LONDON – Womenswear retailer New Look Group PLC has embarked on an earnest expansion drive with the purchase of 34 Littlewoods stores from Associated British Foods PLC in a deal worth in the region of £11 million.

The fashion chain which was taken private last year will utilize the additional space in expanding its menswear segment. This would also allow it to launch a full childrens- wear segment as well. “This sort of deal comes very, very rarely. The last time big space like this came on the market was when C&A; withdrew from the UK six years ago,” said Phil Wrigley, New Look’s chief executive. New Look, which started out with 1.6 million square feet of trading space in 2004, said that the deal would go a long way in helping it reach its target of 2.4 million square feet by March 2006.

The retailer completed this purchase yesterday from Associated British Foods – the owner of budget retailer Primark. ABF had purchased 120 Littlewoods stores in July and unloaded these 34 stores as they were seen as surplus to its requirements. ABF added that it would be selling another 40 Littlewoods stores. There were no details on who the purchaser of these stores was.
New Look operates 541 stores in the UK and 211 in France under its Mim brand.

The group’s founder and biggest shareholder, Tom Singh, took the group private 20 months ago. Apax and Permira had backed Singh in the deal. Earlier this year, their combined investment of £200 million was repaid in full. Analysts say that New Look could return to the stock markets in the next two years. However, the company itself has remained non-committal about this.

LONDON: Britain has the third highest rate of spyware infections on PCs used by its countrymen. Spyware is the secret programs implanted without the user’s knowledge with the intention of tracking what the user does with his machine. Thailand and the U.S. are the two countries with more infected PCs.

According to a research study by security firm Webroot Software, almost 55 per cent of PCs with Windows programmes are also infected with adware, a form of spyware that can subject people to pop-up adverts, hijack their homepage and install bookmarks. It also said 21 per cent of the machines have Trojans and five per cent system monitors.

The report was released to coincide with a meeting in London of MPs and computer experts to discuss what can be done to combat spyware.

Webroot says some of the spyware programs are so malicious that they get into the PCs unnoticed and steal confidential information, including passwords and log-in details.
Spyware and adware travel alongside file-sharing programs or media files that people download from the web.

Spyware and adware can be countered by programs such as AdAware and Spybot.

Webroot said Britain has 18 “spies” on an average PC if cookies are included. Spyware, at its basic levels, is a program that tracks online and offline activities of the PC user, which are shared with third parties without the user’s consent. It can consist of system monitoring tools that record everything from visited sites to chat sessions, while also including keylogger programs, which capture keystroke information such as usernames and passwords used for online banking.

Webroot estimates that spyware may be costing the country as much as 445 million pounds in lost time, productivity and in computer repairs.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has decided that ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ has the potential to frighten some children and hence was awarded with a 12A certificate. Children under twelve can watch the film only if they are accompanied by an adult.

The three Harry Potter films released till now were given only a PG rating which allowed children of any age to watch them unaccompanied. BBFC felt that the movie was darker and more intense than its predecessors.

In America, the film received a PG-13 rating which indicates that it may be considered inappropriate for pre-teens, but children under 13 are not barred from admission.

As per the guidelines for a 12A film, “moderate threat and menace with occasional gory moments only” along with infrequent swearing, which includes the “f” word, and “discreet” nudity are only allowed.

Concerned that the directive could disappoint thousands of children who are fans of Harry Potter series, which has become a legend for the children of this generation, David Cooke, the BBFC director, watched the film in person and permitted the 12A classification.

BBFC was also reportedly worried that the film could affect children with sensitive natures. In fact, before Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released, J.K.Rowling warned that the book might have some unpleasant instances which would include murder of a character.

Mike Newell, maker of the movie, is said to have recreated that atmosphere present in the book quite accurately in the film. Scenes which were of concern to the BBFC included “a gang of hooded Death Eaters”. Slated for release on November 18, the film also has quite a few scenes of spiders which mighty be considered too cruel for certain pre-teen children. The language has also matured with the ageing of characters who do not hesitate anymore to use aggressive language. The censor’s advice for parents is that the film contains “moderate fantasy violence, threat and horror”.

The BBFC said: “The tone of the film is much scarier and darker than its predecessors. We expect most parents will still take their children but they should be aware that youngsters of a nervous disposition might be upset.”

LONDON: Macquarie Bank Ltd. of Australia has bought ferry service company The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from Montagu Private Equity for 230 million pounds.

The ferry service company, established in 1830, operates ferry services between England and Ireland and the Isle of Man. It is the only means of roll-on/roll-off freight transportation and passenger ferry services to the island.

The highly diversified Macquarie Bank is into several deals and the most recent one being its attempt on the London Stock Exchange. It had earlier bought a digital media distributor unit from BBC. It described the acquisition as “business as usual”.

Macquarie’s head of European operations Jim Craig said the day-to-day operations of the ferry service company will be run by local management with its base on the Isle of Man,

The acquisition covers the company’s vessels, buildings, land holdings and other assets.

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company will be the second ferry business in Macquarie’s UK fleet. It had acquired Wightlink, the Isle of Wight ferry operator, in June last at 230 million pounds. Its other assets in the U.K. include the M6 toll road and part of Bristol airport.

Montagu Private Equity had acquired Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in July 2003 for 142 million pounds from Sea Containers, a previous owner of Wightlink.

Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which carried 770,591 passengers and 208,949 vehicles last year, is the island’s most important lifeline with the mainland, though there are airlines operating flights in recent times.

LONDON: The UK’s largest engineering services company Amec PLC has been awarded a C$510m (£245m) project management contract by Canada’s largest nuclear generator Bruce Power.

Amec will oversee the rebuilding of the two nuclear reactors Unit Nos.1 and 2 that had been shut down in 1997 and 1995, respectively, when they were found to be needing upgrades. The contract is part of a £2bn investment to restart these reactors in order to help reduce the country’s heavy reliance on coal-fired power stations.

When the two units resume operation in 2009 they would replace about one fifth of the province’s 7,500 MW of coal-fired power. The Canadian government has ordered all coal-fired power generators shut between 2007 and 2009 as the carbon dioxide emissions from these plants were contributing to the greenhouse effect.

The refurbished units would also enhance Bruce Power’s output by over 6,200MW which is about 25 percent of Ontario’s power demand. Ontario is the industrialized province in Central Canada where 18 of the country’s total of 20 reactors are located.

In recent times, the province’s power generation has fallen far short of its requirements. Last summer this industrial centre had suffered several power outages. The country will need a further 25,000MW of generating capacity by 2020, according to the energy ministry’s calculations.

The government of Canada is convinced of the practicality and ecological sense behind nuclear generators and is expected to give its approval for building new nuclear power stations. It will also be honouring its commitment to the Kyoto agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to below 6 percent lower than the 1990s levels by 2012.

Currently, Canada’s power needs are met 13 percent by nuclear generators and 57 percent by hydro-electricity. The remaining portion is met by coal-fired power stations.

Once the two units are restarted, Bruce Power will continue to generate nuclear power for the next 30 years instead of closing the final unit in 2018 as was earlier planned.

The British engineering company Amec is optimistic about the future and hopefully believes the Canadian contract is the first of many such contracts that should come their way. As governments and commercial organisations worldwide realize the environmental practicality of nuclear power, there would be more investment in this area asking companies such as Amec Nuclear to clean up, rebuild and restart once closed down nuclear reactors.

London City’s poorest areas have seen their house prices rise dramatically thanks to the Olympics 2012 to be staged here. Tower Hamlets, an East End borough, has seen prices jack up by an incredible 12,000 pounds in a month. This area has Britain’s most crowded dwellings. Likewise its neighbouring borough Newham, which includes Stratford, posted a hike of 3.1 per cent.

Property web site Rightmove said that the rise in house prices between September 11 and October 8 has been recorded at 0.5 per cent. It is the first time that the monthly prices have registered a rise since April. Rightmove’s commercial director, Miles Shipside, reacted surprisingly when he stated: “While price rises were to be expected, £12,000 a month is pretty exceptional”. He was of the view that the entire housing market was “on the turn”.

Translated into figures, according the Rightmove House Price Index, the period between Sept 11 and Oct 8 average asking prices rose from £195,407 to £196,348 compared with the month before. More than 100,000 new properties were added on to the market during this period.

Highest increase was seen in the detached houses market which registered a 2.2 per cent increase in asking prices compared to last year, while flats and apartments saw a surge of only 0.5 per cent in prices.

However, Rightmove did not see a return to boom conditions. It felt that such a situation needed a host of first time buyers, mortgage rates which are lower and more realistic pricing by sellers and their agents.

In London, in areas close to the venues where Olympic events would be held, average asking prices increased by 0.7 per cent in October when compared to September.

This study assumes significance for the fact that the housing markets are an important economic indicator in UK.

WASHINGTON – The US federal deficit was pegged at $319 billion for the budget year that just ended marking the fact that the deficit has come down after last year’s record deficit. However, the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is likely to send it soaring once again.

Last year the deficit stood at $413 billion and has improved this year due to the robust economy as well as a surge in federal revenues. US Treasury Secretary John Snow was pleased with the latest figures admitting that the fall was better than expected and was encouraging news for the administration. “While deficits are never welcome, the fact that we finished fiscal year 2005 with a much-lower-than-expected deficit is encouraging news,” said Mr. Snow.

“Lower taxes and pro-growth economic policies have created millions of jobs and a growing economy that has swelled tax revenues over the past year.” However, it must be pointed out that only $4 billion of the $62 billion allocated towards the Katrina relief effort has been spent in the last fiscal year meaning that the rebuilding process is likely to eat into a chunk of this years’ budget. Snow acknowledged this fact, but said that the impact would be minimal, “While the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be felt in the short term, we remain on a path to meet the president’s goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.”

However, in spite of this improvement over last year’s budget, this shortfall was the third highest ever recorded in history. The economy has continued to enjoy growth of over 3 percent over the last nine quarters. The effects of the hurricanes could peg it back by 0.5 percent over the next year.

LONDON – The London Metropolitan Police have announced that they will be working with money transfer giant Western Union in order to stop fraudsters from using that service for nefarious purposes. This means that all Western Union customers will be required to sign a form stating that they are confident that they are not being defrauded.

The Met have also entered into a similar agreement with online auction company eBay Inc. “There are businesses that fear their reputation will be damaged through the publicity that the police are involved and that will have a negative impact on their share price,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Nigel Mawer, head of economic and specialist crime at the Metropolitan police. He added that all they would do is ensure that the banks as well as the customers are not taken for a ride.

It is estimated that such frauds cost the public something in the tune of 1 billion a year. US-based Western Union will also cooperate with the police in spreading awareness about the dangers of fraud. Peter Bucher, Western Union’s Financial Services vice-president for operations said that even though the fraud cases were a small volume of the firm’s overall transactions, they cost them a lot reputation-wise. “Education is one of the best tools we have in the fight against consumer fraud and the educated consumers are better able to protect themselves,” he added. “We are heavily engaged with eBay to get the same kind of partnership. We are optimistic we will get somewhere with it,” said Nigel Mawer.

As a part of the agreement, Western Union will encourage its staff to reject suspicious transactions. “Money transfer should never be used for sending money to a stranger, someone whose identity cannot be verified,” said Bucher. Staff will also issue forms to customers warning them about potential scamsters lurking in the shadows.