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Your support makes all the difference.STAR TV FACING 'LOSSES OF dollars 100m'
Star TV faces losses of up to dollars 100m, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, said yesterday. The group paid dollars 525m for a 63 per cent stake in the Asian broadcaster in July. Mr Murdoch told the annual meeting in Australia that the investment was 'very risky' and unlikely to make profits for at least two more years.
He added that recent cuts in the price of the Times and the Sun newspapers had improved their circulations by 400,000 and 100,000 respectively. He predicted that BSkyB's operating profits would triple to pounds 180m this year.
POWER FIRM TO AXE 600
Newly privatised Northern Ireland Electricity will axe 600 jobs - nearly 20 per cent of its workforce - between now and March 1996 through 'natural wastage and voluntary severance' to drive down working costs. The move, expected after NIE's privatisation in the summer, came in the wake of a review of the company's operations.
RUSH FOR BNP
Private investors have applied heavily for shares in the privatisation of Banque Nationale de Paris, which closed last night with more than 1.5 million applicants on the books - already 50 per cent more than the target set. The heavy private demand means institutional shareholders are likely to receive fewer shares than expected when their own offer closed last week.
FIMBRA BARS THREE
The Investors Compensation Scheme has declared the financial advisers Michael Lewis Financial Management, Panoramic Financial Management, and Simon Financial Services to be in default. This allows investors with these firms to submit claims for compensation.
SUN ALLIANCE ISSUE
Sun Alliance has raised pounds 125m through a preference share issue, making use of the authority gained recently from its shareholders. The money will add just under four points to its solvency ratio. The shares were priced to yield 9.147 per cent and will pay a dividend of 7.375 per cent.
GE's RECORD dollars 1.2bn
General Electric reported record third-quarter profits of dollars 1.2bn (dollars 1.41 a share), up from dollars 1.1bn a year earlier. Sales rose to dollars 14.85bn against dollars 14.27bn previously.
FRENCH SALES SOAR
French retail sales rose a provisional 11 per cent in June from May, when they fell 5.5 per cent, Insee, the statistics office, said. June sales were up 7.5 per cent from the average of the previous three months.
WORLD MARKETS
NEW YORK: Second-line shares traded at record highs, but the blue-chip Dow Jones Average eased fractionally to 3,593.13, down 0.28, by the close.
TOKYO: Investors, confused by the planned launch of the new Nikkei 300, pushed the Nikkei Average down 241.33 to 20,137.31.
HONG KONG: The Hang Seng index gained 61.27 to a record 8,253.45 in heavy turnover.
SYDNEY: Second-liners made the running as blue chips retreated, leaving the All Ordinaries index off 11.8 at 2,038.
JOHANNESBURG: The gold index shed 29 to 1,695 as the easier bullion price prompted selling.
FRANKFURT: Light profit-taking, following the decision by the German constitutional court to back the Maastricht treaty, lowered the DAX index 12.41 points to 1,998.61.
ZURICH: Positive bond market and interest rate factors helped to lift the SMI index 4 points to 2,552.5.
PARIS: A sluggish economy and high interest rates inspired a bout of selling, sending the CAC- 40 index 11.87 points lower at 2,126.85.
LONDON: Report, page 32.
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