The minutes, published yesterday, revealed that the only question about base rates was when to raise them, not whether. A spokesman for the Department of Transport said official announcements about the progress of negotiations were unlikely.. The economic landscape has changed quite dramatically during the past few weeks. The Anglo-US bilateral agreement allows only American Airlines and United Airlines to serve Heathrow from New York.It is also thought the US side is willing to relax its “fly America” policy, whereby government employees cannot use UK airlines on official business.The London talks are expected to take several days.

But, as talks re-opened yesterday, one source said there was optimism about a US change of heart.
He said US negotiators were demanding that United Airlines be allowed to fly from Chicago to Heathrow, a far cry from 1993 when they called for greater access for all America’s operators.”We will make more headway with this sort of step by step approach than with blanket demands,” he said.Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport, is regarded by US airlines as the gateway to Europe. Negotiations on access to London’s Heathrow and US domestic airports broke down in acrimony in 1993. Attempts to settle a three-year Anglo-American row over transatlantic airline rights appeared to have reached a breakthrough after US negotiators reduced their demands last night. The remaining shares will continue to be held by independent shareholders. Repubblica International and Espresso International, the Italian shareholders, will sell their 20 per cent stake to Mirror Group and Independent Newspapers.
The new NP board will give Mirror Group and Independent Newspapers three members each. Prisa will appoint two members; two independent non-executives, including current board member Andreas Whittam Smith, founder and former editor of the Independent, will also be appointed.The three big shareholders will subscribe £20m in new equity, with Mirror Group and Independent Newspapers each contributing £9m and Prisa £2m.Liam Healy, chief executive of Independent Newspapers, will be the company’s new chairman and Sir Gordon Borrie, a non-executive director of Mirror Group and a former director-general of the Office of Fair Trading, will become deputy-chairman.Mirror Group will take over the management of NP under the terms of a new management services agreement linked to a new business plan..

Under the agreement in principle, Mirror Group and Independent Newspapers, the publishing group controlled by Tony O’Reilly, will each take a 43 per cent stake in NP, while Prisa, the Spanish-based publishers of El Pais, will see its holding drop to 12 from 18 per cent. Some industry observers say the performance of its shares was hit by a sharp drop in the Dow just after trading began in New York, and a rush of shares back to the UK.Mr Galteau insisted General Cable had much to differentiate it from the rest of the sector. “We are market-led and the greatest market opportunities are in telecommunications.”. Newspaper Publishing, publisher of the Independent and the Independent on Sunday, last night announced changes in its ownership structure and a refinancing plan aimed at ensuring “the future financing and management” of its titles. Shares in Telewest, which raised about £360m in November, are below the offer price of 182p.

However, one said the expected pricing of the offer appeared to value the company relatively highly compared with Telewest and with Videotron, a UK cable company seeking a Nasdaq listing. The business telephone network in Yorkshire will be finished in 1997.City analysts said General Cable was well respected and had attractive assets. The money raised will be used to help fund completion of the networks and to pay off £92m of debt.Mr Galteau said the company was on the look-out for expansion opportunities but he denied plans to buy out existing partners, including Telewest, Comcast and Singapore Cable.Of the existing franchises, the Cable Corporation and Birmingham Cable have completed about half their networks and are operating cashflow-positive.Yorkshire Cable, the third-largest group of regional franchises, is only 18 per cent built and will not be complete until 2001. Trading in the shares is expected to begin on 20 April.General Cable has interests in Yorkshire Cable, Birmingham Cable Communications and The Cable Corporation in the west London area and beyond The franchises cover 1.7 million homes. Lazard Brothers has been appointed as global co-ordinators with NatWest Securities acting as joint local managers in Britain.

The offer represents 35 per cent of the company’s share capital and will leave CGE with 58 per cent of the enlarged group.The share price will be set by a process of bidding among international institutions but is expected to be between 220p and 255p. General Cable, the French-owned UK cable group, is to raise up to £230m through an international share offer, valuing the company at between £557m and £646m. The group is the second after Telewest to seek a listing in London and will be quickly followed by Nynex, which is expected to float at the end of April or early May, and by Bell Cablemedia later this year.
Philippe Galteau, managing director of General Cable, said: “We believe we are the highest quality investment in a rapidly growing industry.” He cited General Cable’s emphasis on telephony rather than television, and its focus on businesses and other “high-quality” customers.General Cable, which is owned by Compagnie General des Eaux, plans to list its shares in London and on the Nasdaq exchange in the US. A hot tip in the City yesterday was Rosalind Gilmore, who recently joined Lloyds to head its regulatory service, from the Building Society Commission.. The motto this time is better get it right than get it fast,” said one source.While there are several internal candidates from the Bank of England, notably Mervyn King, chief economist, and Pen Kent, its chief of financial infrastructure, the focus of the discussions was on possible outsiders. “Once we have some real names in the frame, chaps will talk to chaps in the best British way. Because Mr Pennant-Rea, who resigned over an affair with a journalist, is not allowed under the terms of his former employment to take another job for three months, the Bank decided to pay him for this period, as a proportion of his £180,000-a-year salary.Nobody has been approached yet for the job, sources confirmed yesterday, as the discussions have only just begun among the key centres in the selection process.Number 10 will be putting forward its short-list, as will the Treasury and Eddie George, Governor of the Bank of England.