The Government reined in the number of new casinos it would allow to 17, only one of which will be a supercasino. Stanley will have to slug it out with all the other casino groups to win any of these precious new licences. They will be able to double the number of lucrative slot machines they can install to 20. Shareholders in Stanley Leisure, the gaming group, have scooped a 250p-per-share jackpot thanks to the sale of the company’s betting shops to William Hill.
The disposal was completed yesterday, and details of how the cash will be handed back will be made public next month.

“I remain ‘foolishly’ optimistic for the visual effects industry.”. David Jeffers, the managing director of Moving Picture Company, which provides special effects for films such as Kingdom of Heaven and the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, said the film business had always been challenging.But an “extraordinary centre of excellence” in post-production and special effects had been created in London in the past six to eight years and the Government was now well aware it existed, he said. This would put Britain on a par with countries such as Malta, Luxembourg and Ireland which have been winning business. Dubai and Singapore are the latest places also bidding to become media centres.It is thought that the Treasury believes 20 per cent relief across the board would be too expensive, but Mr Brett said the “multiplier effect” to the economy would be considerable.In the meantime, not everyone is downhearted. The film industry has largely accepted these were a problem and needed to be tackled, but Mr Spence said: “There’s an enormous amount of pain involved.”Paul Brett, an independent film financier, said what was required was for the promised 20 per cent relief for smaller-budget films to be extended to the budget of bigger pictures, creating one coherent system. When there are no agreed rules of the game in place, it’s enormously difficult,” he said.The Government’s re-evaluation of tax relief was partly attributed to abuses of the system. In an industry like this, producers have to plan and invest with as much certainty as possible.

If we can resolve some of the current issues, I don’t think there’s any fundamental problem long-term.”But the board will not be declaring an interim dividend in respect of the current financial year and will decide whether to pay a final dividend for 2005 when its results are known.A spokeswoman for the Treasury said it did not accept there was any uncertainty over the future of UK film relief. And the UK has always been a very desirable place to make films in. There are extremely high levels of skilled and creative and technical talent in the UK. We’re in a stage where we’re awaiting the outcome of that,” Mr Dunleavy said.All sides in the industry are signed up to the consultation but it will take a minimum of 12 weeks, then two or three months for legislation to be passed. Pinewood Shepperton claimed trading would be affected into the first half of 2006 as a result.The company said at its AGM last month that it would depend, as it always did, on converting provisional film bookings for its 36 stages across more than 200 acres into firm contracts, including at least one blockbuster. But trading conditions had not improved since then.”We have a usual level of provisional bookings, we’re simply being cautious about how many of them convert,” Mr Dunleavy said.The uncertainty was compounded by the adverse dollar/sterling exchange rate, which makes it comparatively more expensive to film in Britain.He added: “The film-goers’ appetite for new films is very high and growing.

Panmure Gordon is floating the technology group and has raised £3m for the company at 108p. Word has it that the fundraising was heavily oversubscribed, making it likely that those investors who missed out will scramble to get their hands on stock today.. Britain’s major film studios, Pinewood Shepperton, the home to James Bond and the recent Batman Begins, issued a profits warning yesterday, blaming uncertainty over future UK film tax breaks combined with the weak dollar for poor trading conditions. According to a well-informed financial source, it will unveil a deal soon, possibly before the end of the week, in the form of a joint venture.Finally, brokers expect Z Group to enjoy a strong maiden session today.

The company claims to have an asset value of 240p a share but strangely the bulk of this is held in the form of a promissory note (basically an IOU) at South America’s Banco do Brasil. Given Crown’s share price stands at such a discount to its asset value, the market is clearly sceptical that the promissory note is of any value at all.However, Stuart Pearson, the investment company’s recently appointed chief executive, is determined to show the City that the note, worth a princely sum of $660m, can be relied on. As a result, it urges investors to reduce their holdings in the stock.Elsewhere, Workspace, up 0.5p to 245p, saw Harry Platt, its chief executive, bag a £400,000 profit from the exercise of share options. Mr Platt exercised an option over 210,000 shares in the office space group at a price of 45p and then sold the stock in the market at 285.25p.Among small-caps, Crown Corporation, down 3.5p to 48p, was a major talking point. The Dutch broker said: “We believe Northern must embark on further restructuring in order to make meaningful progress on improving its profit margins but this won’t be without large cash costs.”According to ABN, such a move would definitely see Northern Foods miss its forecasts and is likely to put its dividend in danger.