PRESS DIGEST - British Business =4

The Guardian

GRADE TELLS INVESTORS ITV RECOVERING DESPITE SLIDE IN SHARES

ITV (ITV.L), the UK's biggest commercial broadcaster, tried to reassure long-suffering shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday and promised better ratings, rising advertising revenues and ambitious plans to sell more programmes to foreign broadcasters. ITV's share price has slumped 50 percent in the past year but chief executive Michael Grade said that in the first half of the year it would outperform the UK TV advertising market for the first time in almost a decade.

TESCO WINS COURT BATTLE OVER DOBBIES GARDEN CLAIM

Sir Tom Hunter, a billionaire Scottish financier, is to ask Tesco (TSCO.L) to buy out his stake in the Dobbies garden centre chain after his attempts to block a refinancing deal for the firm were rejected in court. Hunter had accused the supermarket giant of trying to force him to give up his 29.5 percent stake in an attempt to wrest control of the company, saying it pressed for an unnecessary 150 million pound rights issue. But the judge, Lord Glennie, rejected the request and said the wisest course of action would be for Tesco to buy out Hunter's investment company, West Coast Capital, an option that Hunter is understood to favour.

GRID HINTS AT BID FOR E.ON POWER NETWORK

National Grid (NG.L) will explore the possibility of buying E.ON's EONG.DE up-for-sale German electricity transmission business, according to the UK firm's chief executive Steve Holliday. "Our investors would be very surprised if National Grid did not have a look [at the E.ON power grid]," he said on Thursday. But he added: "If we did buy assets in Europe they would need to be enhancing to growth." Holliday said he was happy with the current shape of the business, which last year delivered a pre-tax profit of 1.84 billion pounds, up 24 percent on the previous year.

Prepared for Reuters by Durrants