Business and City in Brief

CBI COMPLAINT ON LABOUR COSTS

THE CBI yesterday declared itself against any new social legislation from the European Community that would add to industry's labour costs.

Sir Anthony Tennant, chairman of Guinness and of the CBI's Europe Committee, said in Brussels that European labour costs were higher than in America or Japan. 'We cannot allow this unjustified burden on our competitiveness to continue,' he said.

BID WITHDRAWN

France's Thomson-CSF has withdrawn its bid for the missile division of LTV Corp of the US but said it would restructure its offer to propose a 'new solution' to the US authorities.

SEMA TALKS

Sema Group is talking with France Telecom, the state- owned telecommunications company, about an industrial partnership in a jointly owned holding company.

HILLSDOWN CLEAR

Hillsdown Holding's acquisition of the canning interests of Associated British Foods has been cleared by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, which said the buying muscle of multiple retailers would prevent it exploiting its market share.

THAI ICE CREAM

Unilever has acquired Thailand's largest ice cream manufacturer from Foremost Friesland, a local dairy company with a nationwide distribution network and 500 employees.

NATWEST JOBS

National Westminster Bank made 180 staff redundant yesterday at branches around the West End of London. This follows 140 redundancies in the City two weeks ago, and is part of a programme to reduce staff numbers by 15,000 nationwide.

YORKSHIRE TV

White Rose Consortium, which failed in its attempt to gain the Channel 3 licence for the Yorkshire region, has lodged a submission with the Independent Television Commission requesting that it revoke Yorkshire Television's Channel 3 licence.

NADIR HEARING

Personal creditors of Asil Nadir, former chairman of Polly Peck International, have agreed to drop proceedings seeking to have him committed to prison for contempt of court because of an alleged breach of an agreement on repaying debts.

BLAZER

On 7 July we published a photograph of a high street, including a 'Blazer' shop, to illustrate an article about clothing stores losing market share. We are pleased to make clear that 'Blazer' was not one of the premium brands mentioned in the article.

WORLD MARKETS

NEW YORK: Increased concern over quarterly reports sparked heavy selling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 44.04 points at 3,295.17.

TOKYO: Programme selling induced a 197.52-point fall by the Nikkei average to 16,459.55.

HONG KONG: Worries over the Sino-British talks on funding Hong Kong's new airport saw the Hang Seng index plunge 112.85 points to 5,911.92.

SYDNEY: Directionless trade ended with the All Ordinaries index 3.2 lower at 1,660.5.

JOHANNESBURG: Panicky investors sent the index 55 points lower to 3,544 on concern about the political situation.

FRANKFURT: Monday's gains were cancelled out as the DAX index fell 4.85 to 1,767.51.

PARIS: Shrugging off the strike news, the CAC-40 index added 10.57 points to 1,879.09.

ZURICH: Wall Street's firm start pulled prices off their lows. The index closed 3.9 down at 1,171.2.

MILAN: The MIB sank 0.92 per cent to another 1992 low of 859.

LONDON: Report, page 25.