Analysts at Bridgewell said: “Not only does this remove the financial risk hanging over the company, as it had to repay all of its debt this year, but it puts LCI in a strong position to take advantage of deregulation.”A long-term incentive plan for about 30 senior staff was also unveiled yesterday in an effort to prevent key workers being poached ahead of deregulation. If consumers in the UK want to have a choice between Tesco, Tesco or Tesco in five to 10 years’ time then that decision is good. But if people don’t want to be dictated to as to where they shop then [the deal] should at least have been referred for an inquiry,” he said.Tesco plans to convert the 45 stores it agreed to buy from the privately owned Adminstore group to its smallest Tesco Express format. The sites are located in some of London’s plushest neighbourhoods such as Chelsea, Kensington and Holland Park. This decision indicates that the OFT feels unable or unwilling to address the wider implications of the acquisitions it considers.”Bill Grimsey, the chief executive of Iceland’s owner, the Big Food Group, echoed this view “I think the OFT has failed to do its job. But after investigating the proposed deal, the watchdog found that it did not “give rise to competition concerns” at either the national, regional or local level.David Rae, who represents 31,500 neighbourhood stores as the head of the Association of Corner Shops, urged Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, to intervene to impose “competitive safeguards” to help small retailers fight the might of the supermarket majors “We are disappointed that our concerns have been overlooked.

The Office of Fair Trading yesterday dismayed convenience store owners by ignoring their pleas for it to clamp down on supermarket chains swallowing corner shop groups and clearing Tesco’s acquisition of 45 small sites in central London.
The watchdog dismissed calls for it to refer Tesco’s £54m purchase of the former Cullens, Europa Foods and Harts the Grocer stores for a full Competition Commission inquiry, despite admitting that the deal would create “a relevant merger situation”.As Britain’s biggest retailer, which takes £1 in every £8 spent on the high street, Tesco’s 27 per cent share of the food retail market is above the 25 per cent threshold that normally sets the OFT’s alarm bells ringing. He said that it was time to look again at letting oil companies drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a proposal which is opposed bitterly by environmental groups.”Through greater access to reliable and dependable US energy supplies like ANWR, we lessen our dependence on supplies from other, less secure, parts of the world,” Mr Snow said.. Saudi Arabia is due to decide export volumes for April in a week’s time, while Iran, the UAE and Nigeria have already informed refiners of lower supplies from 1 April.Guy Caruso, the head of the EIA, said yesterday that US gasoline demand was too strong for Opec to carry out an oil production cut. He said that if Opec did not cut its oil production, world crude inventories would begin returning “toward normal” levels.Meanwhile, John Snow, the US treasury secretary, warned that reliance on imported oil posed a threat to growth and national security. “We are firm in our decision to keep the one million barrel per day production cut to maintain our prices,” the oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, said.Opec’s council of ministers meets on 31 March to discuss output policy. The Bush administration said it was “extremely concerned” about surging gasoline prices.The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) warned that with gasoline stocks below normal levels, any problems at a refinery or pipeline might trigger supply disruptions and push up prices.Venezuela, which is the fourth-largest source of US imports, has threatened to stop all oil shipments to the US if Washington tries to blockade or invade it.Meanwhile, Opec, the oil producers’ cartel which pumps a third of the world’s oil, plans to cut production by 2.5 million barrels a day by 1 April.Venezuela said on Thursday that Opec would stick to its decision to cut production limits in April, despite rising prices. Oil prices surged to their highest level since the Iraq war yesterday on fears that political strife in Venezuela could spin out of control.

The chairman, Christopher Burnett, who plans to step down, said the company continued to see “good trading conditions” in the domestic, commercial and public sectors. “The new financial year has begun in line with our expectations,” he said.Marshalls said the return of cash is subject to getting both shareholder approval, which will be sought at a special meeting on 10 June, and court approval Shares closed up 2 per cent at 285p.. “Firstly, if you go for a buyback you can never be absolutely sure that you can get hold of enough shares,” he said. “Secondly, as far as individual shareholders are concerned, it’s treated as a capital gain rather than revenue and so they can use their capital gains tax allowance.”The plan was unveiled as Marshalls reported a pre-tax profit of £50.4m in 2003, up slightly from a profit of £49.4m a year before Sales rose just over 2 per cent to £349.5m. The company has benefited from the buoyant property market which, combined with low interest rates, has seen homeowners splash out on home improvements.Sales of landscape products rose 6.8 per cent to £289m, clay products were up 6.2 per cent ahead at £32m and sales of natural stone were 14 per cent higher at £28.5m. Shares in the existing Marshalls company, which will, for the purpose of the cash return, become a division of the new holding company, will be delisted.Graham Holden, the chief executive, said this method, rather than a share buyback programme or a special dividend, would give shareholders “certainty”.

The building materials company Marshalls yesterday announced it would return £75m of cash to shareholders as it reported a rise in profits. “The SCO has an exemplary record both in terms of propriety and its investigative skills with an excellent record of pursuing tax cheats.”This is not the first time that the SCO has been embroiled in controversy. Mr Fayed said he had been forced to leave the UK since the scrapping of the agreements and live as a tax exile in Switzerland.. A Scottish judge recently found that in agreeing forward tax agreements with Mr Fayed, the SCO had acted beyond its powers and scrapped the deals which the Inland Revenue had already tried to rescind, a move Mr Fayed opposed. In 1997 the unit’s former head, Stephen Allcock, was jailed for four years after being convicted of corruption charges. Its activities regularly bring in around £400m per year, which is money that would not otherwise have come to the Exchequer. The programme raised questions as to the SCO’s competence in dealing with the complex tax affairs of the very wealthy.A statement issued by the Inland Revenue said: “Our Special Compliance Office identifies and investigates the most significant cases of tax fraud and evasion against the honest British taxpayer.