When a very famous man visited, we stood to the side and cheered. I was very envious of the senior boys in their wonderful uniform and jackboots, who joined Mr (Oswald) Mosley, marching down the avenue and saluting.
I guess I was about nine when I went to a school called Taunton in Southampton. I was very good at long-jumping, but academically it was all chemistry and physics, which I seemed unable to absorb.The [Second World] War came, and the school was evacuated to Bournemouth. Now he is also a novelist with `Mike and Gaby’s Space Gospel’
Primary colours: St George’s was a private school, just around the corner from where we lived in Southampton The headmaster must have been a fascist. But paying the bonuses has pushed administration costs up 25 per cent to pounds 4.2bn.. Ken Russell’s films include `Women in Love’, `The Devils’ and `Tommy’, and he has made TV documentaries on Delius, Elgar and, soon, JM Barrie. Holding on to BT’s staff since the takeover has been a priority.
Of Mr Newman he said: “We paid him what he would have earned in five years with us. Of course, it’s a figure higher than one would get in Germany but it’s what he was paid at Bankers Trust.” BT’s chief financial officer Richard Daniels, who also left in June, received pounds 16m, Deutsche said.Buoyant financial markets boosted profits from dealing in equities, bonds, currencies and derivatives, helping trading income to beat forecasts at pounds 1.54bn. Mr Attali, former chairman of Air France, is also the brother of Jack Attali, former head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Deutsche, the world’s largest bank in asset terms following its pounds 5.7bn takeover of Bankers’ Trust, said operating profit rose 19.2 per cent to pounds 1.4bn, in line with market expectations.The bank confirmed that BT’s former chairman Frank Newman, who left the group at the end of June, had received a pay-off of pounds 63m to cover the remainder of his contract, which was set to run out in 2003.Rolf Breuer, Deutsche’s chief executive, said the integration of Bankers’ Trust was firmly on schedule and unharmed by a series of defections from BT in recent months. Bernard Attali was appointed vice-chairman, global investment banking for Europe. Since they are rarely used either, at least on these shores, there is even less purpose in retaining them.. DEUTSCHE BANK paid nearly a billion pounds-worth of bonuses to staff in the first half of this year, and declared its costly push into investment banking a success after reporting an 80 per cent jump in six- monthly trading income The bank is promising similar growth in the rest of 1999.
Moreover, there is no limit on the proportion of BAA shares which may be held collectively overseas, unlike BAe and Rolls-Royce, where the ceiling remains 29.5 per cent.In principle, there is little justification for governments retaining indefinite golden shares, since they merely protect the companies in question from the rigours of open markets. Mario Monti has his eye principally on the French, whom he suspects will wave their golden share in Elf Acquitaine to ensure that the Anglo-Saxons are not allowed to intrude on its takeover tussle with TotalFina.
But BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, has also been caught in Mr Monti’s spotlight. No single shareholder may own more than 15 per cent of BAA without the say so of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. Unless the EC has forgotten, this is 15 per cent more than a private investor can hold in most other airports around Europe. For the record, the answer is fourteen, including shares in British Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and a clutch of electricity companies ranging from British Energy to the National Grid. Their main purpose is to prevent anyone the Government deems inappropriate – in other words foreign – from acquiring the company in question.
The reason for the sudden bout of renewed interest is the latest pronouncement from Brussels, declaring that some golden shares constitute a breach of EU law guaranteeing free movement of capital. They have lain neglected in cupboards for so long that the Treasury had trouble initially recalling how many it still owned. THAT SOUND of rattling in Whitehall yesterday was the Government dusting off its collection of golden shares in privatised industries. But if he can’t find a use for his cash soon, he may find that one of the bigger boys in the sector will gobble Cadbury up as its mid-morning snack.. Unfortunately, it is not clear these businesses are up for sale, or that Cadbury could afford the price.Mr Sunderland has proved a patient, reliable pair of hands so far.
A deal to buy Lindt of Switzerland, Ferrero of Italy or Suchard, part of Philip Morris, would put Cadbury in the premier league. Mr Sunderland admits he is looking.Chocolate is a surprisingly fragmented market when viewed from a global perspective, with even Nestle, the market leader, accounting for only 11 per cent, followed by Mars with 9 per cent Cadbury has 6.5 per cent. Fortunately, these businesses do have their redeeming features – they throw off huge amounts of cash More likely, then, is a confectionery deal. Germany has slumped into loss, hit by the Russian crisis, the French market has declined and the UK stronghold was hit by de-stocking by wholesalers.What should Mr Sunderland do? One option would be to pull out of beverages completely, but the only likely buyers are Coke and Pepsi, and the regulators would never wear it.