European Business News (96-07-08)

European Business News (EBN) Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The European Business News Server at <http://www.ebn.co.uk/>

Page last updated July 8 8:40 CET

CONTENTS

[01] Bertelsmann and CLT set to merge

[02] Swiss unemployment falls to 4.4%

[03] US jobless hits six-year low

[04] Broker points finger at Sumitomo board

[05] Italy annual inflation below four percent

[06] Babcock denies bankruptcy rumours

[07] Italian police probe Philip Morris distributors

[08] Denmark's industrial sales volume drops

[01] Bertelsmann and CLT set to merge

The two media groups are expected to announce today that they finalized plans to combine their television and radio activities. The announcement comes only three days after political agreement was reached in Germany to change the country's media laws to allow such large conglomerates to control TV channels.

On Friday, the prime ministers of Germany's federal states, who regulate the media, decided to lift a long-standing law under which individual companies aren't allowed to own stakes of 50% or more in any TV channel. Under the new law, companies may own all of a channel, but their overall share of the German TV market can't exceed 30%.

[02] Swiss unemployment falls to 4.4%

Some 159,964 persons were registered unemployed in June 1996, and there were 6,388 open positions.

[03] US jobless hits six-year low

The June seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll figure was far better than widely held expectations of a 152,000 increase, and the unemployment rate compared with a projected 5.5%.

U.S. Treasury prices continued to slide early Friday morning as the market absorbs the much stronger than expected rise in June payrolls.

[04] Broker points finger at Sumitomo board

The Financial Times quoted the owners of Winchester Commodities, Charlie Vincent and Ashley Levett, as saying in an interview that several senior officials gave trades the go-ahead and that Hamanaka was not a 'rogue' trader.

Winchester executed many deals for Hamanaka, who was fired by Sumitomo last month and blamed by his former employer for losses of at least 1.8 billion dollars, the paper said.

'I don't believe Mr. Hamanaka was an island, and I don't think you do, do you?' the paper quoted Levett as asking his partner during the interview. 'No, I don't,' Vincent replied.

[05] Italy annual inflation below four percent

The index excluding tobacco is comparable to consumer price data released by Istat prior to January 1996. That month, Istat changed both the categories and the weightings used to calculate the index. The ex-tobacco consumer price data is also that used for many previous Bank of Italy, government and economist forecasts and targets. Market expectations were for a rise in inflation of 3.8%-3.9% rise on the year earlier period and a 0.1%-0.2% increase on the previous month. In May, prices rose 0.4% and 4.3%, respectively. Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 1996 rose 0.5% over the fourth quarter of 1995 and was up a real, or inflation-adjusted 1.5% from the year-earlier period, the national statistics agency Istat reported Friday.

This compares with a preliminary first quarter estimate released in May which forecast that GDP would have increased 0.2% on the earlier quarter and risen 1.2% on the year.

Istat revised fourth quarter data to down 1.1% on the quarter from a 0.9% drop on the quarter. The year on year rise of 2.3% remains the same.

[06] Babcock denies bankruptcy rumours

'There is no crisis over the existence of the company,' a Deutsche Babcock spokeswoman said.

The rumours in German markets Friday have dragged down the company's share price. Babcock shares were trading down after the rumours surfaced.

However, the company said that next week its chairman will meet with representatives from its bank creditors, as planned, to discuss the company's restructuring plan aimed at improving the company's poor financial position.

[07] Italian police probe Philip Morris distributors

Five executives of cigarette-distribution firms were placed under investigation by prosecutors in Naples, one of the centers in Italy for clandestine cigarette traffickers seeking to avoid the mandatory government tax. Philip Morris was not directly implicated in the probe.

[08] Denmark's industrial sales volume drops

However, for the period March-May, industrial sales volume edged 1% higher from the equivalent three-month period last year, added the agency.

From the European Business News (EBN) Server at http://www.ebn.co.uk/

European Business News (EBN) Directory - Previous Article - Next Article