PRESS DIGEST - British business - Feb 28

The Times

LAWYERS EXAMINE PAYOFF OF BANKER BLAMED FOR LOSING BILLIONS

John Kingman, chief executive of UK Financial Investments, the body that looks after taxpayers' interests in the part-nationalised banks, has written to Lloyds Banking Group chairman Sir Victor Blank asking whether former HBOS' HBOS.L head of corporate lending, Peter Cummings, received the minimum legal payment when he left his post. Cummings was awarded 660,000 pounds on his departure, a figure UKFI considers may be too high. The inquiry is also understood to be looking into Cummings' 5.9 million pound pension pot.

RIGHTMOVE REVENUE RISES IN FALLING MARKET

Property website Rightmove (RMV.L) has announced a rise in profits as house prices continue to fall. Revenue at Rightmove was up 31 per cent to 74 million pounds in 2008, while underlying operating profit was up 33 per cent to 41 million pounds. Andrew Walsh, an analyst at Teathers, said: "Market sentiment towards Rightmove has improved, with evidence of a more stable outlook for housing." However, the value of the average home fell by 1,300 pounds in January, marking the seventeenth consecutive month of price declines.

REGENT INNS ISN'T LAUGHING NOW

The share price of Regent Inns, owner of comedy chain Jongleurs and bar chain Walkabout, was down 0.52 pence to 2.23 pence on Friday after Regent announced that it had suffered a raft of Christmas party cancellations at the end of 2008. Like-for-like sales in the half-year to December 27 were down 12 per cent and the firm fell from a profit of one million pounds last year to a loss of 2.3 million pounds. Chairman Jim Glover said that an expected sales pick-up in mid-2010 should help the firm to stay within bank terms agreed in October.

Daily Telegraph

FASHION ENTREPRENEUR DAVIES MAKES A PLAY FOR PRINCIPLES

Peter Davies has made an offer to acquire the Principles chain from Mosaic Group. The retail entrepreneur only sold the chain to Mosaic in 2005 but issued a statement on Friday confirming he has made a formal offer to re-acquire the chain. The financial terms of any offer have yet to be revealed. Davies and his one-time partner, Hilary Riva, banked more than 40 million pounds each from the sale of Principles and its sister company Warehouse after initially acquiring it in 2001 from Arcadia's former boss Sir Stuart Rose.

WM HILL JUMPS REFINANCING HURDLE WITH 350 MILLION POUND

William Hill (WMH.L) has launched a heavily discounted 350 million pounds rights issue and scrapped its final dividend as it cleared the refinancing hurdle that had spooked the markets. The bookmaker's existing 1.45 billion pound debt facility was due to expire in March 2010, but William Hill has agreed a new 538.5 million banking facility with a consortium of 12 lenders. The cost of its debt will rise from today's 6.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent in 2009 and ten per cent in 2010, but - together with an existing 250 million pounds facility - this will give William Hill total banking facilities of 838.5 million pounds.

SERCO TO CREATE 10,000 JOBS AS GOVERNMENT OUTSOURCING GROWS

Serco (SRP.L) has delivered a much-needed boost to the employment market with the announcement of the creation of 10,000 new jobs. The support services company said 500 of the jobs, which will all be created this year, would be based in Britain. The jobs announcement was made as Serco reported a pre-tax rise in profits of 18.8 per cent to 136.1 million pounds, largely due to the growing governmental dependence on outsourcing to cut costs during the global economic downturn. Serco employs 70,000 people in its global workforce, 35,000 of which are employed in the UK.

The Independent

LLOYDS FINDS 80 BILLION POUNDS OF HIGH-RISK LOANS AT HBOS