Sir Christopher, has got himself into the uncomfortable position of backing just one of those bids – a pounds 2.4bn all shares offer from Whitbread – and he has done so on terms that seem to preclude him from giving adequate consideration to the competing, higher offer – a pounds 2.7bn all cash bid from Hugh Osmond’s privately owned Punch Taverns. They would not themselves admit this, of course, and indeed on one level, they are indisputably sitting pretty. SIR CHRISTOPHER Hogg and his board at Allied Domecq seem to be in a dreadful pickle over the disposal of the group’s pubs estate. Despite this the American lawyers for the liquidators said they had high hopes of recovering the cash. The takeover was known about by US intelligence but they neither intervened nor informed US banking authorities, a Congressional inquiry found.Mr Khalil lives in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and did not appear in person in court because of health concerns.

BCCI hid its dealings through a network of nominee investors, of whom Mr Khalil was one. But the strength of economic data is pointing to a series of rate rises instead.. THE LIQUIDATORS of BCCI, the bank which collapsed after massive fraud in 1991, yesterday won a billion-dollar damages claim against a wealthy Arablinked with the organisation. But some fear a rise in borrowing costs could send Wall Street into a nosedive.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber, a classic cyclical stock, issued a profits warning, and technology stocks were also weak.The yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond climbed to 6.19 per cent, a 19-month high. Treasury bond prices and the dollar also declined steeply, with the end of America’s long boom in prospect. The Fed’s Open Markets Committee isexpected to raise interest rates next Wednesday, with perhaps more increases to come in the summer.
By early afternoon the Dow Jones index was 180 points lower at 10,486.71 – below the psychological barrier of 10,500. US SHARE prices fell sharply yesterday as investors’ nerves got the better of them ahead of next week’s crucial meeting of the Federal Reserve. The denial caused a sharp sell-off in Delta shares as investors hoping to cash in on a takeover bailed out.At 10:50am, the LSE issued a correction stating that DBS Management, a small financial services group, was the company in bid talks At the same time, the Delta shares were suspended.

The blunder, one of the most embarrassing mistakes in the bourse’s 197- year history, caused hours of confusion in the City’s dealing rooms and forced the authorities to cancel several trades to preempt legal action from angry investors.
At 10:12am, the LSE issued a statement saying that the cable and engineering group Delta was in talks which may lead to an offer at a “substantial premium to the current market price”.The news triggered a wave of buying in Delta, which propelled the company’s price around 34 per cent higher to over 200p with more than 1.2 million shares traded.Thirteen minutes later, Delta rushed out a statement denying the talks. THE STOCK MARKET was plunged into chaos yesterday after the London Stock Exchange identified the wrong company as being in takeover talks. The satellite broadcaster, which has attracted more than 800,000 digital customers, began digital service in October. Mr Clarke said it would “take a couple of years” to catch up to BSkyB. “It’s like the tortoise and the hare,” he added.CWC is investing pounds 550m over three years to upgrade its cable network for digital and expects to have 200,000 digital subscribers by March..