Vodafone is understood to have sold 225,000 phones in November alone, regaining the lead in the industry from its main rival, Cellnet, which is thought to have attracted 190,000 new users.Orange and One2One are each estimated to have signed up 100,000 new customers, taking the total number of phones sold since the end of September to comfortably above the 1 million level. TWO MILLION new mobile phone users are set to sign up in the current quarter, making it the industry’s most successful ever. Confidential industry figures for November show that sales are running well ahead of the most optimistic forecasts, even before the crucial Christmas selling season has got into full swing.
The main beneficiaries of the bonanza are the country’s two largest operators, Vodafone and Cellnet. The financial services arm rests on distribution through the Hambros Countrywide estate agency network.Countrywide’s new insurance business has grown rapidly, but the two separated divisions could secure their flow of business if necessary with a marketing agreement, according to the proposal.The statement noted that Countrywide Assured is valued at 8.5-times earnings, or nearly pounds 400m, compared to a multiple of 23.1 for comparable insurance companies.”The creation of two separate businesses will, we believe, give the market the transparency it needs to achieve the right valuation,” it said.John Mansfield Group, the bidding vehicle of Mr Treger and Mr Myerson, launched a hostile takeover bid for Marley, the building materials group, at the end of last month.The bid was withdrawn last week after a higher offer was accepted from the Belgian building materials group Etex..
In a statement issued at the weekend, Mr Treger called on the management of Countrywide Assured, which is valued at pounds 379m, to announce a pounds 50m share buyback, to be funded by borrowing as the company has a “minimal” level of debt.
He also urged the separation of the life insurance and financial services divisions in order to improve valuation. THE CORPORATE raiders Julian Treger and Brian Myerson are seeking to force the break-up of Countrywide Assured Group into separate life insurance and financial services businesses after taking a 4.5 per cent stake in the company through their UK active Value Fund. However, it already owes $4.1bn in foreign debt, and about a third of government revenue has to be spent on debt interest.In a new report Oxfam calls for an immediate stop to all debt interest payments by the two countries, and proposes how that could be done.The aid organisation would also like to see an extension of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s existing debt relief programme for any other country which might suffer a natural disaster.Many campaigners are highly critical of the existing programme and some, such as Jubilee 2000, want to see all third-world debt written off.. The latter, the worst affected, estimates its bill for post-hurricane reconstruction could be $2bn. NICARAGUA AND Honduras are likely to be able to stop paying interest on their debts to rich country governments in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch. A meeting in Paris on Wednesday is expected to agree to a moratorium on debt servicing, although it will not go as far as campaigners would like and cancel the debts.
The so-called “Paris club” of rich countries will back an agreement by European finance ministers to suspend interest payments by the two afflicted nations.However, parallel concessions are not expected from a separate meeting of multilateral agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and Inter- American Development Bank in Washington later this week.Campaigners such as Oxfam and Christian Aid are urging the international community to speed up debt cancellation for Nicaragua and Honduras.
Brazil’s market is particularly attractive, not only because of the country’s economic importance, but also because it has only 10 telephone lines per 100 people, compared with about 17 in Argentina and 52 in Britain.. If successful in the bid, due this week, the $1bn consortium would compete with the privatised national operator Telebras. The Grid has chalked up a success with Energis, its UK telecommunications subsidiary, and is keen to expand internationally in both telecommunications and electricity. In the increasingly competitive postal market some of its European rivals have far greater commercial flexibility.. THE NATIONAL GRID is in talks with Sprint, the US telecoms operator, on a joint bid to run a Brazilian telephone network. The Post Office monopoly over domestic mail costing less than pounds 1 is to be diluted, with a big reduction in that ceiling. It may also lose its lucrative monopoly over direct mail, due to be abolished by 2003 under EU rules.
The Post Office is likely to be disappointed, as it had lobbied for partial privatisation in order to be able to borrow more with its borrowings taken off the public sector balance sheet. PETER MANDELSON, the Trade and Industry Secretary, is expected to announce greater commercial freedom for the Post Office today, but will stop short of a government share sale. The report, by the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee, is expected to lay much of
the blame on the block exemption car makers enjoy, allowing them to control which dealers sell their cars and on what terms.
The Office of Fair Trading is conducting a separate investigation into the car industry, which is focusing on the use of recommended resale prices and extent to which private buyers are subsidising the big fleets who purchase cars at discounts of up to 40 per cent.. THE CAR INDUSTRY will be heavily criticised in a report by MPs tomorrow claiming that British prices are up to 40 per cent higher than for equivalent models sold on the Continent. It is likely to be floated within two years and Giles Thorley, Unique’s chief executive, said a valuation of more than pounds 1bn was expected.It also has some 1,100 pubs outside this new division.. But last week, in a move designed to raise the profile of the businesses it now owns, Nomura announced the creation of its Unique Pub Company, a vehicle for earlier acquisitions.This already has 2,600 tenanted pubs, expected to make an operating profit of more than pounds 80m this year.
It is the latest in a series of disposals taking the group away from its brewing past towards a broader series of leisure businesses. It is also the latest in a series of consolidation deals in the pubs sector.Guy Hands, managing director of Nomura’s principal finance unit, earlier this year ruled out new investments. But despite the interest, some analysts were concerned that it would not easily find a buyer.The disposal will nearly wipe out Greenall’s borrowings, allowing it to increase investment in its De Vere hotels and Village Leisure health and fitness chain. The pounds 375m deal for the sale of the tenanted or franchised Inn Partnership is due to be announced on Wednesday with Greenall’s results for the year to September.
Inn Partnership had sales of pounds 111m in the year to September 1997, and made operating profits of pounds 38.9m.The price tag is somewhat below the informal pounds 400m-plus initially sought by Greenalls in October, reflecting concernsabout a slowdown in business.Other potential buyers had included Charterhouse Development Capital and Greene King. GREENALLS WILL this week sell off 1,400 pubs to Nomura, the Japanese bank and Britain’s biggest pub landlord, writes Diane Coyle. To which Cantona replied, in effect: “He hit me first.”Mookie is expected to appear, in dubbed and sub-titled versions, in British cinemas in the middle of next year..
