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but if they do this deal it will pretty much preclude them from doing anything else for a couple of years

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but if they do this deal, it will pretty much preclude them from doing anything else for a couple of years."Unilever has already drastically reduced its cash pile, which stood at £4bn at the end of 1998 following the sale of the group's chemicals division to ICI. The group's net cash at the end of last year, after it had paid its special dividend to shareholders, was £422m and Charterhouse expects that, even without the Bestfoods deal, Unilever will have sunk into the red to the tune of £600m by the end of 2000.Mr FitzGerald is adamant that the group's balance sheet is "well able" to support the transaction and is understood to be preparing a $20bn syndicated loan to back the bid, arranged by banks including ABN Amro, Deutsche and Warburg Dillon Reed. But despite his apparent determination to seal the Bestfoods deal, he says that it will not affect the Unilever's wider strategy of paring down its portfolio to concentrate on 400 core brands and drive up revenues by five per cent at a cost of about 25,000 jobs. "Whatever the outcome, our stated strategy remains the same and we have confidence in it.". Tim Smit is the author of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, just out in paperback. He gave up the music business to uncover a Cornish estate abandoned for 70 years. It was featured in a Channel 4 television series and is now one of Cornwall's most successful tourist attractions.

He is also chief executive of the Eden Project near St Austell, the world's largest greenhouse, where an exhibition on "The Big Build" opens on 15 May. Tim Smit is the author of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, just out in paperback. He gave up the music business to uncover a Cornish estate abandoned for 70 years. It was featured in a Channel 4 television series and is now one of Cornwall's most successful tourist attractions. He is also chief executive of the Eden Project near St Austell, the world's largest greenhouse, where an exhibition on "The Big Build" opens on 15 May. Primary school: My dad is Dutch. When we went to Turkey, where he was the KLM (Dutch airline) general manager, I went to an American school in Ankara.

My only memory of that school was of kissing a girl in a cupboard.At seven I was absolutely fluent in Turkish. From eight to 12 I went to Vine Hall near Robertsbridge in Sussex Was I happy there? Up to a point I was quite sickly and homesick to start with I had a pathological problem with authority I will do anything for anybody - if they ask me. If they tell me, my whole body goes rigid.I have two especially vivid memories. The first was stealing strawberries from the garden of one of the masters.

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