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Bupa was also instructed to sell the 26

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Bupa was also instructed to sell the 26.8 per cent stake its advisers, Schroders Salomon Smith Barney, held within six months. Bupa is understood to be driving for a price for its stake above the 650p-a-share it paid. However, Community shares slipped at the end of last year to below the 550p mark, leading analysts to believe that a price of about 640p is likely.Bidders include companies that would give the enlarged group as much of a share of the private hospitals business in the UK as the Bupa deal.. Infobank International, which sells software that enables businesses to trade over the internet, yesterday surprised the market by saying it expected to incur an £8.5m charge for the full year, for the amortisation and impairment in value of goodwill relating to certain acquisitions The charge has no impact on cash. Infobank International, which sells software that enables businesses to trade over the internet, yesterday surprised the market by saying it expected to incur an £8.5m charge for the full year, for the amortisation and impairment in value of goodwill relating to certain acquisitions. The charge has no impact on cash. The news came with a number of announcements from Infobank, including estimates for fourth-quarter sales.

Shares in Infobank, which fell as low as 237.5p at one point, ended the day down 3.5p at 256.5p.Infobank also said it is taking a one-off cost of £1.7m in the fourth quarter to reflect investment in new software systems and office relocation - pushing total operating costs for the quarter up to £14m. However, it does not expect the underlying cost base to increase substantially in 2001. Analysts have pencilled in costs of £48m to £52m for 2001.The company, which is headed by Graham Sadd, forecast sales of around £1.3m in the final quarter of 2000, up from £700,000 in the third quarter, and said it has contracted over £2m of additional revenue for 2001. While analysts said the fourth-quarter revenue figure was ahead of market expectations of around £1.2m, they noted that the cost base was higher than expected.Peter Wyatt, a technology analyst at Nomura, was not worried by the news but stressed that a key issue for Infobank will be evidence that its newest product, InTrade version 5, is selling. Infobank said yesterday it had received "highly positive" feedback but announced no new sales of the product.Infobank also said that Etnoteam, an Italian systems integrator act as a reseller channel into the Italian market for version 5..

Lloyds TSB has offered to meet the Consumers Association in an attempt to head off opposition to its proposed £16bn takeover bid for Abbey National, ahead of Friday's deadline for submissions to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Lloyds TSB has offered to meet the Consumers Association in an attempt to head off opposition to its proposed £16bn takeover bid for Abbey National, ahead of Friday's deadline for submissions to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The offer follows a meeting yesterday between Abbey National and the Consumers Association, at which Abbey sought to persuade Sheila McKechnie, the head of the association, that its takeover by Lloyds TSB would be hugely damaging to consumer interests. Ms McKechnie, who has campaigned vigorously against what it sees as the overweening power of the big UK clearing banks, had been expected to lobby the OFT to refer the bid for a full competition inquiry on the ground that it would reduce consumer choice.However, a spokesman for the Consumer Association insisted after the Abbey meeting that the association had not yet made up its mind. He said: "It could be that on balance there will be some detriment to the consumer interest. But we start from a position of not deciding one way or the other because at the moment we are gathering information."Lloyds is seeking to persuade the OFT that taking over Abbey would create a more efficient organisation and a more aggressive competitor for Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland which now owns NatWest.

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