CLT’s major shareholder, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, is believed to be prepared to sell the stake.Chargeurs is expected to take part in the consolidation of the continental television market, which may see a concentration in the areas of digital broadcasting and pay-TV. He is to become chairman of Pathe, which already groups the company’s cinema interests.Despite its loss-making status, the company has been rumoured as a buyer for CLT, the Luxembourg-based broadcaster whose name has also been linked with BSkyB. The BSkyB stake, inherited following the merger of Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television and BSB, co-owned by Chargeurs, is to remain with Pathe.Chargeurs bought control of Pathe Cinema in 1990, beating controversial Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, who later bought the Hollywood studio MGM.Chargeurs’ main shareholder, Jerome Seydoux, who speaks for 29 per cent family stake, has agreed not to sell shares in the company for at least five years. Speculation in advance of the demerger announcement helped push BSkyB shares up 21p in frantic trading.Once details of the split were announced in Paris, the BSkyB shares dropped sharply back, but none the less ended the day 51/2p higher at 3981/2p.Chargeurs, one of the continent’s leading media players, also has investments in textiles and transport, which have reduced the stock’s attractiveness, according to media analysts.But difficulties in the publishing and television sector, including a restructuring charge of 120m FF taken by ailing French newspaper Liberation, were behind the company’s losses of 575m FF in 1995, unveiled yesterday.In a statement, the company said the demerger proposals, which have been approved by French tax authorities and expected to be “tax-neutral”, followed “an assessment by Chargeurs of the necessity to clarify and strengthen the development prospects specific to each of its major sectors of activity.”The company added that the demerged companies would be able to focus more clearly on strategic and competitive issues.Under the terms of the demerger proposal, Chargeurs shareholders will get one share in Pathe, the new media and television company, and one share in Chargeurs International, the industrial arm, for every share they current hold.

MATHEW HORSMAN

Media Editor
Demerger mania crossed the Channel yesterday, as the holding company Chargeurs unveiled a radical split of its media and industrial operations.Chargeurs, which has a 17.8 per cent stake in UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB, firmly denied market rumours that it intended to sell the holding. It says that ministers will “look to make further information public” once disciplinary procedures have been complete.. The role of the board, made up of unpaid local buisness people, is to provide independent advice on commercial issues associated with RSA.The report stops short of discussing the bahaviour of individuals or any matters under investigation by the SFO. There is uncertainty over the extent to which the Government may be able to recover funds.The Department is further criticised for placing too much reliance on the results of a meeting of the South West Industrial Development Board at which few members were present. It says that too little attention was paid to the background of the company and to its associates overseas.The report also concludes that too much emphasis was placed on keeping the company afloat and too little to safeguarding the Department’s position.

The data capture and conversion company, based in Falmouth, received pounds 825,000 in Regional Selective Assistance and, according to a report by the Department of Trade and Industry, made available last night, there were “a number of serious deficiencies” in the handling of the case.An internal investigation by the DTI of its handling of its dealings with ROM-Data criticises the way in which “key events” were documented and the assessment of the risks associated with the company. MARY FAGAN

Industrial Correspondent
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating the collapse in December 1994 of ROM-Data Corporation. Mr Goodfellow said: “If we were to follow the example of Nationwide we would be handing back profits of pounds 10m in a full year.”. Skipton said it has succeeded in cutting the percentage of its borrowers in arrears of 12 months or more to 0.17 of all mortgages, compared to an industry average of 0.81 per cent.The society, which pioneered free unemployment insurance for borrowers, also added a further 30,000 savers, a 9 per cent increase on 1994.John Goodfellow, chief executive at Skipton, said his society’s results came despite a decision to write off all its mortgage incentives and discounts as already incurred, rather than amortise them over the period of the loan.Skipton is also preparing its own loyalty bonuses to members. Despite difficulties in the housing market, the society increased the amount of its residential mortgage advances by 21 per cent to pounds 1.8bn.His comments came as another society, Skipton, announced yesterday that its own 1995 pre-tax profits rose by 56 per cent to pounds 27m. Pre- tax profits were up pounds 6m compared to 1994Geoff Lister, chief executive at Bradford & Bingley, said that the performance underlined the society’s financial and strategic strength.