LIT close to sale of US operation

LIT Holdings, the financial services group, is close to agreeing the sale of its US futures and options clearing subsidiary to Spear Leeds & Kellogg, writes Paul Durman.

The sale of LIT America was first considered three years ago, shortly after the group suffered heavy losses in its Chicago options trading business. At the end of 1991, LIT America accounted for pounds 33m of the pounds 40m deployed in LIT's businesses.

The sale will leave LIT with Johnson Fry, the financial adviser best known for its sponsorship of business expansion schemes, which are to be abolished at the end of the year.

Paul Gildersleeves, LIT's company secretary, said Johnson Fry was having 'a very good last BES run' and that BES business represented only 26 per cent of its turnover.