PRESS DIGEST - British business - Nov 10

The Times

ACCENTURE LOSES RULING IN BATTLE WITH BRITISH GAS

Accenture (ACN.N), the management consultancy, has lost an initial ruling in its High Court battle with British Gas (BG.L) over an IT system the utilities firm claims reduced its billing system to a shambles. According to British Gas, Project Jupiter, the 2006 IT project, led to hundreds of thousands of customers leaving the company at a cost of 220 million pounds ($369 million). British Gas said it was pleased with the judgment, but Accenture said it plans to appeal.

RIVALS ARGUE 'OUR NETWORK IS BIGGER THAN YOUR NETWORK'

Mobile phone network operator 3 is taking Orange (FTE.PA) to the Advertising Standards Authority over Orange's claim in an advertisement that it had Britain's largest 3G network. Orange's ad campaign, which cost four million pounds, suggested that its network covered 93 percent of the population. It said that 3's network only covered 91 percent. However, 3 believes that its coverage is more extensive and that Orange's claim could be refuted if coverage were measured in a different way. The dispute comes despite both companies planning to collaborate on a network-sharing agreement with T-Mobile next year.

NEED TO KNOW: LOK'N'STORE

Storage company Lok'n'Store cited "consistently encouraging" trading this year, while reporting annual pre-tax losses of 656,000 pounds in the year to July 31. The figure represented a -12 per cent improvement on last year. The value of the firm's property grew to 78.4 million pounds from 76.8 million pounds at the start of January. Lok'n'Store, whose performance is largely dependent on the housing market said that demand for storage had picked up.

The Daily Telegraph

GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER PUBLISHER TO UNVEIL FATE OF TITLES

Guardian Media Group is set to announce further job losses, as part of a wider cost-cutting programme at its Guardian and Observer newspapers. Both publications are facing mounting losses and Observer staff will be addressed on Tuesday by editor John Mullholland. Cost cutting measures are expected to include further integration of the papers' editorial staff and the closing of some sections. GMG's newspaper division -- Guardian News and Media -- posted an operating loss of 36.8 million pounds in the year to March 29.

BOSWELL TO JOIN 'GOVERNMENT RAIL'

Directly Operated Railways, the Government-controlled rail company that takes over the running of National Express's(NEX.L) East Coast franchise on Friday is expected to appoint Karen Boswell to a senior position on Tuesday. Boswell, a former customer services director at First Capital Connect, will be the second high profile female appointment made this week -- joining former First Group colleague Elaine Holt, who is DOR's managing director. After walking out on an onerous contract requiring it to pay the taxpayer 1.4 billion pounds for the right to run the franchise, National Express faces losing its East Anglia and C2C franchises under so-called "cross-default" rules.

INVICTA LAUNCHES FUND FOR BIOMAS PLANTS

Private equity firm Invicta has launched a 300 million pound fund to build and operate nine biomass power plants in Scotland. Invicta hopes to complete construction of all nine plants within three years and forecasts an eight percent post tax profit for individual members when all of the plants are operational.

The plants will generate enough power to run 140,000 homes and managing director Niall Banford noted "huge interest" from institutions eager to secure Government subsidies and meet renewable energy targets.

FIVE POSTS 21 MILLION POUND LOSS AS ECONOMIC SLUMP BITES

Five, the broadcaster, reported a loss of 20.8 million pounds last year, from 4.9 million pounds the previous year. The group was hit by restructuring costs, servicing loans and taxes from previous years. It added that despite an increase in turnover by two per cent to 344 million pounds, the second half of the year saw advertising revenues drop dramatically. FlashForward and CSI are among the shows that are broadcast.

ANGLO AMERICAN STARTS BOARDROOM SHAKE-UP WITH HAMPTON APPOINTMENT

Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), has been appointed by Anglo American(AAL.L) as a non-executive director. It is the first of three expected appointments that forms part of the mining group's restructuring programme aimed at rewarding shareholders for rejecting an approach from Xstrata(XTA.L). A mining analyst at Liberum Capital said that since Xstrata 'shut up' on its approach on October 15, Anglo's shares have outperformed both the sector and Xstrata.

DIGNITY PROFITS RISE SEVEN PERCENT

Dignity

(DTY.L), the funeral services provider, reported a 7.2 percent increase in operating profits for the nine months to September 25, up from 40.1 million pounds to 43 million pounds. It said its full-year expectations remained unchanged after it acquired seven funeral locations and five crematoria in the year to date. The Sutton Coldfield-based company also reported a five per cent increase in revenues to 138 million pounds over the 38-week period.

The Guardian

CADBURY REJECTS KRAFT'S 'DERISORY' BID

Cadbury(CBRY.L) has rejected Kraft's 9.8 billion pound hostile takeover bid as not "remotely close" to the British company's true value. The rejection came after Kraft took its bid to shareholders. Cadbury chairman Roger Carr said the bid raised the "unattractive prospect of the absorption of Cadbury into a low-growth conglomerate business model." Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld defended the bid. Analysts expect Kraft to wait for Cadbury's trading performance to deteriorate before going to the company with a higher offer.

LONDON HOUSE PRICE BOOM SPREADS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' monthly market snapshot is to report the most widespread surge in house prices since late 2006. Rics has seen evidence of gazumping, alongside sales of five million pound homes. The rise in prices is most significant in London, where it is the highest since December 1996. Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium has found that furniture and household outlets are benefiting from the favourable market conditions. Retail sales across the UK are 5.9 per cent higher than in October last year.

MURDOCH PLANS TO STRIP GOOGLE OF NEWS

Rupert Murdoch has indicated that he may remove his newspapers' stories from Google. The News Corp chairman and CEO said that his papers, including, the Times and the Sun, were likely to make the move once they began charging online. According to Murdoch, the Wall Street Journal is already absent from the search engine. Murdoch also criticised television networks like the BBC over their news content, and expressed his regret that several newspaper editors had stopped backing Gordon Brown.

Prepared for Reuters by Durrants

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