European Business News (EBN), 96-10-30

European Business News (EBN) Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The European Business News Server at <http://www.ebn.co.uk/>

Page last updated October 30 1015 CET

CONTENTS

[01] Deutsche Bank's CEO to step down next May

[02] Equity owners of DFS group agree to sell their stake to French luxury goods group LVMH

[03] VW loses defamation suit against Opel

[04] B.A.T Industries posts 9% profit

[05] Russian Duma's speaker demands Chubais resignation

[01] Deutsche Bank's CEO to step down next May

Germany's largest commercial bank said Kopper, along with Ellen Schneider- Lenne and Ulrich Cartelliere voluntarily asked to step down from the management board.

Kopper and Carellieri are expected to join the supervisory board next spring. The bank also said the supervisory board had appointed Josef Ackermann as full member of the management board . Ackermann was president of Credit Suisse's executive board until the middle of this year.

At the end of the year Ackermann will first take over the staff division credit risks from Schneider-Lenne and then, in spring 1997, the market risks, treasury and economics division from Cartellieri, the bank said.

[02] Equity owners of DFS group agree to sell their stake to French luxury goods group LVMH

DFS declined to elaborate on how much equity was changing hands and exactly who the sellers are. But a person with knowledge of the transaction said Robert Miller, a company founder, didn't sell any of his holdings. In a statement, DFS said the selling owners had decided to part with the equity 'for estate planning and other personal reasons.' An LVMH spokesman declined to comment. The company, whose shares trade in the U.S. as American depositary receipts, racked up 1995 sales of 29.8 billion French francs ($5.81 billion) from a stable of brands including Dom Perignon champagne, Hennessy cognac, Louis Vuitton luggage and Givenchy fashion.

DFS, of San Francisco, operates more than 180 duty-free and general- merchandise shops in airports, hotel lobbies and downtown locations around the Pacific Rim, mostly in the U.S. and Asia. It says annual sales exceed $3 billion. LVMH has been one of DFS's most important vendors, accounting for about 10% of its business, DFS said. 'Since 90% of our business is done with vendors other than LVMH, including some of their toughest competitors, the company will be run independently from LVMH,' DFS said in a statement. DFS's chairman and chief executive, Myron E. Ullman III, said in the statement, 'After 35 years, it is understandable that some of DFS's owners have different priorities and interests that have prompted them to explore new opportunities.' Mr. Ullman is the former chairman and chief executive of R.H. Macy & Co.; he assumed the top job at DFS in 1994, shortly before Macy's acquisition by Federated Department Stores Inc. DFS said LVMH 'has indicated that it intends to continue to operate DFS as an autonomous retail enterprise, under its current management team.'

[03] VW loses defamation suit against Opel

[04] B.A.T Industries posts 9% profit

The advance is slightly above analysts forecasts. 'The good progress in both the Group's businesses is being maintained, but headlines have, once again, been dominated by U.S. tobacco litigation,' said Lord Collins, B.A.T chairman.

On a divisional basis, commercial activities, including tobacco rang up operating profit of 1.097 billion pounds, while financial services recorded operating profit of 781 million pounds. Associates yielded 207 million pounds operating profit and disposals earned 69 million pounds. Interest rate costs fell 18% to 146 million pounds, while exchange rate movements showed a 29 million pound gain compared to a year earlier.

B.A.T said its U.S. Farmers Insurance unit had an 'excellent' performance with operating profit up 9% to 467 million pounds. It noted that the establishment of the California Earthquake Authority, a private and public sector partnership, limits potential liability for damages.

The company added that its U.K. insurer, Eagle Star, is facing 'fiercely competitive conditions', but should benefit from providing household insurance policies and claims processing for customers of the Alliance & Leicester Building Society. At Allied Dunbar, the U.K. life insurance unit, B.A.T said the direct sales force is achieving its best levels of production since 1993.

[05] Russian Duma's speaker demands Chubais resignation

The conflict comes as Yeltsin has canceled all his meetings ahead of coronary-bypass surgery slated for next week, apparently leaving much of the day-to-day work of running the country to Chubais and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

In a written statement distributed in the lower house of parliament, Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov said he won't participate with Chubais in a newly formed state council aimed in part at consolidating authority during Yeltsin's illness. Yeltsin created the council earlier this month, including in it the speakers of the two houses of parliament and Chernomyrdin, with Chubais filling in for the president when needed.

In his statement, Seleznyov protested the naming late Tuesday of businessman Boris Berezovsky, a close Chubais ally, to the staff of the Kremlin's Security Council. Berezovsky, a major financial backer of Yeltsin's re-election campaign, has been a frequent target of Communist criticism since he was granted control over the state television network ORT by presidential decree at the end of 1994.

Seleznyov accused Berezovsky of 'conducting an anti-Russian information coup.' 'I'm convinced that an appointment to such a senior post couldn't take place without the personal interest and backing of Chief of Staff Anatoly Chubais,' he added.

From the European Business News (EBN) Server at http://www.ebn.co.uk/

European Business News (EBN) Directory - Previous Article - Next Article