PRESS DIGEST - British business =2

FLOWERS GIVEN DEADLINE TO BID FOR FRIENDS

The Takeover Panel on Thursday imposed a "put up or shut up" deadline of 30 April for JC Flowers to table a bid for Friends Provident (FP.L). The latter last week asked the Takeover Panel to force JC Flowers into showing its hand, on the basis that uncertainty over the group's intentions was disrupting its business. Friends last week rejected JC Flowers' 150 pence-a-share cash offer.

The Guardian

TORN MOSS BROS FEELS THE CHILL AND EXPECTS TO GO TO ICELAND

Moss Bros (MOSB.L) is confident of receiving a firm takeover offer from Icelandic investment group Baugur by the end of the month, the company said on Thursday. The struggling menswear retailer's founding families, which still control 27 percent of the company, oppose the move. Baugur tabled an indicative bid of 42 pence a share on February 25 - valuing Moss Bros at 40 million pounds - and is now scrutinising the books. The shares have been trading at a premium to the offer price on speculation that there could be a higher counterbid, with Laura Ashley mooted as a potential suitor.

RULE CHANGE WILL PLUNGE PENSION FUNDS INTO THE RED

Redington Partners, the pensions consultant, warned that figures showing a surplus in Britain's largest occupational retirement schemes are misleading and do not mean that final-salary plans will be retained by employers beyond the next few years. Increases in life expectancy and proposed changes to accounting rules due next year would transform the current surplus of over 20 billion pounds into a funding shortfall of more than 120 billion pounds, said the company. Robert Gardner, a Redington spokesman, called for "full disclosure of what the proposed changes would mean to assess the risks" to companies and pension schemes.

WRITERS' STRIKE AN UNWELCOME DRAMA AT PINEWOOD

Pinewood Shepperton (PWS.L), the film studio company, reported a 13 percent fall in film revenue to 19.5 million pounds as a combination of the US writers' strike, a weak dollar and tax changes hit profits in 2007. Investors were warned in November that the studio could lose three million pounds after one major production scrapped plans to film due to the writers' strike in Hollywood. US film-makers are more reluctant to film abroad as they suffer the effects of the weak dollar, while a change in tax laws on co-productions also contributed to the overall reduction in film production investment in the UK, which fell 15 percent to 723 million pounds. The shares fell three percent to 242.5 pence.

Prepared for Reuters by Durrants