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The bank advises 20 of the top 100 UK companies including Barclays BSkyB

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The bank advises 20 of the top 100 UK companies, including Barclays, BSkyB and Kingfisher."For CSFB it could be short-term gain but long-term pain," said one City banker.However, the bank is known to have a long-standing relationship with KKR, having worked with the group on the buyout of Legrand in France last year. CSFB also advised on the purchase of businesses from Siemens the year before, and that of the UK insurer Willis in 2000.Asda, which is owned by the US giant Wal-Mart, has been stalking Safeway for some months. However, it took its eye off the ball in the run-up to Christmas while its executives concentrated on the busiest period of the year. This paid off, with an 8 per cent growth in like-for-like sales.. Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail, is to come under pressure to resign some of his other directorships after the publication of a Government-sponsored report into corporate governance tomorrow. He is chairman of two large public companies, GUS and Trinity Mirror, as well as being deputy chairman of Coats and non-executive of Chubb. Lord Burns, the former Treasury mandarin, may face questions over being chairman of Abbey National and Glas Cymru as well as non-executive of Pearson and British Land, while Lord Stevenson, a peer close to Labour, is chairman of two FTSE 100 companies, HBOS and Pearson.

The Higgs report will be published with a DTI-sponsored report into auditing and will propose tougher regulation.. Centrica is considering chopping up its Goldfish credit card business and disconnecting its British Gas Communications division as part of a review of its operations. But well-placed sources revealed that Centrica's chief executive, Sir Roy Gardner, has singled out Goldfish and British Gas Communications because they don't fit in with the rest of the company's relatively steady and low-risk profile.Simon Edrich, an analyst at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, said: "There is a time and a place for these types of business and that might have been a couple of years' ago." He added that the City would "take such an announcement positively, given current concerns about financial services and telecoms".Centrica's stated strategy is to create a one-stop shop for household services. But the group's diverse portfolio has led some analysts to criticise it for lacking focus.Goldfish Bank, which operates the credit card in joint venture with Lloyds TSB, has more than a million card customers. For the six months to 30 June the business made a £17m operating loss. Because of the already overcrowded personal finance market, Goldfish is not projected to make a profit until next year.British Gas Communications was set up as a rival to BT and claims to offer discounts on domestic telephone calls. However, the business has suffered from delays in forcing BT to open itself up further to full competition.In the six months to 30 June the business, with 385,000 customers, produced a £26m loss.In July 2001 Centrica bought the profitable UK arm of the One.Tel telecoms company from its bankrupt Australian parent.

The business has 650,000 phone customers and 100,000 connected to the internet. It is understood that One.Tel will escape Sir Roy's business review to dial another day.. A £10bn contract to build and maintain two Royal Navy aircraft carriers should be awarded to France's Thales over Britain's BAE Systems, Ministry of Defence officials have told ministers. The company has also indicated that if it were unsuccessful, it might turn its back on the UK defence market and focus on winning business from the US government.Whitehall insiders said that the MoD recommendation was made on 8 January in a secret meeting with the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon.

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