Business and City in Brief

Goodman sale raises 51m pounds

Goodman Fielder Wattie is selling the retail operations of Cold Storage Holdings, its Singapore subsidiary, to Dairy Farm International, the retail arm of the Hong Kong-based Jardine Matheson group, for about Adollars 113m ( pounds 51m).

Goodman will use the proceeds to expand its food manufacturing operations in Asia.

Morris success

Philip Morris, the US tobacco and food giant, says 96 per cent of shareholders in Freia Marabou, the Scandinavian chocolate maker, have accepted its dollars 1.5bn ( pounds 678m) takeover bid, including Hershey Foods with an 18.6 per cent stake.

Sharpened up

Services provided by British Telecom and Mercury could benefit from more competition, the Telecommunications Users Association said. A survey of members found improvements resulting from competition included a more 'responsive and efficient' BT and a more flexible approach to charges for business customers.

Dowty posting

TI Group confirmed that Tony Edwards, having resigned his post as group managing director of Lucas Industries, is to take over as chief executive of Dowty, TI's aerospace subsidiary, and main board director with effect from 16 November. Cheaper fares

Three US airlines have announced fare reductions of up to 25 per cent on flights to Europe to stimulate the traditionally slow winter travel season.

Tarmac rerated

Tarmac's commercial paper programme has been downgraded from A-2 to A-3 by Standard & Poor's. Tarmac has been cutting its programme and now has dollars 27m outstanding.

dollars 5bn milk buy

Parmalat Finanziaria of Italy has paid about dollars 5bn for two US long-life milk producers, Milk Maid and Farm Best.

In the dumps

Japan and the EC have expressed concern over US investigations into the alleged dumping of steel by 21 foreign nations, Gatt sources said.

Society cuts jobs

Nationwide Building Society has cut nine jobs from its personnel and staff administration operation, bringing the number of job losses this year to 200.

Chairman named

Martin Taylor has been appointed chairman of National Westminster Life Assurance, the joint venture company to be launched at the beginning of next year by the bank and Clerical Medical Life Assurance Society.

Backing for Bush

(First Edition)

A survey of European business leaders shows 40 per cent in favour of George Bush returning to the White House compared with 35 per cent for Bill Clinton. In the UK 70 per cent supported Me Bush and 14 per cent Mr Clinton, according to the Harris Research poll.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: General Motors and IBM led shares lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 8.38 points at 3,235.73.

TOKYO: Continuing thin trade carried the Nikkei average 173.93 higher to 17,185.26.

HONG KONG: Volatile trade after Monday's steep losses recovered 155.54 points - more than 2 per cent - on the Hang Seng index, closing at 6,218.01.

SYDNEY: Concern about Australia's economic weakness took prices lower, with the All Ordinaries index 14.1 off at 1,436.6.

JOHANNESBURG: Mining shares eased on the back of the lower gold price to pull the overall index down 26 points to 3,007.

PARIS: The conviction that German interest rates will soon fall underpinned the market, with the CAC-40 index firming 3.74 points to close at 1,774.48.

FRANKFURT: Minor profit-taking helped to lower the DAX index 8.72 points to 1,533.77.

MILAN: The MIB eased two points to end off its lows at 827.

LONDON: Report, page 25.