Free satellite will also reach the 25 per cent of the UK that cannot receive Freeview.The BBC said: “This could lead to the development of a vibrant free-to-view market in satellite, just as there is now a free-to-view market in digital terrestrial television following the launch of Freeview.”. Booming House prices in countries such as the UK must be monitored closely as a sudden property crash could threaten the stability of the financial sector, the European Central Bank said yesterday. It cited Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK as countries where homeowners had taken advantage of surging house prices to take out big mortgages.”The resulting high indebtedness increases the vulnerability of households to income shocks and interest rate changes and may eventually affect the stability of financial institutions,” the ECB said. And in a veiled criticism of last month’s rate cut by the Bank of England, the ECB added: “Lower rates could fuel the boom or even a bubble further, thus later aggravating a downward correction of house prices with negative consequences for the economy.”. The Government put the fund management industry on notice yesterday that it had until the end of the year to become far more transparent and start paying for independent research.

It will report its initial findings to the Government in the summer and submit a final report in December.Paul Myners, the former chairman of Gartmore Fund Management, attacked pension fund trustees and fund managers for not monitoring companies they invest in rigorously enough two years ago. Mr Myners also highlighted the problem of so-called soft commissions, the fees brokers charge for research, which are bundled into the total cost of share trading. Mr Myners suggested research should be paid for separately to encourage analysts to be more robust in their criticism of companies because the research would not be linked to institutional investors’ decisions to buy shares.The Financial Services Authority warned last year that house brokers were twice as likely to recommend a buy on a company than other stockbrokers. She insisted only 5,000 people would be affected by the change.. Hugh Osmond was last night forced to abandon his £3.9bn hostile bid for Six Continents after shareholders in the leisure giant voted overwhelmingly to back the management’s plans to spin off its pubs arm. He said he was eyeing other companies that looked good value, but said the separate pubs group – to be called Mitchells & Butler – did not top his list of targets.

“It’s a shame we didn’t win but it was a good fight and we’ll be back,” he said.Six Continents’ victory came at an eventful meeting that lasted more than four hours after Mr Osmond exercised his right to call for a formal poll of votes cast on his adjournment motion.”This was very much the shareholders’ day. We’re obviously very pleased with the outcome,” Tim Clarke, the group’s chief executive, said. Making an effort to rebuff criticisms that the board was unreceptive to takeover approaches, Mr Clarke pointed to the creation of a special “bid committee” staffed by its three most senior non-executive directors, including Roger Carr and David Webster, the Safeway’s chairman who will become deputy chairman of the hotels arm after the split.Speaking after the meeting, Richard North, the chief executive-elect of the hotels business, said any potential takeover deal for the entire group would “be done on a friendly basis”. He revealed that the group had come “very close” to agreeing to a merger with a hotel group early last year, but said the talks had fallen apart over the value of its pubs estate “Everybody has spoken to us … we have become the most interesting company in the hotel industry.

We will have to see what happens,” he added.During the meeting, which was attended by all five CMI directors, Mr Osmond said postponing the vote was “as close as you can get in investment terms to a one-way bet”. He claimed the current executive board had been responsible for 10 years of “value destruction”, warning: “Leopards do not change their spots, management do not change their ways and this demerger does not change this management.”The value of CMI’s failed cash-and-shares bid sunk from £5.6bn to £3.9bn after a 5.5p fall in the company’s share price to 12.5p. The bid cost CMI shareholders around £8.5m.Shareholders voted three to one against Mr Osmond’s motion Around 98 per cent of votes cast backed the demerger.. Investors Were staring into the abyss last night after a savage plunge on the London stock market triggered fears that share prices were in free-fall. The index slumped by 166 points, or 4.8 per cent, to close at 3,287 ­ its lowest level since July 1995.