F-B-F.org -

Le Shuttle, which went into service on 22 December, had until now offered hourly trains from both sides between 7am and 11pm An overnight service will now run every two hours. The extra night services introduced on 2 January increase the overall number of shuttles through the tunnel from 26 to 40 per day.
The announcement, welcomed in the city as a sign that Eurotunnel’s trading should improve in 1995, said that 12,000 reservations had been booked in the last two weeks of December for the 35-minute journey between Folkestone and Calais.The news put further pressure on Eurotunnel’s main rival, P&O, already facing the prospect of tougher ferry safety rules, whose shares fell 13p to 597p. Eurotunnel, the beleaguered Channel Tunnel operator, said yesterday that its Le Shuttle tourist service for cars was now running a round-the-clock service. His brother Charles, who left the board two years ago, holds a similar number.Maurice Saatchi is also accused of consistently undermining the chief executives, including Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who resigned in 1992 and especially his successor, Charles Scott, who was brought in as finance director to rescue the company and took overas chief executive from Mr Louis-Dreyfus.The company now accepts that there is nothing to prevent Maurice Saatchi from setting up in competition with his old company or poaching clients.But it does hold two strong bargaining cards with the former chairman, the terms of his compensation for loss of office, and non-competition and non-solicitation clauses signed by other executives which would make it difficult for him to poach them in the near future.Maurice Saatchi has 30 months of his revised three year contract still to run at a salary of £200,000, which should entitle him to a £500,000 pay-off.. The shares sank a further 8p to 138p yesterday and 7 million of them changed hands as investors expressed their dismay at the course of events, which the City fears could encourage Maurice Saatchi into further attempts to undermine the management and punish the shareholders for their treatment of him.
The company is still struggling to play down the dispute in public, appealing instead to the practical common sense of clients and staff, while continuing to portray Maurice Saatchi behind the scenes as a maverick who had become a liability, consistentl y promoting his own personal interests at the expense of colleagues and shareholders alike.Specifically, it believes his diatribe ignores the contribution of the shareholders who financed the growth of the company since it went public in 1982, and shored up the business during the crisis years, culminating in 1992 when it lost almost £600m.The shareholders who led the campaign to remove Mr Saatchi speak directly for about 30 per cent of the shares, but were supported by almost all the large shareholders, accounting for 70-80 per cent of the equity, consulted by the board in the last few weeks before the crucial vote on 15 December.Contrary to general impression, the dissidents were also long-standing shareholders who had seen the orginal value of their shares reduced by 98 per cent as a result of the restructuring in 1992 and the rights issue in 1993.Mr Saatchi, by contrast, has little more than 0.5 per cent of the shares. Charles Scott, the chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, has begun an urgent round of talks with leading clients in a desperate attempt to limit the damage caused by the ousted chairman’s bitter letter severing his links with the company he and his brother founded 25 years ago, damning the management and shareholders for their lack of appreciation of his talents, and openly inciting clients and employees to consider their own futures.

It has since emerged that the company is to stop bill payment at showrooms, will cut some staff salaries and is sharply reducing part of the budget for safety in the pipeline.A spokeswoman for British Gas said: “We have carefully considered the legality of the discounts but believe it is not discriminatory.” She said the company hopes later this year to introduce discounts for people who pay on time by means other than monthly direct debit.Ofgas, which is keen to see fair play for all prompt payers, said that it is discussing the issue with British Gas.The Consumers’ Association is also asking why the savings offered to monthly direct debit customers is so large, pointing out that BT offers a discount of £4 per year to such customers and that electricity firms allow £3 to £5.. It also penalises those customers who choose to pay on time by other methods.”The attack is a further blow to British Gas, which has been struggling to restore its image since November when it confirmed a 75 per cent increase in the total pay of Cedric Brown, its chief executive. The move has angered many customers, including pensioners and the less well-off, many of whom pay promptly but are unable to do so by direct debit.
In today’s edition of Which? the Consumers’ Association says: “In the run-up to the introduction of competition, the law is supposed to prevent British Gas from `cherry picking’ – unfairly keeping the best customers by offering them a special deal.”This discount arguably breaches the Gas Act, and we’ve called on Ofgas to investigate. British Gas increased prices from this week by £10 a year for a typical customer but said that people paying by monthly direct debit will be given a discount of £19, leaving them £9 better off even after the price rise.

The association has written to the regulator, Ofgas, to demand an investigation into the British Gas decision to raise prices generally while introducing substantial discounts for those who pay by direct debit. Price changes announced by British Gas in December could be illegal, according to the Consumers’ Association, because they benefit some domestic customers and disadvantage others. The average price paid for a new house is £67,866 compared with £61,776 paid for all houses.First-time buyers’ prices fell by 0.3 per cent in December, but are 0.1 per cent higher than a year ago.The average price paid by a first-time buyer is £45,358.. but predicted it would pick up later in the year in line with the recovery in the British economy.Nationwide Building Society, which uses a smaller sample for its house price survey and does not seasonally adjust the figures, reported a rise of 1.8 per cent in prices in December and an annual rise of 0.3 per cent.Rob Thomas, housing analyst at stockbrokers UBS, is more optimistic than most, and believes house prices will end the year 6 per cent higher.Like Halifax, he believes the normal flurry of activity in the spring will not herald a revival in the market because of higher mortgage rates, a reduction in social security support for mortgage payments and a further restriction in mortgage tax relief.But the improving economy should lead to more full time jobs, higher real incomes and an increase in house prices, he said.New house prices fell in December by 0.1 per cent, but are 1.7 per cent higher than at the beginning of the year – mainly due to a sharp fall last December.

He said Northern Electric is seeking a Stock Exchange enquiry into share price movements following speculation over a bid and that he shared that concern.. House prices rose 0.3 per cent in December, according to Britain’s largest mortgage lender, Halifax Building Society. This brought the fall in house prices during 1994 down to 0.2 per cent. The annual fall in house prices had been standing at 1 per cent in November.
Gary Marsh, a spokesman for the society, said he expected the housing market to remain flat. Northern Electric has refused to call an extraordinary general meeting to change the company’s articles of association allowing the £1.2bn hostile takeover bid from Trafalgar House to proceed. The move, which is normal practice in bid situations in the best interests of shareholders, is needed to change the rule preventing any single shareholder from owning 15 per cent or more of the shares.
Two shareholders are thought to have asked Northern to requisition the meeting. But the company has so far been able to decline because the holding does not amount to 10 per cent.

It has decided to take no action for the time being.Trafalgar House would be prevented anyway from taking over the company until after the end of March, when the Government’s special share in each of the 12 regional electricity companies expires.The company has not ruled out an egm at a later date. A spokesman said: “We will fight this on our record and on the benefits we will provide to shareholders in future.”Northern is preparing for the offer document from Trafalgar, due by 16 January, and is working on a submission to the regulator, Offer, which wants a response by the middle of next week.It is likely that one of the two shareholders seeking the egm is Swiss Bank, thought to have about 3 per cent of Northern Electric’s shares.Yesterday Jack Cunningham, shadow secretary of state for trade and industry, attacked Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, for his silence concerning the bid.Mr Cunningham said there was concern over the suitability of a conglomerate taking over a regional electricity company. But she added that its outcome depended on popular acceptance. “If people believe the crisis will be short-lived, the chance of success is pretty high,” she said.Mickey Kantor, the US Trade Representative, described Mexico’s economy as fundamentally sound He defended the North American Free Trade Agreement..