PRESS DIGEST - British Business Press - May 13

The Times

CONTROL OF RUSSIAN VENTURE SLIPS FROM BP, TOP POST UNFILLED

The control of TNK-BP, the troubled Russian subsidiary of BP (BP.L), is understood to be slipping away from the British oil giant amid new delays over the hiring of a new chief executive at the joint venture. A meeting in April between Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, and Mikhail Fridman, the Russian oligarch who heads the AAR consortium that is BP's 50-50 partner in TNK-BP, saw the two executives agreeing that the recruitment of a permanent head was no longer a top priority. People familiar with the secret talks said the informal agreement was an indirect acknowledgment that TNK-BP is no longer under BP's control.

UNIONS SOUND WARNING ON BONUSES AS BT PLANS JOB CUTS

Unions have warned BT (BT.L) not to award top executives bonuses as the telecoms group's latest results are expected to be dominated by news of several thousand more job cuts. They said on Monday there would be a "degree of unhappiness" if bonuses were awarded at a time when jobs are threatened. BT's fourth-quarter results, to be released on Thursday, are expected to include writedowns of up to 1.5 million pounds at the company's troubled IT services arm, a 70 percent plunge in group pre-tax profits to only 550 million pounds and a nominal final dividend. The group will also announce that annual top-up payments to its pension scheme must rise from 280 million pounds to around half a billion pounds a year due to a six billion pound-plus deficit.

PRICE WAR HITS INTERCONTINENTAL PROFITS DESPITE HIGHER OCCUPANCY

InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L), the parent company of Holiday Inns, issued an upbeat note on Tuesday after announcing that occupancy rates showed signs of improvement in the three months to March 31. However, the world's biggest hotel group added that revenue per available room dropped 13.6 percent at constant currencies and was down 19.8 percent last month. Pre-tax profit for the first quarter from its 4,200-strong hotel unit was in line with market expectations, reaching 36 million pounds before exceptional items, a 41 percent drop compared to last year. The Windsor-based company said UK earnings had been hit by the sharp drop in the value of sterling. Revenue dropped by 24 percent to 87 million dollars.

TEMPUS:

Babcock International (BAB.L) (buy)

Stobart Group (STOB.L) (hold on)

C&C Group (buy)