Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 316

Business Day EVENING STANDARD hsbc i OFT oils in Eremdn Md I Merrill 40 TUESDAY 3 OCTOBER 2000 chief quits takeover talk denial for London Ibis SHARES in HSBC Holdings rose 26p to 986p today despite the banking group denying a New York Post report that it was in merger talks with US stockbroking giant Merrill Lynch writes William Kay An HSBC spokesman said flatly: are not planning to buy Merrill Lynch" Merrill does not comment on market rumours but there were strong indications that its Press office believed that nothing was happening A source dose to the two groups said: "They have had to put up with this chestnut since April when they announced their $1 billion (£700 million) international private-dient joint venture The stock market wants it to happen but it is simply not on the agenda" For HSBC David Hall said: have always made it dear that our relationship with Merrill Lynch is defined by and limited to the joint venture" The New York Post claimed that HSBC was in talks to buy Merrill in a deal that would create a financial services group with a market capitalisation of $1845 billion (£125 billion) HSBC and Merrill both have extensive securities operations in London Commercial director Christopher Moyes says French would here in terms of the way in which the UK market is open and the French market is frankly closed to UK Moyes said Analysts said the share sell-off was in relatively low volumes and the shares remain at a premium to the French offer reflecting interest in Go-Ahead from another French bidder by JAMES McLEAN THE Government has asked competition authorities to allow it to examine a hostile French bid for Go-Ahead the rail group which also operates buses in London Go-ahead shares fell 35p to 695p after Competition and Consumer Affairs Minister Kim Howells said a hostile offer from Caisse des Depots Developpement SA and Rhdne Capital LLC justified ftirther investigation proposed merger raises competition concerns in a distinct market in the UK which warrant further investigation I agree and am therefore requesting the European Commission to refer the case to the UK" she said The European authorities are expected to approve the request for the Office of Fair Trading to begin reviewing the proposed deal within a week Go-Ahead which has rejected the £326 million offer and described it as said it welcomed the Government move Go-Ahead commercial director Christopher Moyes demand services to homes across Europe New York-based owner Take Two Interactive Software will receive 1537 million new gameplay shares and a million warrants exercisable at £350 over two years A further 154 million gameplay shares will go to Pixel employees Results for the year to 31 July showed group revenues swollen by expansion in eight European countries grew nearly fourfold to £232 million Pre-tax losses spiralled to £325 million from £104 million Losses per share rose to 683p from 251p The group has £478 million in cash and is forecast to break even in 2003 Gameplay picks up Pixel for £34m but losses mount Administrators in as Powemet cash hunt fails JAMES Naylor chief executive of troubled Deep Pan Pizza and chain City Centre Restaurants quit today and his board said it would ask his replacement to initiate a review of the business Finance director Andrew Guy takes over the hot seat and has been asked to identify appropriate actions to maximise shareholder value" code for a possible sale of all or part of the business shares have been at nine-year lows since last month when it issued a profit warning saying trading at its chains including Caffe Uno Est Est Est and Wok Wok had been hit by numerous new openings which left High Streets saturated with restaurants Following the warning and profit fall there was speculation that Naylor would mount a management buyout Vosper 650 under notice ABOUT 650 of the 1200-strong warship-building workforce at Vosper Thomy-croft in Southampton were issued with 90day redundancy notices today because of a short-term lack of work for the yard Lack of firm orders for other warships ahead of the start of its one Type 45 destroyer building programme has led to the redundancies The yard is coming to the end of a contract for seven Royal Navy mine-hunters Vosper hopes current negotiations will lead to orders that will enable it to continue to employ the workforce It has opened negotiations on possible worksharing with BAE Systems which is to build two of the 7000-tonne Type 45 destroyers at its Yarrow yard on the Clyde Pondering at Peter Black THE management team trying to buy out Peter Black Holdings has ftmding in place to tender for the shares but the board said today it was still considering a plan to take the group private Chief executive Stephen Lister chairman Gordon Black and his brother Thomas whose father founded the group and two other directors are behind a plan outlined in July to buy back shares in the toiletries cosmetics and footwear group The company generates nearly 40 of revenue from Marks Spencer Pre-tax profits for the six months to 31 July rose 6 to £11 million on sales up 12-to £1049 million Operating profit before goodwill rose 8 to £121 million Earnings per share grew to 1170p from 1112p and the dividend rises to 23pfrom2J2p control 25 of London buses State-owned railway SNCF which is existing partner in ThamesLink and in a bid for the south central rail franchise Moyes said SNCF was Analysts said they believed the existing French bidder could satisfy competition requirements with selected depot sales in London to get a listing for its internet operations was also scrapped' has been unsuccessful in raising the finance it had been seeking to support its operations and the directors have had no option but to ask for the appointment of administrators" said an Arthur Andersen spokesman The failure of the company is a second blow for chief executive Ian Carey whose last venture Callfiree Directories went into voluntary liquidation resulting in a May 1999 court ruling banning him as a company director for five years which he overturned on appeal The 85 employees have been locked out of its office since they were sent home on Friday said the referral was positive for the market because the deal could lead to market share of between 50 and 60 on south London bus routes where the bidder owns London United The combined group would have about a 25 share of the entire London bus market think a good thing there are very real issues QXL beefs up management AFTER spending more than £200 million on acquisitions in recent months notably £171 million on Ricardo online auctioneer QXLcom is beefing up its management with the appointment of a chief operating officer Mark Zaleski from US internet retailer Webvan Group will be responsible for operations and integrating the new businesses Chief executive Jim Rose said he would spend more time to the capital COMMUNICATIONS and internet company Powemet Telecom went into administration last night leaving staff and a host of top name telecoms companies unpaid write James Mclean and Ross Davies The High Court in Manchester appointed Arthur Andersen partners Simon Allport and Richard Fleming to administer the group Powemet which owns internet service provider Total-Serve and net incubator fluid PowerTen as well as selling fixed-line services and mobile phones said efforts to raise finance after it abandoned a £600 million summer flotation had failed A subsequent attempt at a £123 million reverse takeover BOY-band star turned bad-boy pop sensation Robbie Williams is the latest recruit to growing list of partners after signing a three-year deal to promote the company on his website writes James Mclean The former Take That star will receive an undisclosed cut from sales generated from his site robbiewilliamscouk which boasts 15 billion hits a year The Williams link capped a busy round of dealmaking for Gameplay which has signed a £341 million allshare deal to acquire Israeli games software technology specialist Pixel Broadband Studios This will help the group develop its video-games-on- Monsoon blows into Africa TRADING at colourful High Street retailer Monsoon is improving with like-for-like sales for the first 18 weeks up by 6 and total sales up 14 on this time last year Like-for-likes in the eight weeks ending 22 July were up only 3 Monsoon has opened nine stores since 1 June and plans 13 more including its first Accessorize in South Africa before the end of November OM extends Exchange offer by NICK GOODWAY THE Swedish technology group making a £770 million hostile takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange today extended its offer by another three weeks until 23 October and said it had won acceptances from holders of Just 1 of the shares OM Gruppen chief executive Per Lars-son said: we launched our offer for the LSE we knew that the issues were complex Therefore we did not anticipate significant acceptances at this stage In the discussions with the LSE shareholders and users which we have held across the country we have market by stockbroker Cazenove today slipped 50p to 2900p The extension of the bid takes it beyond the crucial meeting called by the Exchange at which its shareholders can vote to abolish rules dictating that any bidder needs 75 acceptance not the usual 50 before declaring its bid unconditional LSE chairman Don Cruickshank said: strategy will be implemented only after a ftill consultation process It is not practicable to conclude this process during bid timetable when our efforts are rightly focused on seeing off opportunistic made good progress Our offer is now being recognised as the only opportunity to transform the LSE its technology its management and its service levels" OM has held packed presentations for LSE members and users in London Glasgow Dublin Leeds Manchester and Birmingham The shares-and-cash offer is worth £2585 a share down from its £2720 value when it was launched at the end of August Shares in LSE which are traded off-.