The fixed operators pass on this cost to consumers though higher phone bills. A spokesman for BT said: “A reduction in the cost of calls to mobiles is something BT has consistently argued for.” The average BT customer spends £13 a quarter calling mobiles.Gavin Patterson, managing director of Telewest Broadband, said: “How on earth are consumers supposed to know what to believe when the whole fixed to mobile situation is such a muddle?”The problem has been created by new European laws that will come into effect on 25 July. This will strip telecoms regulators of certain powers – in the case of Britain’s Oftel, its ability to enforce price cuts.Brussels is also planning to introduce rules to force operators to cut termination charges. But Britain’s mobile operators plan to lobby for these rules to be dropped.A spokesman for T-Mobile said: “It’s ironic we are having to look to Europe for the true nature of competition when Britain has the most competitive mobile market in Europe.”Headed by David Edmonds, Oftel is thought to be livid about the plans to cut call charges for just a day and may propose an amendment to the Communications Bill. A spokes- woman said: “We would expect operators to conform with the spirit of the Competition Com- mission recommendations.”. Granada and Nomura made £651m out of a deal that lost German bank WestLB £300m, prompted a regulatory investigation and has left star banker Robin Saunders in hot water. WestLB then refinanced this deal with a £750m bond issue.Boxclever’s disappointing performance, allied to the need to invest £20m in its fast- growing service subsidiary Endeva, has meant it is unable to meet debt repayments and is having to restructure its finances.

This is leading to a write-off for WestLB of around £300m.However, The Independent on Sunday has learnt that while WestLB is losing out, Boxclever’s shareholders are making hay. Granada, which owns 60 per cent of the company, has taken £511m in cash out of the business thanks to the deal it struck with WestLB on Boxclever.And Nomura, whose principal finance group was the model for Ms Saunders’ business, made £140m profit from the Boxclever transaction.”WestLB was very aggressive and made some pretty aggressive assumptions,” said a source close to the deal.Ms Saunders has said the transaction was not her responsibility, blaming two bankers who have since left WestLB. But a recent PR statement cites Boxclever as one of her successful transactions.The Thing Is: Robin Saunders and Guy HandsThe City’s two most celebrated rainmakers are experiencing a dry patch. Hyped for their deal daring and ability to wring millions of pounds out of stodgy old businesses, both Robin Saunders and Guy Hands are this weekend sweating over plans to save their reputations and their deals.Ms Saunders is head of German bank WestLB’s principal finance division, where she has earned a reputation for taking on high-profile and often difficult deals, such as the rescue of Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One bond and Philip Green’s acquisition of Bhs.

But her profile, and the many millions she has made for herself and her team of 35 bankers, has rattled the top brass at WestLB, which is owned by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Ms Saunders is reputed to earn more than £1m a year, which is said to cause friction among German bank managers, who tend to earn no more than around €100,000 (£71,000) a year.On Friday WestLB admitted it had launched an internal investigation into Ms Saunders’ activities after the bank reported a pre-tax loss of €1.67bn. The German regulator is also investigating.Asked on Friday about Ms Saunders, WestLB chief executive Juergen Sengera, did little to dampen speculation “You asked [about my] support for Robin Saunders,” he said. “There I think we should be fair to all and we should also wait for the result of the investigation.”Most of the problems stem from Boxclever, the company created by the merger of Thorn Rentals – owned by Nomura – and Granada Rentals.

WestLB financed the merger and then refinanced the business in early 2002, lending some £860m in a securitisation (raising debt secured on future revenues).To try to develop income flow, Boxclever spun off its service side into a new company, Endeva. This has been winning business and needs to invest £20m in new vans, staff, offices etc, but because Boxclever is not so clever, there is no spare cash to go to Endeva. The resulting cashflow crisis has led to renegotiations with WestLB. The bank will next week agree to accept lower annual payments from Boxclever.The debt market is starting to gossip about WestLB’s strategy. Its gung-ho deals work only if the risk of taking on both equity and debt is spread via securitisation with other investors.