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Business and City in Brief

Monday 14 March 1994 19:02 EST
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Satellite plant for Wales

About 400 jobs are being created by a joint venture between Gooding Consumer Electronics and Grundig to make satellite receivers at a plant in Wales. The aim is to produce one million receivers a year within three years, targeting Europe and the emerging Asian markets. The company expects to take 30 per cent of the UK satellite receiver market within a couple of years.

Laurentian move

Roland Ward, finance director of Laurentian, the Canadian-owned life insurance group that has pounds 1.5bn under management in the UK, has been promoted to chief executive. Lord Marsh, Laurentian's chairman, took on an executive role after the departure of Paul Seymour a year ago.

Hartstone secures

Hartstone Group, the troubled leathergoods company, has re-secured banking arrangements until January 1996, paving the way for a refinacing rights issue.

North West chief

North West Water has appointed Brian Staples as chief executive to succeed Bob Thian, who resigned last year after a boardroom dispute. Mr Staples is currently chief executive of Tarmac Construction.

Containers up

Sea Containers, Sir James Sherwood's transport and leasing group, reported net profits of dollars 42.9m, an 8 per cent rise, on revenue that declined 1 per cent to dollars 417m in 1993. The company said the turnover figure was lower because of the strengthening of the dollar against sterling.

Rolling stock

Rolling 10-day settlement will be introduced for settling Stock Exchange bargains from 18 July. The last account-settlement day under the old system will be on 25 July.

Bradford in Europe

Bradford and Bingley has become the first British building society to open a branch in Germany. The opening ceremony was performed by Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade.

Cargo cult

The American-style warehouse operator Cargo Club has signed up almost 11,000 fee-paying members for its first store opening today at Croydon. The company said this membership, costing pounds 25 a year, was almost double the 6,000 that the US group Price/Costco enrolled by the launch date of Britain's first warehouse club last year.

WORLD MARKETS

New York: Shares moved higher in moderate trading and by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.28 points firmer at 3,862.98.

Tokyo: A fall in the yen against the dollar helped the Nikkei average to climb 410.84 - more than 2 per cent - to 20,416.34.

Hong Kong: A sharp rise in futures prices took the Hang Seng to 9,980.07, a 74.41-point gain.

Sydney: Banks led the market higher, with the All Ordinaries index 26.2 better at 2,179.3.

Bombay: The index ended at 3,747.22, bringing its losses since the budget to 12.6 per cent.

Johannesburg: A steady gold price and growing confidence combined to push the overall index up 32 points to 5,156.

Frankfurt: Firmer bonds inspired a 41.68-point advance by the DAX index to 2,145.17.

Paris: Rallying after last week's losses, the CAC-40 index added 40.11 points to 2,215.02.

Zurich: Tracking other European bourses, the SPI finished 20.92 points higher at 1,844.62.

London: Report, page 26.

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