(HRO.L) H.R.Owen PLC Buy/Sell

The Times

FIRST WIMBLEDON, LATER THE WORLD, AS HMV UNVEILS ITS

BOUTIQUE CINEMA

HMV will open a three-screen cinema on the second floor of its Wimbledon store on Friday in a move designed to offset declining sales of CDs and stalled DVD growth.

The boutique cinema plan was developed in partnership with Curzon, a small cinema chain, and will target the consumer wanting "a glass of wine with their film".

The partners will share revenue created on the cinema floor, with the screens showing a mixture of Hollywood blockbusters and foreign art house movies.

PARAGON GEARS UP TO ACQUIRE LOANBOOKS FROM RIVALS LAID LOW

BY FINANCIAL CRISIS

Paragon is planning to acquire loan books from financial institutions struggling in the financial crisis.

According to chief executive Nigel Terrington, the Solihull-based lender to private landlords will consider businesses ranging from "tens of millions to hundreds of millions of pounds".

CarVal, an American specialist investor, will help Paragon fund the larger acquisitions, while Paragon will also be able to stretch the size of its purchases if they come with financing from the seller.

TOUGH TIMES DRIVE DOWN HR OWEN LUXURY CAR SALES

HR Owen confirmed on Wednesday that its sales were still falling, contrasting with an 11 per cent rise in new registration in the overall car market as a result of the car scrappage scheme.

The luxury car brand dealer's chief executive, Nicolas Lancaster, said that sales for most brands were down by around 40 per cent on last year and that some brands were down further, adding that the business had started to pick up in recent weeks but it was too early to see whether the improvement could be sustained.

TEMPUS

ARM Holdings (Offers good value)

Home Retail Group (Pass)

Burford Capital (Hold for now)
Daily Telegraph

NATIONAL EXPRESS SET TO DISAPPOINT

The transport group National Express is expected to reveal disappointing figures for its third-quarter trading on Thursday, as the company faces a takeover bid from its contemporary Stagecoach.

The senior management at National Express has misgivings about the ability of Stagecoach to secure the two billion pounds of debt that would be held by a combined company and is preparing for an attempt to raise 400 million pounds through a rights issue to help its own debt repayments.

REGENT INNS SURVIVES WITH PRE-PACK DEAL

The bar owner Regent Inns has been placed in pre-pack administration by BDO Stoy Hayward after it failed to secure funding for a buy-out. 1,800 jobs were saved by the pre-pack option, but 186 were still lost at Regent's nine worst-performing sites.

Other sites have been sold to Punch Taverns or a new company set up by the management of Regent called Intertain. The remaining sites will pass into the ownership of the company's creditors, which include Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and West LB.

ARGOS CATALOGUE PRICES UP BECAUSE OF WEAK POUND

Home Retail Group is attempting to counterbalance the fall in the value of the pound by increasing prices in the Argos catalogue.

The rise, believed to be four to five per cent by analysts, is also a reflection of the belief of Terry Duddy, the group's chief executive, that UK consumer confidence is returning. Pre-tax profits at Home Retail Group were 122.7 million pounds in the six months to August 29 - an increase on last year's figure of 121.4 million pounds.

QUESTOR

Carillion (Buy)

Pearson (Buy)

The Independent

BAA CUTS ITS DEBT PILE WITH SALE OF GATWICK FOR 1.5 BILLION

POUNDS

BAA has confirmed that it is to sell Gatwick Airport to Global Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm that owns London's City airport.

The 1.5 billion pound takeover set to be signed in December is likely to find favour with the Competition Commission, as BAA was ordered by the Commission to sell Gatwick, as well as Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports, in March.

BAA, which has a huge 9.6 billion pound debt, will use the proceeds to pay down a one billion pound bank facility that matures next year.

PRIMARK PLANS 100,000 SQ FT STORE IN 675 MILLION POUND

CARDIFF MALL

Primark is in negotiations to sign up for a 10,000 sq ft outlet in St David's 2, a massive 675 million pound extension to Cardiff's existing shopping centre.

The new centre is a joint development between Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres, operating as the St David's Partnership. Primark, which is owned by Associated British Foods, would provide a massive boost to the centre by attracting not only customers but also new retailers.

KRAFT UNDER PRESSURE TO RAISE ITS OFFER AFTER CADBURY BEATS

TARGETS

Andrew Bonfield, the finance director of Cadbury, which is a takeover target of US food giant Kraft, insisted it had a future as an independent confectionery business, after it upgraded its full-year financial results.

In early September, Cadbury rejected a 10.2 billion pound proposed takeover offer by Kraft, which valued the UK-based group at 745 pence a share.

According to Alicia Forry of Liberum Capital, the Cadbury's earning upgrades of at least 5 per cent to consensus underpin expectations that Kraft will have to bid above 800 pence.

Drax (Buy)

Home Retail Group (Hold)

Telford Homes (Buy)

The Guardian

GATWICK AIRPORT TO GET UPGRADE AFTER 1.5 BILLION POUND SALE

BAA has sold Gatwick to Global Infrastructure Partners, the investment group that controls London's City airport, in a 1.5 billion pound deal that ends BAA's four-decade long monopoly of London's major airports.

Talks of modernisation at the 51-year-old site have raised fears of job losses among its 2,500 staff. Unite, the largest union in aviation, has called for a meeting with GIP to safeguard workers terms, conditions and pensions during the handover.

CADBURY IN FIGHTING MOOD AS SALES GO UP

Andrew Bonfield, Cadbury's finance director, has warned that the group's unique corporate ethos would be lost if it were to be swallowed up by a larger multinational group such as Kraft, the US food conglomerate which is circling the business.

On Wednesday, on the back of strong quarterly figures, Cadbury raised its sales and margin targets for this year, a move analysts suggested raised the pressure on Kraft to revise its recently spurned 10.2 billion pound cash and shares takeover approach.

HBOS CUSTOMERS COULD PAY 365 PER CENT OVERDRAFT FEE

HBOS is to move all of its current account customers to a new daily charging structure, in a double blow that will see account holders face a hike in overdraft charges and the loss of interest when they are in credit.

Agreed overdrafts of up to 2,500 pounds will be charged one pound a day, while those over 2,500 pounds will be charged two pounds a day. All debit and credit interest will be removed. The consumer body Which? has criticised the move.

Prepared for Reuters by Durrants
Keywords: PRESS DIGEST British business

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