PRESS DIGEST - British business - Feb 7

The Times

NORTHERN ROCK FACES 2,400 JOB CUTS UNDER MANAGEMENT PLANS

Paul Thompson, leader of the management team vying to win control of Northern Rock NRK.L, said the bank could be forced into making redundancies. He said: "We'll try to manage it by moving people from sales to the positions left open by natural attrition, but it would be wrong to commit to no compulsory redundancies." He also spoke of plans to strengthen the group's executives with a new finance director and chairman, while confirming his commitment to at least four years with the bank.

KLOPPERS TAKES AN AGGRESSIVE APPROACH WITH RIO TINTO'S SHAREHOLDERS

BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) chief executive Marius Kloppers has urged Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shareholders to accept his hostile bid of over 70 billion pounds, while saying the latter's share price has soared solely as a consequence of BHP's interest. He said: "Were it not for the BHP offer, there would be no uplift in Rio's share price. It is our view that the underlying principles of Rio Tinto do not support their current price." Kloppers went on to say that while state-owned Chinese aluminium producer Chinalco's nine percent stake purchase in Rio was an "interesting development" it failed to affect BHP's "compelling value proposition".

SKY SEES SCOPE FOR SELLING EXTRA SERVICES TO ITS CUSTOMERS

BSkyB (BSY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announced a 10 percent increase in revenues of 1.27 billion pounds in the three months to December. Operating profits of 29 percent less at 152 million pounds and a 343 million pounds writedown of its stake in ITV (ITV.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) saw the group report a 157 million pounds pre-tax loss. The business wants to see average revenues per household rise from 421 pounds to 450 pounds. New chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "Less than one in 10 of our customers takes television, broadband and talk (telephone service), so there's room for growth there."

The Daily Telegraph

BILLIONAIRE JAGTIANI FAILS TO RULE OUT BID FOR DEBENHAMS