This year for the same period the figure is 13
This year, for the same period, the figure is 13.5 per cent."Woolwich said its 200-strong estate agency operation was also running at a profit and contributed 12 per cent of the company's lending and one- third of its life insurance sales.Net mortgage lending, after redemptions, in the first six months of 1996 rocketed by 700 per cent to pounds 1.67bn compared with the same period last year. He said: "We are on track for conversion and flotation around this time next year."The society's results were boosted by a doubling of contributions to pounds 25m from its various subsidiary companies, including its unit trust and life businesses and both Spanish and Italian lending operations.Mr Stewart said: "At the 1995 half-year, [our] subsidiaries had contributed some 5.2 per cent of group profit. Woolwich Building Society's defence against any would-be takeover bidders was strengthened yesterday after it announced a record 29 per cent rise in half-year pre-tax profits to pounds 183m. Analysts said the rise, from pounds 142m in the same period last year, meant that if a predator mounted a bid Woolwich would cost significantly more to buy. Rob Thomas, building society analyst at UBS, the Swiss banking group, said: "If one assumes that a takeover is based on a multiple of 13-times annual profits after tax, Woolwich may have increased its value by several hundred million pounds."John Stewart, newly-appointed chief executive atWoolwich, denied, however, that the society had received any formal approaches from likely bidders, including Prudential.
AEA Technology is the commercial arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and the indirect nuclear link may give ministers food for thought because of the embarrassment of the British Energy flotation, where small investors have lost money this week. AEA Technology was incorporated as a separate company earlier this year but had already moved away from its nuclear roots to become a science and engineering research and development business. It is based at Harwell in Oxfordshire, where the workforce has been slimmed by a quarter over the last two years in preparation for privatisation.Last month, the Government appointed Cazenove as brokers to work with merchant bank advisers Schroders in an indication that a flotation was probable. The specialist financial public relations firm Citigate has also been hired.The chairman of AEA Technology, Sir Anthony Cleaver, has made no secret of his desire for stock market ownership, and has been pushing for an early decision because of the possibility that an election may undermine the privatisation.The other option has been a trade sale of the business, to an international contract research or consultancy company, which would have the attraction for the Government of raising the money without the pricing risks involved in a flotation.A stock market sale would represent the last privatisation of its kind before the election, and it would also be one of the smallest - as little as a seventh of the size of British Energy on current estimates of AEA Technology's value.Though the company would be a challenge to value, there have been a number of successful flotations of small science-based businesses in recent years.. Ministers are not thought to have made a final decision yet, but if the company is floated in the autumn it is likely to be valued at about pounds 200m. The meeting was also attended by US civil servants and a representative from the Office of Fair Trading.Comment, page 21. The Government is expected to confirm before the end of the month that the privatisation of AEA Technology is to go ahead later this year, and the company is believed to be on the point of winning its battle for a stock exchange flotation.
Earlier, TWA's president, Jeffery Erikson, told MPs the combination of BA and American would have monopoly power and make monopoly profits but that TWA would accept the deal with an open skies agreement if BA/AA divested itself of some lucrative slots at Heathrow.Intensive negotiations between the Department of Transport and US Departments of Justice and Transportation are expected to last several weeks.Two previous attempts to negotiate an open-skies regime, in 1993 and last year, collapsed when the US broke off talks.It also emerged yesterday that several US airlines were briefed by BAA on the current availability of landing and departure slots at Heathrow. "I think his emphasis is on BA rather than on the consumer," explained Michael Whitaker, director of international affairs at United Airlines. This depends on the completion of an open-skies agreement between the two governments.The Transport Secretary said the conclusion of an open-skies deal would need the establishment of an independent tribunal with the power to stop anti-competitive activities such as predatory pricing.Sir George's remarks disappointed rival US airlines who gave evidence to the committee on Monday. Sir George Young told a Commons Transport Select Committee hearing that the tie-up, which would give BA/AA around 60 per cent of flights between the UK and US, "could provide the basis for a liberalising of arrangements with the US". The deal, which is being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading, also requires anti-trust immunity in the US. The Government has given its broad support to the proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines despite intense opposition from rival US carriers, the Transport Secretary indicated to MPs last night.