IP also owns the 1,000MW power station at Rugeley.First-half results released at the beginning of September showed pre-tax profits down from £141m to £98m and earnings per share of 5.8p in “tough market conditions”, particularly in the UK and US The shares edged up 0.25p to 138.5p yesterday.. Britain’s most powerful financial watchdog was yesterday accused of being too “cosy” with companies it is supposed to be policing. It can generate nearly 11,000 megawatts of power and has another 610 megawatts under construction.Last week IP decided to restore its Deeside plant to full capacity until at least the end of March despite an assertion by Mr Crane that: “We do not believe the UK faces a shortage of supply this winter.”He said that although wholesale electricity prices in England and Wales have recently shown some improvement they remain well below a level that provides an adequate return to power generators.Deeside mothballed a 250WM unit, half its generating capacity there, in April last year and restored it on Monday. Mr Crane has been at IP for three and a half years and played a key role in the demerger alongside chief financial officer Philip Cox.IP is now looking for a replacement inside and outside its ranks This could involve a shake-up of the executive team. IP has operations in the UK, Australia, the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The electricity producer International Power lost its chief executive yesterday only six weeks after reporting a sharp drop in profits. He will receive an American-style package.” His pay will triple from his current salary to about £1.5m when he moves at the end of next month.Although Mr Crane is American he was tempted by NRG’s international operations rather than the chance of returning home.

The notional deficit in its pension schemes under FRS 17 was £405m on 31 August. It plans to open 1,000 new Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin-Robbins and Togo’s outlets in 2004.. I have always had a concern that if you introduced a single currency and removed two of the three economic levers – interest rates and exchange rates – leaving only fiscal rates to manage [individual countries'] economies there would be a considerable amount of pain,” Mr Bowman said.Although the group said trading in its current financial year was meeting expectations, shares in the Ballantine’s whisky-to-Malibu rum company slid 4 per cent to 384.5p as investors focused on its bleak assessment of life in the eurozone. The group, which also owns several wine makers, reported a 15 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £483m for the year to 31 August. Stripping out exceptional charges, which include £48m of additional pension costs, underlying profits rose 9 per cent on sales up 2 per cent at £3.41bn.In Europe, its trading profits were 20 per cent weaker, reflecting the hit from Spain and a higher marketing bill to support the launch of Tia Lusso, its new cream liqueur based on its Tia Maria brand, while it increased by 31 per cent in North America.Allied said its decision to adopt the FRS 17 accounting standard for pensions this year would result in a charge of some £49m to its profit and loss account. “Growth in the second half has slowed considerably in turnover terms and I think people are concerned about what that says about future growth,” Nigel Davies, an analyst at JP Morgan, said.Allied said a strong performance from seven of its nine top brands had helped absorb volume declines in Ballantine’s and Beefeater gin, which suffered from Spanish destocking.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the fund manager Gerrard, said:”We do not believe the readings are sufficiently strong to justify taking any action in November.”. The chief executive of Allied Domecq yesterday launched an attack on the euro as the group signalled that tough trading across the eurozone was holding back sales growth. The balance of minus seven was the least negative since July last year.Ian McCafferty, the CBI’s chief economist, said: “This is an encouraging survey but it is too early to say whether firms really have begun to turn the corner. These are extremely early days so I would not want see [the Bank] risking that with a premature tightening of monetary policy.”The first rise in interest rates is the one that has the most potential for psychological damage so a period of stability of clearly required.”Mr McCafferty said there has been many instances of a rise in optimism that had failed to translate into a boost in activity. But he said his cautious optimism was backed up by the feedback he has received from CBI members during a recent series of visits around the UK.

“The anecdotal evidence is that the tentative signs may be better justified than in the past.”He believed the recent positive news out of the US, where the economy to be growing at an annual rate of 6 per cent, had also boosted confidence.The survey showed concerns over a shortage of skilled labour had risen to its highest level since autumn 2001. This was reinforced by a separate result showing that companies planned to accelerate their spending on training for the first time since January.Mr McCafferty said he believed this showed they were concerned about possible constraints on expansion rather than sounding “an alarm bell” over future wage inflation.Despite this, businesses slashed an estimated 31,000 jobs over the three months to September and are forecast to axe another 36,000 in the final quarter of the year.Analysts said the Bank would probably heed the CBI’s advice at its next interest rate meeting. Confidence improved last month with firms expecting the decline in both output and orders to come to an end, it said.Companies are also growing concerned about skills shortage, which the CBI added to the evidence they are looking ahead to see how they will cope with an upturn.A fifth of organisations said they were more optimistic than three months ago while a quarter said they were more gloomy. This constituent, she said, thought getting the pension credit was “akin to the promised land”.Luckily Paul Farrelly, a Labour MP who should have been banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act, was there to puncture the air of self-congratulation. I was finally starting to hang out in the right circles; getting to the point where I could tease Alan Clark and shake hands with Michael Portillo. My greatest professional mistake was agreeing to be the sex agony-aunt of Front magazine.

The job offer came at a time when I was still finding my feet as a journalist. I’d been writing for about a year and a half, and was trying to show people that I wasn’t just a hedonistic girl-about-town but a serious reporter who was interested in politics. We will have more muscle in the price of materials and services.”The number of jobs to go has not been decided and there would be full consultation. So far about half of them have given written irrevocable undertakings to vote in favour.Mr Golby estimated cost savings of at least £50 million a year.He said: “Clearly there will be some job losses from the distribution business but savings will not just be in jobs There is duplication in the IT systems. East Midlands has 1,000 employees in the distribution business while Midlands has 1,900 despite having the same number of customers.. Scottish & Southern’s £1.1bn offer was made up of £43m for the equity but only 86p in the pound for the bonds.Powergen chief executive Paul Golby described the deal as “the last big piece in the jigsaw to transform Powergen from a pure electricity generator into an integrated power company.” It will leave Powergen as the country’s second-largest generator, distributor and retailer of electricity with a total of 9 million customers.The deal needs the approval of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic It also requires the support of 95 per cent of bondholders.