BANKS PRESSURED TO DISCLOSE PAY OVER 1 MILLION POUNDS

City banker Sir David Walker has recommended that large banks should disclose the number of their UK employees who are on salaries of over 1 million pounds ($1.67 million). As part of his review of the industry, Sir David will also say that half of the bonuses paid to staff should be deferred from three to five years. There are further proposals that non-executive directors should be given more responsibility for pay and risk. Sir David acknowledged that the salary revelations, which go well beyond the disclosure requirements of other countries, would "cause howls of outrage from the banking community".

ONS PAINTS PICTURE OF SLOW RECOVERY

The Office of National Statistics has reported a 0.3 percent fall in gross domestic product in the three months to September. While the figure was less than the 0.4 percent drop in previous estimates, it was far from the positive growth that most economists had expected. Trade accounted for two thirds of the decline, due in part to a significantly higher number of imported cars, which suggests that currency from the governments' car scrappage scheme may be flowing out of the national economy. The data also showed that inventories added nothing to growth, as they continued to fall at the same pace as in the previous quarter.

BUSINESS CREATIVITY FUELLING GROWTH, STUDY SAYS

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) will unveil its first Innovation Index today. The study, designed to measure creativity in the economy, will reveal that innovation by British businesses is driving productivity growth faster in the UK than in other large European states. British companies invested 133 billion pounds in innovation in 2007 and Nesta says that two-thirds of productivity growth between 2000 and 2007 was driven by innovation rather than changes in labour or capital investment.

COMPASS POINTS TO EXPANSION

Compass, the world's largest caterer, has outlined plans to expand into supplementary areas such as cleaning, laundry and manned security. The firm struck more than 200 million pounds worth of "multi-service" deals with the likes of Royal Dutch Shell in the year to the end of September. Like-for-like volumes were down by three percent, while the 2.4 billion pounds of bundled support contracts accounted for almost a fifth of group revenue. Chief executive Richard Cousins predicted a return to "trend" top-line improvement of up to seven percent a year by 2012, following a period of disappointing organic revenue. Compass shares reached a seven-year high following the update.

BUOYANT BRITVIC SEEKS TO INCREASE MARGINS

Britvic has reported a 23 percent rise in full-year pre-tax profits from 51.8 million pounds to 66.2 million pounds. The soft drinks group also raised its annual margin guidance by 50 basis points. Innovative marketing, including viral and digital advertising campaigns, boosted group sales by 5.6 percent to 979 million pounds. Chief executive Paul Moody said that the company saw "the market as being about a difficult economy where we're performing well", despite a 5.6 percent fall in revenue from sales in Ireland.

SPEEDY SUFFERS IN TOUGH TIMES

Speedy Hire has reported an interim loss of 13.6 million pounds as the equipment hire group suffered from falling levels in building work and a move by construction companies to reduce costs on the rental of non-essential equipment. The figure includes more than eight million pounds of charges associated with cost-cutting, compared with a pre-tax profit of 19.4 million pounds last time. Chief executive Steve Corcoran described construction as "one of the most heavily impaired industries in the UK", amid concerns within the sector that next year's expected cuts in public spending will not be balanced by an increase in private investment.

VODAFONE TO CLOSE PENSION SCHEME TO 4,000 WORKERS

Vodafone is intending to close its final salary pension scheme to around 4,000 of its staff, a move which the company says it is making because of the rising cost of defined benefit pensions. The telecoms company plans to 'substantially improve' the defined contribution pension programme so that 'pension benefits are fair to all employees, sustainable in the long term and affordable for employees and the company.' According to Vodafone's latest annual report and accounts as of March 31, the assets of the company's defined benefit scheme has a 60 million pound shortfall compared with its liabilities of 815 million pounds.

QINETIQ SHARES HIT BY TARGET SHORTFALL

Shares in Qinetiq fell 14.7 pence to 163.8 pence on Wednesday after the defence group warned that it will fall short of its full-year profits forecast. Chief financial officer David Mellors said: 'In both main geographies in which we operate we're experiencing some short-term uncertainties. In the UK, political and economic factors are weighing on contracts, and in the US we still have this issue of the finalisation around the Afghanistan strategy.' For the six months to September 30 Qinetiq made a pre-tax loss of 1.3 million pounds compared with a profit of 36.6 million pounds, on revenue up 11 per cent to 806 million pounds. The losses were mainly due to reorganisation costs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and a further 13 million pounds of amortisation on acquisitions.

LSE FORCED TO WAIT ON STRATEGY OUTCOME

Shares in the London Stock Exchange fell 32.5 pence to 814.5 pence after the bourse reported on Wednesday a 38 per cent fall in pre-tax profit to 79.4 million pounds. Chief executive Xavier Rolet said that he would not know whether efforts to stem the erosion of its market share in UK share trading had worked for another 'six to nine months'. The LSE has seen its market share in FTSE 100 stocks fall to less than 60 per cent as it battles rivals such as Chi-X and BATS Europe. Since Mr Rolet took over from Dame Clara Furse in May, the LSE has cut 12 per cent of its staff and has bought Sri Lankan technology group MillenniumIT to spearhead an overhaul of technology.

BMI TO CUT JOBS AND SHED ROUTES

BMI British Midland is to cut almost 600 jobs and stop services to cities such as Kiev and Tel Aviv in an effort to cut costs. The airline is also considering closing its final salary pension scheme and will begin returning seven of 39 aircraft in its fleet to leasing companies. The moves underline the difficulties at the carrier, which reported a pre-tax loss of 155.6 million pounds for 2008 and has said it may not be able to continue as a going concern beyond 2010 unless it can raise 190 million pounds. BMI employs 4,470 people and talks have begun with unions to try to minimise the number of compulsory job losses.

Prepared for Reuters by Durrants ($1=.5979 Pound)
Keywords: PRESS DIGEST Financial Times Nov 26

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