Franking Machine

A £1 BILLION fuel-poverty package set to be unveiled next week by the government was thrown into disarray this weekend after four of the “big six” utilities refused to sign up to the deal.

THE Big Apple has proved hard to swallow for Metro International, the world’s largest free-newspaper company.

TWO of Australia’s biggest banks have sounded out HBOS about a possible break-up of the British bank’s £3 billion antipodean business.

ALAN HORN, president of Warner Bros Entertainment, sent a shiver round expatriate Britons working in Hollywood when he publicly relegated Guy Ritchie’s forthcoming gangster drama RocknRolla to art-house status, shipping the film only to the minimum 800 cinemas required by their contract.

ANGLIAN GROUP has been taken over by a consortium of banks after the home-improvement company became overwhelmed by its debts.

SIR MARTIN SORRELL has warned that many more companies are considering joining the tax exodus from Britain.

AN EMINENT West Country law firm is at the centre of a probe by the legal watchdog into allegations that sub-prime loans may have been mis-sold to farmers.

HE had a hugely well-paid job with one of the City’s most successful businesses. He was offered £6m to move to a rival. But Tony Verrier wanted more - and was offered more - by yet another international firm bidding for his services.

WOOLWORTHS’ biggest shareholder has thrown his weight behind management in rejecting Malcolm Walker’s £50m takeover approach, while refusing to deny that he is planning his own bid for the struggling retailer.

MORE THAN 1,000 jobs in London are to be axed at the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort as part of a €9 billion (£7.3 billion) takeover deal expected to be announced later today.