PRESS DIGEST - British business - April 30

The Times

INSIDE TRACK CANNOT AVOID EFFECTS OF CREDIT CRUNCH

Inside Track Seminars, which charged up to 2,495 pounds for its weekend property investing seminars, has been placed into administration, with around 50 Inside Track advisers being made redundant. Managing director Tony McKay said: "The company has seen a fall in the number of people who want to invest in the property market for the first time, which is understandable in the current climate."

DSG TO CLOSE ITALIAN STORES

Eight hundred jobs could be under threat at about 40 of the Italian stores owned by DSG International(DSGI.L). The electrical retailer, which trades in Italy from 238 UniEuro stores and 15 PC City stores, said that it had informed staff and was working with the unions. DSG announced that the closure plan formed part of a business review, the first phase of which is to be presented by chief executive John Browett on May 15.

N BROWN FIGURES IMPRESS

N Brown has reported pre-tax profits of 78 million pounds for the year to March 1, a 19.4 percent rise, while group revenue was up 16.6 percent at 610.9 million pounds. The home shopping company caters for the bigger woman and has defied difficult conditions to surpass market expectations with regard to profits by three million pounds.

The Daily Telegraph

HBOS EXPECTS MORE FALLS IN HOUSE PRICES

HBOS HBOS.L has unveiled a four billion pound rights issue that will see shareholders offered two new shares for every five at 275 pence, a 45 percent discount to Monday's closing price. Future dividends will be paid at 40 percent of earnings instead of 46 percent and the interim payout will be made in shares, effectively giving HBOS a further 660 million pound capital injection. Britain's largest mortgage lender also warned homeowners to expect two years of falling house prices.

TNS IN MERGER TALKS WITH GFK

Taylor Nelson SofresTNS.L and GfK have signed a heads of agreement which would see shareholders of both groups each hold half of the proposed merged group. Numis identified potential cost savings from the merger of 36 million pounds, but analyst Paul Richards warned that "whenever you see a nil premium merger it does put the companies in play." He added: "WPP (WPP.L) has long wanted to increase its exposure to the quantitative areas of market research and has the strength of balance sheet to look at TNS."

FIRST QUARTERLY LOSS IN FIVE YEARS FOR DEUTSCHE

Deutsche Bank(DBKGn.DE) reported a pre-tax loss of 254 million euros for the first three months of 2008, its first quarterly loss in five years. The German bank was forced to write down 2.7 billion euros (2.13 billion pounds) of assets, while revenues in its investment bank dropped from 6.1 billion euros to 880 million euros. Finance director Anthony di Iorio was unable to provide an accurate forecast for the full year, claiming "these are very uncertain times - the markets are unpredictable."

The Independent

OIL PRICE GIVES BP AND SHELL HUGE PROFITS LIFT

Oil giants BP(BP.L) and Shell(RDSa.L)(RDSb.L) have both surpassed analyst expectations with profits in the first three months of the year, recording 6.58 billion dollars and 7.78 billion dollars respectively. Evolution Securities analyst Richard Griffith, commenting on BP said: "The consensus-thrashing results, clearly aided by high oil and gas prices, have nevertheless shown that the group's turn-around is well advanced", while Peter Voser, Shell's chief financial officer, said: "We don't understand the oil price at this stage. The fundamentals have not changed. We have enough product."

ABBEY TRIPLES SHARE OF MORTGAGE MARKET AND SEES PROFITS RISE 17 PERCENT

Abbey, which was purchased by Spanish Santander (SAN.MC) in 2004, has increased its share of net mortgage lending to 15.9 percent in the first three months of 2008, up from 4.9 percent a year earlier. Net profit rose 17 percent to 235 million pounds, while revenue increased by nine percent. Costs were held flat.

EUROTUNNEL LAUNCHES 915 MILLION EURO RIGHTS ISSUE

Eurotunnel has launched a seven-for-four rights issue at 8.75 euros per share, a 28 percent discount to its share price, in a bid to raise 915 million euros (724 million pounds). The rights issue is to be underwritten by a consortium of banks including ABN Amro, Lazard, HSBC (HSBA.L), Lehman Brothers and UBS (UBSN.VX), and the proceeds will be used to cancel the remaining half of 1.6 billion euros in convertible notes it has outstanding.

The Guardian

BA RAISES FUEL LEVY FOR TENTH TIME

British Airways (BAY.L) has responded to the rising cost of oil by increasing its fuel surcharges for the tenth time since they were introduced in 2004. The surcharge for return long-haul trips longer than nine hours will rise by 30 pounds to 158 pounds, while on long-haul flights under nine hours it will increase 20 pounds to 126 pounds. Return short-haul flights will have a fuel levy of 26 pounds, up six pounds.

AVIVA DROPS NORWICH UNION BRAND NAME

Norwich Union, one of the best known names in British financial services, has fallen victim to globalisation and will now trade under the name of its parent company, Aviva (AV.L). Aviva is to be the "customer brand" for the group worldwide and the Norwich Union name will be phased out over the next two years. Sixty percent of the Aviva's business is generated outside Britain, and it already trades as Aviva in more than 20 of the 27 countries in which it operates.

FRIENDS CRITICS MUTED AFTER 11 PERCENT PREMIUM RISE

Friends Provident FP.L has announced an 11 percent rise in first-quarter premiums to 247 million pounds, despite recording a sales dip of two percent in its UK business. Raghu Hariharan, analyst at FPK, commented: "The figures are strong, but the company also indicates sales are going to slow down, so you can't extrapolate from the first quarter that this year will be good."

Prepared for Reuters by Durrants