European Business News (EBN), 97-05-07

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CONTENTS

[01] Unilever sells speciality chemicals unit to ICI for $8 billion

[02] Alcatel joins Dassault to bid against BAe and Lagardere for Thomson

[03] AGF seeks GAN's insurance business to beef up operations

[04] DASA says Airbus had 1996 net profit of $411 million

[05] Lufthansa swings to a profit for the first quarter

[06] BSkyB confirms digital joint venture with BT

[07] Blair woos UK business leaders by giving BP Chairman ministerial post

[08] U.K. output drops as exports begin to show effect of strong pound

[09] U.S. wholesale sales fall 0.9% to lowest level since last August

[10] Renault insists Vilvoorde closure is an economic necessity

[11] SAP board denies allegations of insider trading

[12] Merita posts steep rise in first-quarter profit

[13] Vereinsbank shows 19% earnings gain in first quarter

[14] Bayer prepares for 'tainted blood' AIDS pay-out

[15] Sainsbury's profit drops despite increased sales

[16] Corporate and Economic Briefs

[01] Unilever sells speciality chemicals unit to ICI for $8 billion

The move by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant, would be part of a massive restructuring of the company to concentrate on its core consumer-products businesses.

In February, FitzGerald said proceeds from the sale of the chemicals business will allow Unilever to grow by investing in faster-growing parts of its businesses, especially in developing and emerging markets. He added that the company would also use the cash to clear its $2.78 billion debt, and may also make an acquisition.

Unilever has said it could shed up to 20% of the company's businesses. Proceeds could be used to beef up its food business in the US, observers believe.

Unilever's chemical business is a $4.8 billion revenue business spanning 35 countries with more than 15,000 employees. Industry executives say that there was heated bidding from many chemicals companies world-wide, including many U.S. bidders.

The biggest division, National Starch & Chemicals, has annual sales of $2.5 billion, or about 52% of the total revenue of the business. It is one of the world's leading producers of industrial adhesives.

Unilever has been refashioning its portfolio in the past year or so. It sold 23 businesses last year with sales of $650 million, and purchased new brands for a total of $1.99 billion, with sales of $2.65 billion.

But the chemicals business is by far its biggest sale yet. In February, the company said it retained Lazard Freres to sell the company.

Bidders were told recently that the deadlines for so-called due diligence had been delayed, raising suspicion that a bidder had pre-empted the auction.

[02] Alcatel joins Dassault to bid against BAe and Lagardere for Thomson

A Franco-German alliance of Alcatel and Dassault has put its hat in the ring along with France's Lagardere, while on the sidelines Britain's GEC has signed memoranda of understanding with both bidders, which would lead to a link-up with Thomson after the privatisation. And British Aerospace has joined the battle, putting £300 million towards Lagardere's bid, with a view to taking control of Thomson's naval systems if the bid is successful.

Lagardere filed its final offer for French defence group Thomson-CSF saying it had the necessary finances for the acquisition and an eventual public offer to buy out Thomson-CSF's minority shareholders if its bid succeeded.

Alcatel is also linking up with German defence company Dassault to submit a bid. If successful it could establish a strategic and economic link with the future Aerospatiale/Dassault Aviation, confirming their mutual position in the large civil and military programmes.

The first stage of the project would allow the regrouping in Thomson-CSF only of the main part of the space/defence electronics activities entirely controlled by French companies - a regrouping already achieved in numerous countries, the companies said.

An attempt to sell the whole Thomson electronics group floundered last year when the independent privatisation commission rejected the sale of parent company Thomson to missiles-to-publishing conglomerate Lagardere for a symbolic one franc.

The French Finance Ministry deadline for the formal bids was 1000 GMT today.

In a separate but related development Germany's Daimler-Benz, Aerospace and France's Lagardere have reached a strategic co-operation agreement covering missiles, space and defence electronics.

In a statement issued by DASA's Munich headquarters, the two companies said DASA would offer its 'total and unconditional support' for Lagardere's bid to buy Thomson-CSF, which is being offered for privatisation in France.

[03] AGF seeks GAN's insurance business to beef up operations

'AGF is definitely interested in buying GAN's insurance operations,' said a spokesman for AGF, ending months of speculation about the intentions of France's No. 2 insurer.

Shares of Groupe GAN were up 2.49% at 140 francs by mid-afternoon against an overall flat market. Assurances Generales de France was off 0.52% at 190.60 francs.

Axa's takeover last year of UAP , France's biggest insurer - creating the world's second largest insurer - has put strong pressure on AGF to boost its its position domestically.

An official account of testimony by AGF chairman Antoine Jeancourt- Galignani to a Senate hearing last month said he made a strong pitch for AGF to take over GAN. Without GAN, 'he would not give much for AGF's independence within two or three years', the Senate record said.

AGF, privatised last year, said it would not be interested in GAN's beleaguered UIC property lending arm or its CIC regional banking network, which the centre-right government will sell separately.

The government plans to pump 20 billion francs ($3.4 billion) into GAN, forced to take repeated provisions to cover massive property losses, mainly at UIC, to ready it for sale this year.

GAN, badly hit by France's long-running property slump as well as by an ill- fated policy of cutting insurance premiums, reported a 5.7 billion franc loss for 1996, up from 1.79 billion the previous year.

AGF's 1996 profits rose 42% to 1.54 billion francs. Jeancourt-Galignani said at the time of AGF's results announcement that GAN 'management had made a very complete inventory of the losses and problems of GAN' and that GAN could look forward to a future as a 'normal player' in the insurance sector.

Moves to privatise GAN have been put on hold by the two-round French parliamentary election to be held May 25 and June 1 but a source said there was a lot of behind the scenes activity involving the Treasury, AGF and GAN.

[04] DASA says Airbus had 1996 net profit of $411 million

Daimler-Benz Aerospace said it issued the figures - in effect breaking a 27- year code of silence - in order to make its accounts clearer as part of Daimler-Benz's recent complete switch to US-based accounting procedures. That move follows the parent company's listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Although Airbus has long published data on airplane orders and revenue, it has fiercely resisted issuing any report on profits or losses.

A spokeswoman for the consortium declined comment on the numbers issued by DASA. She said that Airbus Industrie officials hadn't been authorized by the partner companies to release or comment on any such information.

In a revised version of its annual report, DASA said that Airbus Industrie of Toulouse, France - as distinct from separate Airbus-related units of the four partner companies - also had 1996 revenue of 13.35 billion marks and that earnings amounted to a 5.3% return on revenue.

The report said that the consortium's profit and revenue were both down from 1995 levels of 855 million marks and 13.9 billion marks, respectively.

The Airbus revenue trends issued by DASA, showing a decrease from 1995 to 1996, are in line with figures published by the consortium in January. Airbus said then that 1996 revenue totalled $8.8 billion, down from $9.6 billion in 1995 because fewer expensive widebody jets were delivered last year.

It's unclear, however, whether DASA and Airbus used similar exchange-rate procedures in a year in which the dollar strengthened significantly against European currencies.

The DASA spokeswoman said that some of the Airbus Industrie earnings would be translated into DASA operating profits, so it was felt important to list the numbers 'in order to make everything more transparent' under DASA's new accounting procedures.

The DASA report also said that DASA's Hamburg-based unit, Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus, posted 1996 net profit of 1.4 billion marks following a severe cost-cutting exercise. It posted a loss of 371 million marks the previous year.

[05] Lufthansa swings to a profit for the first quarter

The company reported first quarter pretax profit of 20 million Deutsche marks ($11.6 million) compared with a loss of 49 million marks in the year- ago period. The airline typically posts a loss for the January through March period due to seasonal air travel factors.

The results led the German flagship air carrier to hope for clearly higher profits for the full year 1997 than it did in the previous business year.

'The year 1997 has started well for Lufthansa. If we manage to maintain the momentum of the first quarter, we ought to succeed in generating a markedly higher profit in 1997 than we did in 1996,' the group's chief financial officer Klaus Schlede said.

Last year Lufthansa reported profits from ordinary activities of 686 million marks ($397.9 million), down 9.3% from 756 million marks in 1995.

Lufthansa also announced it will pay an unchanged 50-pfennig dividend for 1996 on its 5 mark nominal value shares.

[06] BSkyB confirms digital joint venture with BT

The venture, called British Interactive Broadcasting Ltd., will see BT and BSkyB each hold 32.5% stakes, while Midland Bank will own a 20% share and Matsushita Electric Industrial will hold 15%.

Sky also announced its latest profit figures. SkyB said third quarter pretax profit rose 15% to £81.6 million ($51 million) as sales advanced 20% to £327.5 million.

BSkyB confirmed that it has pushed back the launch date for digital satellite services from late 1997 to the spring of 1998. Interactive services will start later in the year.

The company confirmed that it has placed orders for one million set top boxes with four manufacturers: Amstrad Group, Grundig/Hyundai, Matsushita and Pace Micro-Technology.

[07] Blair woos UK business leaders by giving BP Chairman ministerial post

The appointment will enforce Mr Blair's attempts to build links with the business community. It may also silence critics who said that other ministers at the Department of Trade and Industry, such as Margaret Beckett, the trade and industry secretary, lack ministerial and commercial experience.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement, 'Sir David Simon is one of Britain's most distinguished businessmen. He has led BP with distinction and has deservedly been businessman of the year for the past two years. I am absolutely delighted he has decided to join my government.'

The government confirmed that Simon would be given a life peerage to allow him to sit in the House of Lords, the upper parliamentary chamber.

Simon will be replaced as BP non-executive chairman by Peter Sutherland, who is currently BP deputy chairman and also chairman of Goldman Sachs International, the company said.

The government said in a statement that Simon would serve as a minister of state in both the Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Simon will chair an inter-departmental task force on competitiveness in Europe to focus on implementing the new Labour government's aims of completing the single market and promoting flexible labour markets in the European Union.

[08] U.K. output drops as exports begin to show effect of strong pound

Analyst Robin Marshall of Chase Investment said of the figures: 'They are certainly weak and they confirm that sterling's strength is almost certainly beginning to impact on exports.'

The ONS report comes on the same day that a number of U.K. companies report earnings hit by the pound's strength.

Marshall expected the Bank of England to further increase interest rates after the quarter point rise to 6.25% announced by new Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown on Tuesday.

Manufacturing output, which excludes volatile oil and gas extraction, also fell 0.1% on the month. On the year, manufacturing output was 1.4% higher than the same month a year earlier.

Paul Turnbull of Merrill Lynch said the figures showed evidence of a pick- up in consumer demand and added: 'I think rates may need to go to around seven percent by the end of this year.'

Shares in London climbed further into record territory after the output figures were announced and government bonds were firm.

The output figures were weaker than forecast by economists. The consensus was for manufacturing output to rise 0.3% on the month and 1.9% on the year, with total industrial production seen rising 0.5% on the month and 1.4% on the year.

The ONS regards three-monthly data as a better guide to underlying trends than the monthly figures, which are more volatile.

Manufacturing output was 0.6% higher in the first quarter than the fourth quarter and 1.6% higher than the same first quarter of 1996. Industrial output rose 0.1% on the quarter and 1.4% on the year.

Output of durable goods rose 0.7% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter, while non-durable goods rose 0.9%. Production of investment goods rose by 1.7%, while intermediate goods fell by 0.9%.

Besides manufacturing, two energy sectors contribute to total U.K. industrial production.

[09] U.S. wholesale sales fall 0.9% to lowest level since last August

The Commerce Department said seasonally adjusted March sales of U.S. merchant wholesalers fell 0.9%, while inventories rose 0.7%, the Commerce Department said.

The decline in wholesale sales to $209.88 billion followed an unrevised 2.1% increase in February. The March drop in wholesale sales was the largest since a 1.2% decline in August 1996.

The increase in inventories to $259.89 billion followed a revised 0.1% rise in February. The February increase previously was reported as up 0.2%.

Compared to a year earlier, March wholesale sales were up 6.4%, while inventories were up 2.3%.

The inventory-to-sales ratio recovered slightly to 1.24 months supply from 1.22 months in February. Low inventory levels relative to sales suggest that manufacturers have room to boost production to build stocks.

March sales of durable goods fell 1.7% to $106.72 billion, and were up 2.4% from a year ago. Sales of non-durable goods fell 0.1% to $103.16 billion, and were up 2.1% from a year ago.

Sales of machinery, equipment and supplies fell 6.2%, metals and minerals, excepting petroleum sales, decreased 4.8%, and furniture fell 4.7%.

Sales of motor vehicles and auto equipment rose 0.5%, while hardware sales increased 0.4%.

With the release of the March wholesale sales report, the Commerce Department has updated the list of 3,800 businesses it surveys based on the results of the 1992 Census of Wholesale Trade.

The updated sample, as well as design changes in the survey are expected produce more accurate data and lessen revisions.

[10] Renault insists Vilvoorde closure is an economic necessity

Renault, however, pledged to continue with the shutdown of the plant. The company appealed against a ruling from another court, which said the car maker had not followed proper procedures in arriving at its decision to close Vilvoorde. Renault's closure announcement sparked widespread demonstrations earlier this year.

Renault will convene its European group works council this month to discuss the planned closure of the Vilvoorde assembly plant 'which continues to be an industrial and economic necessity'.

But Renault said in a statement that an appeals court in Versailles 'confirmed that there was no requirement for prior notice to be given to the Renault European group works council to implement the closure of the Vilvoorde plant'.

'However, the court of appeal deemed it necessary for the European Group Works Council to be reconvened to examine information on the reasons and repercussions of the closure,' the statement said.

'Renault intends therefore to go ahead with the procedure concerning the closure of the Vilvoorde plant which continues to be an industrial and economic necessity,' it said.

A spokesman said the European Group Works Council would be convened this month and the closure could still occur before July 31 - the date initially given by the company when it announced the shutdown on February 27.

Renault has said it could delay the closure by weeks or even months but the shutdown is crucial to the reorganisation of its European manufacturing operations. It reported a 5.25 billion franc ($902.5 million) loss for 1996, including 3.9 billion in charges, mostly for the Vilvoorde closure.

Unions cheered Wednesday's appeals court ruling. They have said they hope to use procedural delays to block the closure of the plant, which employs 3, 100 people.

[11] SAP board denies allegations of insider trading

'Every member of the management and supervisory boards has signed a document stating that they at no time used insider information in trading SAP shares or derivatives, nor did they pass on insider information to third parties, except in the line of company business,' supervisory board Chairman Bernd Thiemann said.

An extraordinary supervisory board meeting was called following weekend revelations that more than 100 people, including members of both the company's boards, are being investigated on suspicion of insider trading in SAP shares.

Thiemann said SAP will do everything in its power to expedite the investigation by Germany's Federal Supervisory Office For Securities Trading and the Frankfurt state prosecutors office.

Chief Executive Officer Dietmar Hopp said the huge public interest in the investigation 'is likely to have caused major financial damage.'

But Hopp repeated earlier assertions that he saw no reason to doubt the dependability and discretion of workers with access to sensitive figures who had signed written pledges to abide by Germany's 1994 insider trading law.

[12] Merita posts steep rise in first-quarter profit

The improvement was mainly due to lower expenses and a marked rise in net income from securities trading due to successful operations in the financial markets, Merita said. Income from securities trading multiplied 35% to 854m markkaa.

Net income from financial operations and commission income was largely unchanged from the first quarter 1996. Income from financial operations was damped by 'persistently subdued loan demand' and amounted to 1.01 billion markkaa compared with 1.02 billion markkaa a year earlier. Interest income fell to 2.92 billion markkaa from 3.42 billion markkaa.

The group's funding costs were reduced by a substantial drop in non- performing receivables, and also by a decrease in equity investments. Personnel expenses fell to 669 million markkaa from 797 million markkaa, while other expenses dropped to 630 million markkaa from 661 million markkaa.

Merita was created at the end of 1995 when Finland's two largest commercial banks, Kansallis and Unitas, merged. Last year, Merita reduced its personnel by 1,500 people, cutting personnel costs by more than 400 million markkaa (dlrs 78 million).

Merita employed 12,500 people in its banking operations at the end of March, having reduced its staff by a further 700 since the end of 1996.

[13] Vereinsbank shows 19% earnings gain in first quarter

The bank also said it expects operating profit before risk provisions to rise 10% for the full year. In the quarter, operating profit rose to 614.7 million Deutsche marks ($361.6 million) from the year earlier.

Chief executive Albrecht Schmidt told the banks' annual shareholder meeting that Vereinsbank was subjecting itself to an efficiency test and planned to slim down its administrative staffing.

A spokesman said the bank had the potential to shed 1,600 jobs through rationalisation and restructuring but that it planned to hire 800 sales staff. Vereinsbank employed 21,825 people at the end of 1996 of whom about 20,000 were in Germany.

The bank, one of Germany's largest commercial banks, also said it plans to raise its return on equity after tax to 11% in 1998 from 8.6% in 1996. Schmidt said the bank also aimed to strengthen its position in the market for real estate finance and planned to increase its share of the market for private residential construction finance to 15% from 6%. He did not specify a time period.

The first-quarter performance was helped by a broad-based improvement in trading income, which nearly doubled from a year ago to 98 million marks. Another positive factor was a 17% rise in net commission income from a year earlier to 351.7 million marks.

Also, Schmidt pointed to the fact that the bank's core mortgage-lending business had almost matched the extraordinarily strong first quarter posted in 1996. He said approvals for private mortgage loans fell only 0.8% from a year earlier to some 8 billion marks.

[14] Bayer prepares for 'tainted blood' AIDS pay-out

Bayer spokeswoman Christina Sehnert confirmed Bayer was close to agreement on the AIDS cases, in which three other companies also are involved.

Bayer, Baxter International, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Alpha Therapeutics already had reached agreement in April 1996 to settle with some 6,200 U.S. AIDS victims or their survivors for $100,000 each.

But the settlements were held up as the U.S. government and several states, including New Jersey, sought reimbursement for medical bills incurred treating haemophiliacs with AIDS.

Ms. Sehnert said that agreements were near on legal costs as well as with the states and federal government on medical costs.

Last year's agreement alone will cost the four companies some $600 million, with Bayer's share close to $270 million. The companies also offered $12 million for medical care of the patients.

[15] Sainsbury's profit drops despite increased sales

Chairman David Sainsbury said that higher costs and a petrol price war had hit the year's profits but added that 'in the year ahead we are focused on sustaining higher sales momentum and translating this into satisfactory profit growth.'

In the first seven weeks of the current year, Sainsbury supermarkets' sales have increased 8.4% with same-store sales growth of 4.2%, including gasoline. Sales inflation, or price growth, has averaged 1.5% over this period and isn't seen rising further in the first half, the company said.

Once the pre-eminent leader of British supermarkets, Sainsbury has seen itself buried in recent years by competitors like Asda, Safeway and particularly Tesco, which now claims the greatest market share.

'The most important point in this statement is that the tide has turned for the supermarket business,' said Dino Adriano, chief executive of U.K. food retailing, in an interview with Dow Jones.

'Like-for-like (same store) sales have come through in a stomping way,' he said.

During the past several months, Sainsbury supermarkets have gained market share, outperforming the industry's standard measure, he said.

Adriano attributed improved sales largely to the company's customer loyalty card, which now accounts for 80% of all sales, and improved product availability.

The company said in its supermarkets business, there would be further developments in quality and choice, along with enhancements to value for money but that further costs should be limited.

[16] Corporate and Economic Briefs

Willis Corroon Group posted a 5% drop in earnings as the strength of the pound and continued strong competition took its toll in the first three months of the year. Profits before tax for the first quarter fell to £45.7 million ($74.7 million) from £48.1 million the year earlier. After adjusting for the adverse impact of foreign exchange movements of £4.4 million, profits were up 4%. Brokerage and fee revenue from continuing operations fell 7% to £184.2 million. Executive chairman John Reeve said the results were in line with expectations at the start of the year and reflected 'intensifying competition' between underwriters which had led to further falls in premium rates.

Sony Music Entertainment, the core company of Sony Corp.'s domestic software business, said its consolidated pretax profit plunged 33% to 12.799 billion yen ($102.4 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31, from 19.18 billion yen in the prior year. The company's group sales grew by 4.3% from a year earlier to 205.24 billion yen, but higher promotional costs and low financial income as a result of low interest rates in Japan cut into operating and pretax profits, a company spokesman said. Group operating profit slumped by 34% to 11.14 billion, and fell to 5.4% as a percentage of sales from 8.5% in the prior year. Sales promotion and general administrative costs rose to 73.82 billion yen from 68.71 billion yen and increased as a proportion of sales to 36% from 35%.

Dutch supermarkets group Ahold is to split its shares on a three for one basis in July. On March 6, Ahold announced it planned to split its stock effective July 21 of this year. 'This way, the stock will be more in line with the level at which most of the U.S. retail companies trade on the US stock exchanges,' Ahold said in a statement.

Despite bad debt provisions of £50 million, Royal Bank of Scotland Group said a strong performance by its corporate and institutional banking arm led to a 23% rise in pretax profit to £369 million for the first six months of 1997. Along with a one-time provision of £50 million due to increased credit card lending and reduced recoveries in the UK banking arm, the group recorded an exceptional gain of £28 million from the sale of Citizen's mortgage portfolio. Direct Line, the group's insurance arm, reported a 60% increase in pretax profit to £8 million from a year ago.

UK brewing and leisure group Whitbread reported a 12% rise in full year pretax profit before exceptionals to £316.5 million ($ 197.8 million), compared with £283.1 million in 1996. Including exceptionals, the company's profit stood at £302.8 million, well below analyst forecasts of around £318 million. However, the company's Chairman Sir Michael Angus said, 'Whitbread's businesses are all focused on growth segments of the leisure market and the group's prospects are good. Trading in the new financial year has continued to be robust and in line with our expectations.'

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