PRESS DIGEST - British business - Aug 2

The Times

FLYING BRANDS FALTERS

Flying Brands (FBD_u.L) has announced its first-half profits have more than halved and that will not pay an interim dividend.

The home shopping group blamed the decline on a decrease in profits at its Gardening Direct unit, and also warned that it remains cautious on the outlook for the rest of the year.

Flying Brands posted a pre-tax profit of 1.2 million pounds ($2.38 million) for the first half to June 27, against 2.7 million pounds last year.

GFK UPBEAT ON TNS

GfK (GFKG.DE) is continuing to pursue a cash offer for Taylor Nelson Sofres TNS.L, with the German market research this week group saying that talks are progressing positively.

WPP (WPP.L), the advertising and marketing services group, is competing with GfK for TNS. WPP has so far made an unsolicited hostile offer of 1.08 billion pounds for TNS.

OFWAT FINE TO STAND

Severn Trent Water (SVT.L) has revealed that it will not appeal against the 35.8 million pound fine imposed by Ofwat.