Business and City in Brief
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at Volkswagen Bruno Adelt, financial controller at Volkswagen's parent company, is expected to become chief financial officer of the group. He would replace Werner Schmidt, who is expected to leave after the substantial losses discovered last year at VW's Spanish subsidiary, Seat.
Polly Peck persistence
Administrators of Polly Peck International from Coopers & Lybrand said they would not be deterred from their task after news that a Turkish court was barring them from selling assets belonging to the collapsed conglomerate.
Fishy offer
IAWS, the food manufacturer, has made an pounds 11.2m recommended offer to buy United Fish Products, the Scottish fish-meal and fish-oil producer.
Borden deal agreed
US food group Borden has agreed to a takeover by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts giving Borden shareholders stock in RJR Nabisco Holdings worth dollars 14.25 per Borden share.
Rival suitor Paul Kazarian has indicated he would pay up to dollars 17 a share. Borden would still be obliged to consider any formal offer from Mr Kazarian.
Water protest
Portsmouth Water is protesting to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission over the 'K' factor given to it by Ofwat, the industry regulator. It said the factor jeopardises the company's ability to meet its obligations and the reasonable expectations of its customers for quality and service.
HIV development
Bayer and Hoechst said they had developed a new drug to combat the HIV virus that would be tested in clinical trials soon.
Inn favour
Holiday Inn Worldwide, the hotel division of Bass, said it would open four Holiday Inn Express hotels in Britain next year as part of a franchise development deal with Hospitality Developments. A total of 20 of the 80-bedroom hotels are planned.
Humber power
ABB Asea Brown Boveri said it received an order to build a 750 megawatt combined-cycle gas turbine power station on the Humber river estuary from Humber Power. Midlands Electricity is to take a 25 per cent equity stake in the project, through its generation subsidiary Central Power, investing approximately pounds 11m.
World Markets
New York: Another early bargain-hunters' rally petered out to leave the Dow Jones Average down 5.38 points at the close at 3,831.75.
Tokyo: Closed (holiday).
Hong Kong: In a quiet market the Hang Seng index gave up 42.48 points to close at 9,625.66.
Sydney: Gold stocks supported the market despite BHP's disappointing results. The All Ordinaries eased half a point to 2,027.7.
Bombay: Trading was suspended when fire broke out in an adjacent building. At that time the index was 44.75 up at 4,496.53.
Johannesburg: Tentative gains by gold shares helped the index to a one-point advance at 5,755.
Moscow: The 30-share MT index, set up at 100 on 1 September, rose 1.52 points to 129.92.
Frankfurt: A firmer trend in bonds helped the DAX index to 2,089.12, a gain of 16.09 points.
Paris: Prices ended the account on a firmer note, recovering ground lost earlier in the week. The CAC-40 index moved up 27.98 points to 1,927.35.
Zurich: Bond market strength helped the Swiss Performance Index 2.09 higher to 1,727.11.
London: Report, page 15.
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