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Your support makes all the difference.GPA LOSES DOLLARS 39M IN SIX MONTHS
The Irish aircraft leasing company GPA Group, rescued earlier this year by GE Capital of the US, made a net loss of dollars 39m in the six months to 30 September.
The loss, blamed on difficult trading conditions, includes a further dollars 6m provision for restructuring costs. GPA's net worth is shown as dollars 192m compared with outstanding loans totalling dollars 5.42m and available cash of dollars 241m. During the six-month period cash flow, after interest, was dollars 385m while net loan repayments were dollars 374m.
FUEL LEVY UNCHANGED
The so-called 'fossil fuel levy' on electricity bills will be kept at 10 per cent for 1994-95. The levy amounts to about pounds 1bn but is supposed to decrease gradually until it expires in 1998. Most of it is paid to the state-owned Nuclear Electric to cover historic liabilities related to decommissioning nuclear plants and handling waste.
SAVINGS RATES CUT
National Savings is cutting the rates on its variable accounts and fixed rate products. The rate on the five-year certificate drops from 5.75 to 5.4 per cent, the Capital Bond moves from 7.75 to 7.25 per cent and First Option Bond drops from 6.34 to 6 per cent. A new pounds 1m Premium Bond prize is being introduced.
BANANAS OVER GATT
Representatives of Caribbean banana exporting countries and the importers Fyffes, Geest and Jamaica Producers yesterday met Michael Jack, agriculture minister, to ask for income and investment support. They claim that the new Gatt accord will damage their traditional markets by depressing prices.
TRUMP SOUNDS AGAIN
Donald Trump, the high-flying New York casino operator forced into bankruptcy three years ago, appears to have secured the financing necessary for his return to the Manhattan property market, lining up a Los Angeles investor to buy a dollars 250m bank mortgage on an abandoned railyard site he owns. Separately, one of Mr Trump's Atlantic City casinos, Trump Castle, announced a plan to offer bondholders an opporunity to exchange debt for equity in the resort.
UNITED STAFF DEAL
United Airlines confirmed a tentative agreement to sell a majority stake to its 60,000 employees in a deal that values the airline at about dollars 5bn.
BOOST FOR RECYCLING
Recycling received a huge boost in Britain yesterday with the long-awaited go-ahead for a pounds 260m newsprint mill at Aylesford, near Maidstone, Kent. It will use only waste newspapers and magazines as its raw material. The project represents the largest investment in manufacturing plant in Britain for several years.
ITALIAN bLOCKBUSTER
(First Edition)
Blockbuster Entertainment is to form a joint venture to develop up to 200 video stores in Italy during the next five years. Initial development of the venture between the international entertainment company and one of Italy's largest diversified retailers will be in Milan and other parts of northern Italy.
REED ELSEVIER STAKE
(First Edition)
The Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier has acquired a 40 per cent stake in Italy's legal publisher Dott A Giuffre Editore for an undisclosed sum. Giuffre had 1992 turnover of L102bn, employs 350 people and publishes 60 magazines and more than 350 books a year.
WORLD MARKETS
NEW YORK: Late buying lifted the Dow Jones Average 9.22 to 3,726.14 in cautious trading ahead of today's 'triple witching' session.
TOKYO: Extension of the parliamentary session to allow passage of political reform measures helped to push the Nikkei average 300.13 higher to 17,789.28.
HONG KONG: Foreign institutional interest set the Hang Seng index leaping 394.4 - almost 4 per cent - to a record 10,339.66.
SYDNEY: Mixed trade after Wall Street's fall took the All Ordinaries up 4.9 points to 2,074.8.
BOMBAY: Brokers boycotted trading for the third day running.
FRANKFURT: Some gains were lost after the Bundesbank left key interest rates unchanged. The DAX added 26.75 to 2,137.45.
PARIS: The CAC-40 index ended 2.37 points lower at 2,160.26.
MILAN: Prices closed lower following the no-change decision on German interest rates.
WARSAW: The WIG index posted a third consecutive record of 10,677 with a 263-point advance.
LONDON: Report, page 28.
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