Business and City in Brief

SmithKline to sell Tagamet generic

SmithKline Beecham will market a generic version of Tagamet in the US, days before the blockbuster anti-ulcer drug loses its patent there. The US accounted for two-thirds of the drug's worldwide sales of pounds 673m in 1993.

Two independent manufacturers have already received US approval to market cheap generic copies of Tagamet and others are expected to follow. SmithKline says the product will be manufactured under the label of its Penn Labs subsidiary.

New Macy's offer

The long-running battle over who should control Macy's department stores in the US when they emerge from bankruptcy has taken a new turn, with rival Federated Stores increasing its offer to the chain's creditors. Federated's bid, now worth about dollars 3.8bn, would give creditors dollars 2bn worth of its shares and cash, while Macy's new management has proposed a dollars 3.67bn plan that would repay them the dollars 2.4bn principal they are owed in Macy's shares and in new debt.

Study of small firms

The European Commission has agreed to finance a six-month study into the feasibility of a pan- European stock market for small and entrepreneurial companies. The study will examine whether small European companies have sufficient access to European stock markets.

pounds 30m St Ives plant

St Ives is to spend pounds 30m on a purpose-built factory near Caerphilly where it will install the latest technology for magazine and brochure printing. The group announced a contract with IPC Magazines to fill one of three presses in the new plant.

Tiphook name change

Tiphook is changing its name to Central Transport Rental Group. The company has sold its container leasing operation for pounds 673m, and is left with a loss- making trailer and smaller rail wagon rental business.

C&W campaign

Cable & Wireless launched an advertising campaign to increase its share of the market for business communications services. The group says it already has a turnover of pounds 1bn in this sector, one of the fastest-growing in the telecommunications industry.

dollars 16m Yamaha tax bill

Yamaha Motor Company will pay dollars 15.8m in US tax arrears in connection with the alleged manipulation of transfer prices for motor bikes to Yamaha Motor Corp USA, its US subsidiary. The Internal Revenue Service initially charged Yamaha with arrears of dollars 183.3m.

Road to Mexico

Honda Motor Company plans to build a dollars 50m plant in Mexico with capacity to produce 15,000 cars a year.

Cantab collaborates(First Edition)

Cantab Pharmaceuticals will collaborate with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund to investigate the scope to enhance drugs production via cell growth techniques. The project will be financed by Cantab, the Medical Research Council and the Government under Britain's new Link Cell Engineering Programme.

WORLD MARKETS

New York: Steadier bonds prompted a recovery. Although below its day's high the Dow Jones was up 27.37 points to 3,656.41 by the close.

Tokyo: Light futures-linked buying lifted the Nikkei 225 index by 130.82 points to 19,917, with many investors content to remain on the sidelines until a clearer trend emerges.

Hong Kong: The Hang Seng index recovered to end 118.39 higher at 8,540.09 after falling sharply on US interest rate fears.

Sydney: Share prices closed mixed ahead of the release of the government's budget plans. The All Ordinaries index eased 1.1 to 2,008.2.

Brussels: The BEL 20 index gave up 0.55 points to 1,528.87 in thin trade.

Frankfurt: Renewed strength in the bund market nudged the DAX index 16.27 higher to 2,253.35.

Paris: Share prices rebounded on strength in world bond markets. The CAC-40 gained 25.56 to 2,164.98.

London: Report, page 28.