Citigroup is prepared to buy European banks to increase international operations to as much as half of its profits.
This, and revelations that the US banking giant talked to Abbey National before its £8.2bn Santander Central Hispano takeover, will raise speculation that Citigroup could make an Abbey counter-bid.Sir Deryck Maughan, chairman of Citigroup International, told analysts in New York on Friday that the group would need a significant European deal to meet its growth targets. Science minister Lord Sainsbury announced earlier this year the opening of a research centre to look at how to reduce the use of animals in experiments and how to minimise suffering where no viable alternative could be found.Organisations such as Speak, set up to protest against the Oxford University animal testing laboratory, say that they do not use violence.. It could have a “bounty fund”, but nothing has been decided.Construction company Montpellier last month pulled out of building an animal testing laboratory for Oxford University after animal rights extremists targeted shareholders and staff.On Friday, Home Secretary David Blunkett unveiled new legislation to clamp down on the extremists.GlaxoSmithKline chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier has broken ranks to go on the record, last week calling such activists “despicable cowards”. The Department of Trade and Industry offers tax credits and some funding to help companies pay for security where employee safety is being threatened.The issue has moved up the political agenda. It is the first time such an important business figure has spoken out about animal rights extremism so strongly.There is only limited help currently available to companies targeted by extremists. Its remit will be to provide advice and protection to companies and individuals being targeted.The NAPF is seeking help from the police, the Financial Services Authority and other City institutions.Reports that the task force will have a £25m kitty to give in reward for information leading to arrests of extremists are wide of the mark. The City task force being set up to tackle extremists who target companies and their employees could be in place by the end of next month.
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), whose members hold shares worth over £600bn, is speeding efforts to set up the group.

It has already approached a chairman – not yet named – who is lining up five other board members.The NAPF had thought that the task force would not be in place until next year. It has stepped up a gear because of the publicity generated by companies recently targeted by animal rights extremists.The still unnamed task force will be part-time It has not yet been decided how it will be funded. The PPA’s deal will also include new limits on proposed increases in wholesale news distribution charges to retailers.. We want more control of the product so we can respond to the needs of the consumers. The issue is getting a better deal from the wholesalers.”The PPA – with backing from the Newspaper Publishers Association and the wholesalers – will on Tuesday offer the possibility of a truce in the row.

The PPA plan, A New Deal for Retailers, will propose to maintain the regional distribution system but offer a number of concessions to retailers, industry sources said.These are expected to include a new set of performance targets for publishers and wholesalers, with the potential for compensation for under-performance. However, the Government plans to amend competition law in a way that would threaten this distribution system.Publishers and wholesalers are worried that if the current system is scrapped, it will be uneconomic to deliver publications to smaller newsagents.But the newsagents themselves have dismissed these claims and called for an overhaul of the current system which they claim is inflexible and skewed in the wholesalers’ and publishers’ favour.Stefan Wojciechowski, the head of news and magazines at the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, said: “The issue is how we get better service levels and still have a universal supply. The motion you have signed will in fact sound the death knell for up to 20,000 of the outlets.”The news is the latest development in a year-long dispute between retailers, wholesale news distributors and publishers.At present, newspapers and magazines are distributed on a regional basis though exclusive contracts. MPs have been warned that proposals to overhaul the wholesale newspaper and magazine distribution system could “sound the death knell” for two-thirds of Britain’s independent newsagents.
The warning comes from Ian Locks, the chief executive of the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), after 93 MPs signed an early day motion last month calling for the industry rule book to be torn up.In a letter to the MPs, Mr Locks says: “I am sure that you believe that this will benefit the country’s smaller independent newsagents I am sorry to have to tell you that the reverse is the case.

This leaves British Energy more exposed to legal action and ratchets up the chances of someone like Polygon bringing a claim.”British Energy says the alternative to the proposed restructuring is administration.. Polygon is threatening to block its attempts to delist when the new rule is in place.Lawyers said that even if their attempt to stop British Energy delisting fails, the rebel shareholders could still block the restructuring in the courts. The UK Listing Authority seeks to require companies to get shareholder approval before they delist later this year.This could be crucial, as British Energy has said that, even if shareholders do not vote for the restructuring, it would delist from the stock exchange and restructure anyway. They could argue that the company’s directors have not fulfilled their fiduciary duties to shareholders.Bob Bishop, a partner at law firm DLA, said: “If British Energy delists, this would not be sanctioned by the court under the Companies Act.