PRESS DIGEST - British business - Dec 7

The Mail on Sunday

RIO TINTO SET TO AXE THOUSANDS

Rio Tinto(RIO.L), the mining conglomerate, is set to axe thousands of jobs and postpone billions of pounds of big projects in an attempt to crackdown on spending. Tom Albanese, chief executive, is taking swift action to preserve cash after BHP Billiton's(BLT.L) decision to cancel a 43 billion pound takeover bid for Rio following a year-long battle. Rio is poised to mothball its massive Simandou iron project in west Africa along with other schemes across the globe.

BOVIS IN LAND WRITEDOWN SHOCK

Bovis Homes Group(BVS.L), the builder, could writedown the value of its land bank next month, and is likely to slash jobs in the next few weeks with more to go next year. David Ritchie, chief executive, revealed that the company would make an announcement of job cuts in January, which could also include the writedown of its land bank. Mr Ritchie said the writedown would be less than 100 million pounds, and that employees would be axed this year to drive down costs, but declined to comment on the numbers.

CHEMRING TARGETS GROWTH

Defence firm Chemring Group(CHG.L) has armed itself with a 100 million pound war chest to make acquisitions in Europe next year. David Price, chief executive, revealed the company was looking to expand after a massive boom in business this year as it supplied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He added that Chemring, which produces ammunition and decoy countermeasures for military aircraft, was also set to win the U.S. contract to supply flares for Lockheed Martin's new F22 Raptor fighter jet.

The Sunday Times

46 MILLION POUND BONUS AT KNIGHT FRANK

Staff at Knight Frank, the upmarket estate agent and commercial property consultancy, have defied the credit crunch to bag 46 million pounds in bonuses this year. The payouts came following a strong financial year to last April, which saw group turnover soar 17 per cent to 333.9 million pounds, and underlying profits before tax increase to 67 million pounds from 64.9 million pounds. Since then, the commercial and residential markets have taken a nosedive, but chairman Nick Thomlinson remains "cautiously optimistic" about the current year.