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Your support makes all the difference.Paper group to lay off 100
Portsmouth and Sunderland, the local newspaper group, is spending pounds 1.7m making 100 employees redundant. It linked the move to the expiry of printing contracts later this year.
Pre-tax profits rose 6 per cent to pounds 7.3m. The final dividend is 7.52p (6.62p) giving 10.46p (up 12.5 per cent, for the year.
Boeing jobs to go
Boeing is to cut 2,200 jobs at its Philadelphia helicopter plant over the next two years, reducing the workforce there to about 4,600.
Eurocopter cutbacks
Eurocopter, part of Deutsche Aerospace and Aerospatiale, plans to cut the equivalent of 1,000 to 1,200 full-time jobs by the end of next year. Staff numbers will fall to around 9,400.
Quake cover pulled
Farmers, the BAT subsidiary, has temporarily suspended sales of earthquake insurance in the US. The company has paid more than dollars 800m in claims since the January earthquake that devastated the Los Angeles area. It expects its losses to be around dollars 1.1bn.
Ferruzzi sues PW
Ferruzzi, the Italian agro-chemicals group, is suing auditors Price Waterhouse for L650bn ( pounds 270m) for negligence over its accounts from 1987-1992, the company said.
Pharmacia priced
The Swedish Pharmacia privatisation offer has been priced at Skr120 ( pounds 10) per share, with the Swedish public paying Skr110 under a special discount for the drug maker, medical equipment and biotechnology company.
National Savings up
Total gross sales of all National Savings products in May were pounds 985m. Net receipts were pounds 266m after repayments of pounds 719m. The contribution to government funds was pounds 424m including accrued interest. The biggest contributor was Pensioners Bonds at pounds 248m, while Premium Bonds added pounds 153m. The total invested at the end of the month was pounds 49.4bn.
Liquidity rises
The ratio of the current assets of large UK industrial and commercial companies to their current liabilities rose in the first quarter to 144 per cent, up from 133 per cent in the fourth quarter 1993.
Kvaerner makes pounds 54m
Kvaerner, the Norwegian industrial group that owns the Govan shipyard on the Clyde, made profits of pounds 54.5m in the first four months of this year, against pounds 40.1m.
WORLD MARKETS
New York: A forecast 10 per cent fall in the US dollar in the next 18 months unsettled shares and by the close the Dow Jones Average was down 34.56 points at 3,776.78.
Tokyo: Receding concerns about North Korea left the Nikkei 225 up 135.83 at 21,503.30.
Hong Kong: The Hang Seng index rebounded to a gain of 91.04 at 9,113.96 after sharp early falls tempted bargain-hunters.
Sydney: Weakness in bond prices nudged the All Ordinaries index 4.8 lower at 2,051.2.
Johannesburg: Gold shares reversed sharp falls on strong local buying to lift the index 12 to 2,197 by the close.
Frankfurt: Easier bund futures shaved 4.19 points off the DAX index at 2,050.72.
Zurich: Futures-related selling triggered a 39-point fall in the SMI index to 2,627.6.
Milan: Uncertainty over the budget lopped two points off the Mibtel index at 11,097.
Paris: The CAC-40 index ended down 6.86 points at 1,935.95.
London: Report, page 13.
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