This would leave a limited number of buyers such as Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and the Co-op.Somerfield shares closed 0.75p lower at 99.75p.. The problem would be that the obvious buyers are also all bidding for Safeway and so would face the same sensitivities as Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s declined to comment.Morgan Stanley’s appointment was revealed in a statement, which said that for the purposes of market making in Somerfield shares, the bank was a connected party to Mr Lovering and Mr Mackenzie.If the deal with Sainsbury’s breaks down it is thought the two entrepreneurs have considered arranging a bridging loan before stores can be sold to other supermarket groups. Any move to increase its share at this sensitive time might be poorly received by the regulatory authorities and undermine its chances. But is thought that Sainsbury’s may have been reconsidering this in the light of the ongoing Competition Commission investigation into its bid for Safeway. The pair were planning to offset some of the cost by selling up to 150 of Somerfield’s supermarkets to J Sainsbury. The hiring of a bulge bracket bank like Morgan Stanley shows the seriousness of his intent despite Somerfield’s rejection of his initial bid of 103p a share a fortnight ago.The move to bring in fresh backing may also indicate that Mr Lovering and his bid partner, Bob Mackenzie, were struggling to fully fund their offer.

It is understood the bank will also back the bid with its own finance, joining HBOS as the main backers.
Mr Lovering, a former head of the Homebase DIY retailer, was previously only using investment boutique Bridgewell as his sole advisers. John Lovering, the retail entrepreneur, appeared to increase the pressure on Somerfield yesterday when he appointed Morgan Stanley as a second financial adviser on his £510m bid approach for the supermarket group. Group pre-tax profits were £697m, up from a loss of £939m the previous year.. However, two problems exist: one, is that airport radar systems mistakes wind turbines for aircrafts; the second is there has been no decision about who will pay for connecting the wind farms to the grid.For the year ended 31 March 2003, ScottishPower announced a dividend of 28.7p a share For the current year, it is expected to be cut to 19p. This will see shareholders take a cut of about a third in the annual dividend for the current 2003/04 financial year, as a result of the company’s divestment of Southern Water.The company said it planned to spend £500m building wind farms and a further £300m would be needed to connect this power to the national grid.

ScottishPower yesterday warned that its £800m programme for wind farm investment was in doubt unless there were some “quick” changes in policy from the Government.
Reporting full-year results, the utility also revealed its new reduced dividend payout policy. sector was a separate market, which is absolute nonsense.”Mr Grimsey said he was encouraged by comments made last week by Sir Derek Morris, the Commission’s chairman, when he said the investigation would take into account smaller as well as larger stores.Mr Grimsey said the Safeway bids from the Big Three supermarkets should be blocked but that the offer from William Morrison should be waved through.. “We were horrified that Tesco’s acquisition of T&S [the convenience store group] didn’t get referred because the Government accepted that the convenience … By contrast, the last 10 years had seen 20 million sq ft of extra floorspace added by the major supermarkets, an increase of 50 per cent.He said it was vital that the Commission treated the grocery sector as one market, rather than one for the big weekly shopping trip and another for “top up” purchases. People used to pop to the local shop but I can see the end of the small, independent corner shop unless the Commission acts.”Mr Grimsey was speaking ahead of a meeting yesterday afternoon with the Competition Commission, which is investigating four of the bids, from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and William Morrison.Mr Grimsey said the number of neighbourhood stores had declined from about 138,000 in 1992 to 113,000 today with the number predicted to fall to just 100,000 by 2007. I recognise that change is inevitable but we have to look at the potential damage to our social fabric. If we want a state governed by Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda then that’s what will happen unless the Competition Commission does its job.” He added: “I’m not a dinosaur.

Now they feed their kids beans on toast in the cafeteria of a big supermarket. The chief executive of the Iceland frozen food chain launched a blistering attack on the major supermarkets yesterday saying the social fabric of the country could be severely damaged if Tesco, J Sainsbury or Asda were allowed to take over Safeway

The chief executive of the Iceland frozen food chain launched a blistering attack on the major supermarkets yesterday saying the social fabric of the country could be severely damaged if Tesco, J Sainsbury or Asda were allowed to take over Safeway
Bill Grimsey, chief executive of the Big Food Group, which owns the Iceland stores, said: “Ten years ago families would use Sunday to go to the park or take the children to a museum. It accounted for 20 per cent of sales in the period – slightly more than the 19 per cent it accounted for in the previous quarter.Separately Marconi announced it had been chosen by Australia’s Telstra as one of two preferred suppliers of telecoms equipment.. “The markets for our products and services continue to decline but we have been able to limit our sales fall to single figure percentages in each of the last three quarters.” He said he would not be confident in calling the bottom of the market until he had seen at least two quarters of flat, rather than falling, sales.BT remains Marconi’s single biggest customer. Nevertheless, Mr Parton said the 4 per cent fall in sales in the three-month-period was in line with the company’s expectations and emphasised that the company had improved margins to 24 per cent from 22 per cent in the period.”Our profitability is improving all the time Our cash generation is also improving all the time But the market is still getting worse,” he admitted. Shares in the old Marconi will delist from the stock market a week on Friday with shares in the new Marconi starting trading on 19 May.While Marconi refused to give any guidance on current trading, Mr Parton said there had been “nothing untoward” to report in the quarter so far.The company, which reports its figures in full on 29 May, said the war in Iraq had made trading particularly tough in the Middle East in the period.