But the billion-pound scrap between the American group Southern Electric and our very

But the billion-pound scrap between the American group Southern Electric and our very own South Western Electricity is in danger of giving hostile bids a bad name.
What is actually in dispute? Precious little. Sweb has all but raised the white flag on its continued independence The only argument is over price Even here, absurdly little divides the two sides. Southern’s pounds 9 a share bid is ex-div – equivalent to a grossed up pounds 9.25 before the dividend. HOSTILE takeover bids are a delight, especially in the dog days of summer, when financial journalists are scraping around for things to write about. If Roche of Switzerland really does take a pounds 14bn tilt at Zeneca this week, as some in the stock market are convinced it will, there will be cheers – from Fleet Street at least.

I lost my job again because I couldn’t join Fimbra, I was on Mogadon, and my doctor can testify that I was extremely depressed,” Mr Thurlow said.Eventually, at a Fimbra appeal hearing in February, the case against him was thrown out after the existence of Mr Thorpe’s letter was dramatically revealed by Mr Thurlow’s counsel.. The “black data” was enough to deny Mr Thurlow Fimbra membership and any chance of earning a living in financial services, even though Imro’s own chief executive had already criticised the conduct of the original investigation.”It was desperate. One charge has already been deleted, and a further hearing is due shortly.But in the meantime, the junk bond department was closed, Mr Thurlow lost his job and moved to another firm, Hoodless Brennan, at a much reduced salary.Then, Imro passed details of the A&R charges to Hoodless’s regulator Fimbra, but not the details of the apology. Last year, after a series of investigations, A&R admitted to breaches of the rules, including having inadequate compliance systems, rather than face further investigations and a formal tribunal.But Mr Thorpe subsequently apologised to A&R that the investigation had not in certain respects been “conducted according to our normal high stand- ards”.

A&R therefore launched an appeal against the charges, for which it had been fined pounds 15,000. But Mr Thurlow is confident that his is such a case.His claim will come at an embarrassing time for Imro, which came under fire last month when its chief executive Phillip Thorpe said he had been muzzled by his chairman, Charles Nunneley, before giving evidence to MPs on the state of City regulation – a claim Mr Nunneley denied.Mr Thurlow headed a junk-bond investment business at A&R Equity, an Imro- regulated firm now owned by Arbuthnot Latham. Fighting them is horrendous because you always run out of money before they do.” He was echoing the feelings of many who feel they have suffered at the hands of the City’s regulatory system.Imro enjoys statutory protection from litigation except in certain highly unusual cases. “We need to discover what went wrong at the supervisory level.”. AN investment adviser who lost his job, savings and four stones in weight when in effect blackballed by the City watchdog Imro is planning to sue it after he won his case at appeal. The affair is a fresh embarrassment for Imro, the regulator for fund managers that is already under parliamentary scrutiny and riven by infighting.
Simon Thurlow, 30, claims he came close to suicide after being declared unfit to work in finance by the brokers’ regulator Fimbra, on the basis of information supplied by Imro.Mr Thurlow, who is seeking six-figure damages, said: “It’s like an Orwellian nightmare when these regulators go for you.

“We have no comment one way or another until the Barings report is published,” a spokesman said.
The unnamed central banker is the first official victim of the crisis, although 23 Barings executives have left their jobs since the merchant bank was rescued by ING, the Dutch bank.The Bank of England also refused to break cover when the Labour Party warned it was gearing up for a serious assault if the Bank glossed over its role in Barings’ pounds 860m collapse in February.The Bank, through the Board of Banking Supervision, is in the awkward position of having to investigate itself for its regulation of Barings.Labour’s City spokesman, Alastair Darling, said a report that criticised the merchant bank’s management and derivatives trader Nick Leeson – but downplayed the Bank’s role as regulator – would not be acceptable.”It will not be enough to point to the failings of Barings bank,” said Mr Darling. Officials at the Bank ducked reports that one of the top six executives in the supervision department had resigned rather than be fired as the Bank’s scapegoat. THE Bank of England was in a state of siege at the weekend, as critics awaited its report, due on Tuesday, on the collapse of Barings, the merchant bank. So they put in little clauses to stop clients leaving, or to make profit if they do move,” he said.Around 170,000 of the company’s 250,000 borrowers have loans that are less than seven years old.. At 8.54 per cent, Northern Rock’s standard variable rate is one of the highest in the market. The Halifax charges 8.35 per cent.The Northern Rock offers to refund the two-month standard penalty if the borrower moves home and takes another loan with them within three months.Patrick Bunton, director of London and Country Mortgages, believes the move is just one more step in the industry-wide trend towards making existing borrowers subsidise loss-leading rates for new business.”Companies are lending a lot, but their customer base is shrinking. “We believe that it is fair to the vast majority of our loyal customers who remain with the society that they should not be subsidising borrowers who decide to leave the society as soon as the incentive ends,” said Adam Applegarth, the general manager.In fact, those affected by the new penalties will have already been locked into the Northern Rock’s unfavourable standard variable rate for a number of years, before being hit with these new charges.

One customer’s lawyer told the Independent on Sunday that her client was considering legal action. “The first thing my client knew about the penalty was when she applied for a redemption statement.”The Northern Rock says additional charges are only applied to customers who have benefited from favourable fixed or discount deals. The company conditions booklet also failed until recently to spell out redemption terms, merely referring borrowers back to the rule book.Borrowers are angry at the company’s move. Nowhere in the sales literature or the formal letter of advance are they explained.