Business and City in Brief
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Your support makes all the difference.EC finally agrees on VAT
EC finance ministers struck a deal yesterday setting minimum rates of VAT and excise duties, a final plank in the plan to tear down internal barriers from next January.
The deal, held up for several hours by a dispute between Britain and Spain over duty on imported Spanish sherry, sets a mimimum VAT rate of 15 per cent throughout the Community and stipulates standard rates of excise duty on wines and spirits. It had been provisionally approved in July.
ICI rating move
ICI is to privatise its in-house rating section and has signed up Jones Lang Wootton, the chartered surveyor, to handle its property rating and capital gains tax valuation work.
North slumps
After six months in which the north of England rallied well to recover from the first wave of recession, the region slumped in the third quarter and is doing as badly as in the first quarter of 1991, its previous low point, according to a quarterly survey by the Northern Development Company.
Time disappoints
Time Warner, the media giant, reported weak profits in its third quarter, earning only dollars 6m on turnover of dollars 3.25bn.
Chase improves
Record trading profits more than offset larger loan losses at Chase Manhattan Bank in the third quarter. Earnings rose almost 30 per cent over the previous year to dollars 176m.
Tapie challenge
Bernard Tapie, the French businessman, has challenged Britain's Pentland Group to disclose publicly why it last week called off the planned pounds 215m purchase of Adidas, or face legal action.
Broker jailed
The former South African stockbroker Gregory Blank, convicted last week on 48 counts of fraud, has been jailed for eight years.
Volvo cuts back
Weak demand is forcing Volvo, the Swedish vehicle maker, to halt car production at its Swedish assembly plants over Christmas. Some plants may close permanently.
Steel slashed
Germany's biggest steelmaker, Thyssen, will slash production 25 per cent in the fourth quarter in a bid to stabilise prices.
Perkins deal
Perkins Group, the Peterborough diesel engine maker, has won an order from Chrysler of the US to produce engines for Mexican-built Dodge trucks. The deal is worth dollars 100m ( pounds 58m) over five years.
Giant oil strike
(First Edition)
Saudi Arabia will spend up to dollars 9bn to bring to production a border oilfield that could be one of the biggest in the world. The Shaybah field is expected to produce nearly 500,000 barrels a day by 1997.
M & S cuts rates
(First Edition)
Marks & Spencer is cutting the interest rate on its Chargecard by 3 percentage points from 21 November. The new rate for direct debit is 1.8 per cent a month (23.8 per cent APR). Other cardholders will pay 2 per cent a month (26.8 per cent APR).
World Markets
New York: Best levels were not held but the market was firm in calm trading. By the closethe Dow Jones Average was up 14.04 points at 3,188.45.
Frankfurt: Shares rose in quiet trading. The DAX index closed 17.46 points higher at 1,479.07.
Milan: Share prices closed lower on a technical correction and profit-taking after strong recent gains. The MIB index fell 14 points to 808.
Paris: Optimism on interest rates pushed the CAC-40 index up 14.88 points to 1,679.06.
Johannesburg: The overall index rose 11 points to 2,942.
Hong Kong: Shares soared in late trading on a wave of overseas buying. The Hang Seng index rose 104.58 points to 6,089.91.
Tokyo: On arbitrage-linked selling in thin trading, the Nikkei 225 index closed down 464.00 points at 16,903.81.
Sydney: The All Ordinaries index dipped below a key support level, but recovered to close down 2.2 points at 1,417.6.
London: Report, page 23.
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