On and off their company has been trying to merge with Warner Music for more than six years

On and off, their company has been trying to merge with Warner Music for more than six years now, but one way or another they seem quite incapable of pulling if off. It was competition regulators that thwarted them first time around. The flaw in the strategy is that the moment the Pac Man defence is deployed, the industrial logic of the deal has essentially been recognised The only remaining question is who ends up eating whom

The same question now confronts shareholders in EMI. Analysts expressed surprise that Mr Moore had been anointed Mr Satchell’s successor, given his lack of experience in running companies.But Friends Provident said the three years spent working alongside Mr Satchell had equipped Mr Moore for the job. A “professional non-executive”, he holds the same role at six other companies, including the brokerage Collins Stewart Tullett, the menswear group Moss Bros and the nightclubs operator Luminar.Mr Hamill also sits on the board of four other companies, including the electronic parts distributor Electrocomponents as an independent director, and is deputy chancellor of the University of Nottingham, where he read politics.His decision to “Go Plural” (to use the phrase of another famous multiple independent director, Allan Leighton) in 2000 after years as an accountant and serial finance director has also proved lucrative. A year ago, it restructured again to leave a company worth about £50m with about £100m of loan notes, preference shares and debt.JLT has already acquired most of Heath Lambert’s Latin American and aviation operations.Hamill: serial non-exec with the Midas touchKeith Hamill, named non-executive chairman of Heath Lambert in September, is a busy man.

The Heath Lambert equity could well be worth four times these levels if they waited a year or so to reap the benefits of the restructuring.”The past difficulties of JLT and Heath Lambert have been well documented. In late 2004, JLT warned on profits and announced the departure of Steve McGill, its chief executive. Dominic Burke replaced him, and in March unveiled a strategic review that opened the door to bolt-on acquisitions.In 2003, Heath Lambert’s planned flotation fell through, prompting a change of management, disposals and restructuring of its finances. The PPF is thought to have had no involvement in discussions between Heath Lambert and JLT.Some within the City said the deal would be an excellent one for JLT, which will be able to reap substantial cost savings from the tie-up, but they argue that shareholders in Heath Lambert could be better served should the takeover be deferred.One sector analyst said: “It’s a very early stage at which to be selling the company, only a year after the last restructuring. The final-salary scheme, £210m in deficit at the time, was closed. All pension assets are still controlled by trustees but are likely to be transferred to the PPF in the future. Mr Bruce, who holds a 2.5 per cent stake, will receive a further 1 per cent, and Mr Hamill’s Heath Lambert holding will be bolstered from 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.Between the three, their 11 per cent stake will fetch about £3m in a sale to JLT.After the takeover, Mr Colosso is expected to take a seat on the JLT board and Mr Bruce will assume a senior position.Both are believed to be in line for “golden hellos” of cash and JLT shares worth about £1m each, on top of extra pension benefits not extended to other Heath Lambert employees.A recent financial restructuring, led by Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Suisse, saw the Pension Protection Fund secure 10 per cent of the company’s shares in return for bailing out the Heath Lambert pension scheme.

Adrian Colosso, Heath Lambert’s chief executive since March last year, Mike Bruce, the managing director, and Keith Hamill, the non-executive chairman, will net about £5m in cash and shares between them as part of the deal.
Under the terms of the JLT takeover, they alone will be awarded extra Heath Lambert shares, which earmarked for managers after the company’s last refinancing a year ago, but as yet unallocated.Mr Colosso, already the single largest shareholder with 3 per cent of the company, will be given another 2 per cent. Miles Templeman, the IoD director general, said: “This issue… could increasingly make UK companies reluctant to do business in the US.”. A £130m sale of Heath Lambert to the rival insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson, likely to be unveiled within weeks, will deliver cash, shares and pension benefits worth millions of pounds to the three top Heath Lambert men instrumental in brokering the deal.

They are accused of plotting with former Enron executives to defraud the collapsed energy giant of $20m, pocketing $7.3m themselves. The men deny the charges and want to be tried in the UK.Boris Johnson, Mr Bermingham’s MP, who has been leading a Tory campaign to amend the Extradition Treaty, said: “The French have a system where they require the Americans to provide [solid] prima facie evidence – why can’t we do it? Because we are poodling.”Business figures will march at 5pm today from the Institute of Directors to the Home Office to protest against the extradition regime with the US. Critics say the treaty is being abused by the US to target white-collar criminals.Mr Bermingham said in the US federal justice system 98 per cent of people plead guilty via a plea bargain, especially in white-collar cases which can be lengthy and costly if they come to trial. It would cost the three bankers $2m (£1.1m) each to fight the case in the US as they would have to defend themselves separately and fly over 32 witnesses from the UK.

Even if they won their case, they would not get their money back under American law.Mr Bermingham said he and his co-defendants – Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby – had spent an “obscene” amount of money battling against their extradition and would have to sell their houses if they had to go to trial.He said the trio, who are in their early 40s and have 10 young children between them, were looking at 20 years in prison each if found guilty A plea bargain could cut that to five years. He pointed to Ben Glisson, the former Enron treasurer, who was indicted on 28 counts and received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to one count, which was similar to the seven counts of wire fraud faced by the NatWest Three. One of the three former NatWest bankers who face extradition to the United States in a matter of days to stand trial on Enron-related fraud charges yesterday spoke for the first time of the possibility of a plea bargain. David Bermingham said the trio were resigned to being extradited to the US after losing a long-running court battle to have their case investigated in Britain.
“We’re now in negotiation with the US government to try to see whether we can work out a bail package,” he said. “We would love a bail condition that would allow us to come back here and prepare for our defence.” If the men are refused bail, they face up to two years in a high-security jail in Houston, Texas, before a trial.The case is the first major test of a controversial treaty between the US and Britain which, in order to speed up terrorism cases, has reduced the level of evidence required for US extradition requests. Like-for-like passenger growth in the bus business, excluding London, increased by 2.1 per cent.. We have the best inter-city franchise and the best commuter franchise.”South West trains is the UK’s biggest commuter franchise, running 1,600 services a day out of Waterloo station in London.Stagecoach, which agreed to sell its London bus business last week, forecast flat profits for the current year but said it planned to expand its bus and rail operations in other parts of England and North America.The company reported pre-tax profits before exceptionals of £140.6m, up from £131.3m and better than City forecasts Revenues at the rail operations were up 5.7 per cent.