it clear she regards Macquarie’s 580p-a-share offer as defective. But she said: “The sector is entering a phase of important corporate development. Clearly there is tremendous potential for consolidation.”
As part of its defence from a possible counter-bid by a leading European bourse or the New York Stock Exchange, the LSE is to return £510m to shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs, double what it offered in November, taking on debt of £350m in the process. This would seem to dent one of the objections to Macquarie’s offer – that it is funded with 80 per cent debt.Advising shareholders to reject the bid, the LSE argued that the Australians do not understand the company, which they have characterised as a “utility”.Some investors were unimpressed with the offer. One described it as “really weird, why would Goldman Sachs (Macquarie’s advisers) advise them to behave like this?”.A speculative theory is that Goldman is testing the waters with this deal before advising the NYSE on a knockout bid.Macquarie has until Friday to raise its £1.5bnoffer.

It charges fees to competitors for delivering their post – deals entered into freely by rivals, Mr Leighton said He added: “This is almost Pythonesque. By Postcomm’s line of thinking, I have absolutely no doubt that later this year the regulator will fine us for delivering the best quality of service ever, due to the fact that they decide it’s anti-competitive.”We will exhaust every possible route to ensure this ridiculous penalty is wiped out.”. Its chairman, Allan Leighton, said yesterday: “This is a shoddy report from a grandstanding regulator looking to micro-manage the entire postal industry. It is full of unsubstantiated and subjective views, which are not based in fact.”Royal Mail feels it is being punished unfairly for being a successful business. Postcomm issued a £2.16m fine and an enforcement order, claiming the company is not opening up to competition quickly enough.
Royal Mail has a duty to allow rivals access to the “last mile” delivery market, an area in which it remains hugely dominant, Postcomm said. The watchdog believes Royal Mail is exploiting its monopoly after complaints by three competitors – Express Ltd, TNT Mail UK and UK Mail.Postcomm’s chairman, Nigel Stapleton, said: “We cannot allow any action by Royal Mail that unfairly keeps competitors out of the market.”Royal Mail was hit with a £11.7m fine for late and lost post last week.