Tuesday newspaper round-up: Railtrack, Premier Farnell, Somerfield

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Date: Tuesday 05 Jul 2005

LONDON (ShareCast) - The Office for National Statistics is resisting attempts to force it to disclose key documents that could help 49,000 former Railtrack shareholders to prove their claim against the Government, reports the Times.

The department has refused to disclose documents relating to its classification of the proposed “company limited by guarantee [CLG]”, which formed the basis of Network Rail.

A hearing to determine whether the ONS will have to submit the documents, which could reveal the full extent of Treasury pressure on the ONS, will take place this week, according to legal sources.

John Hirst was last night ousted as chief executive of struggling electronic and industrial parts distributor Premier Farnell, says the Telegraph.

The company issued a statement after the close of trading saying Mr Hirst had resigned his position but added: "The board decided that it is now in the interest of shareholders to seek a new chief executive to drive the business."

BAA is to spend more than £3bn upgrading Heathrow over the next ten years. The spending is part of a drive to modernise the world’s busiest international airport and will include the cost of expanding Terminal 3 for the giant Airbus A380, the Tiems reports.

The bid approach for Somerfield, the UK supermarket group, hung in the balance Monday night as fraud charges against executives of Baugur prompted other members of the four-company consortium to threaten to pull out, says the FT.

The Times adds that the fraud charges against Jon Asgeir Johannesson, the chief executive of Baugur, are believed partly to relate to the purchase of shares in Arcadia.

Rebel shareholders at Abraxus Investments, the Aim-listed property company, have failed to unseat the board at a heated extraordinary meeting, says the Telegraph.

The prospect of a cut in interest rates this week faded yesterday after figures showed the slowdown in retail sales had not yet contaminated the booming services sector, write the Independent.

Britain’s largest insurers have almost £27bn more than they need to cover their promises to with-profits policyholders, figures showed for the first time yesterday, reports the Times.

The amount that insurers set aside in excess of their liabilities rose 16% in the second half of 2004 as stock markets improved, the Financial Services Authority) said

The announcement was the first time since introducing “realistic reporting” that the watchdog had spelt out how easily insurers could meet their obligations.


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