But Mr Vardey is nevertheless likely to be entitled to a pay-off

But Mr Vardey is nevertheless likely to be entitled to a pay-off. According to the annual report all the Exchange's executive directors are on one-year rolling contracts, and he is to leave just over three months after resigning.The Exchange said: "There are no payments being made to Mr Vardey other than those to which he is contractually entitled under his contract of employment."Observers believe Mr Vardey is leaving because he helped reorganise himself out of a senior job at the Exchange, which is slimming down and concentrating on its core activities.This has left less scope for a board which - with Mr Vardey - comprises four full-time executive directors and a chief executive.The Exchange confirmed that Mr Vardey is not being replaced, and it is expected that his departure will lead to further reorganisation.Last year he was the Exchange's highest paid executive after Mr Lawrence, earning a salary of pounds 170,000, a performance bonus of pounds 56,000 and benefits of more than pounds 13,000.Mr Vardey said he had always intended to leave the Stock Exchange after four or five years. He was returning to the securities industry because "that is where I came from, that is the business I know".Mr Vardey was best known recently for pushing through the new computerised order-driven trading system, which is to be inaugurated next October.However, the main technical and regulatory elements of the system have now been agreed and by the time Mr Vardey leaves in March it is expected to be in the trial stage.He was also involved in the Exchange's move from a fortnightly account to rolling settlement and the introduction of the AIM market for small firms.Mr Vardey's marketing of the Exchange abroad led to a memorandum of understanding with China and the first Chinese share was listed on the Exchange this week.. Amec, the British construction group, yesterday took a big step into Europe by buying control of its French rival, Spie Batignolles, in partnership with a pounds 40m management and employee buyout. The combined group will be the sixth-largest contractor in Europe with turnover of pounds 4.7bn and 48,000 employees. Initially, Amec is paying pounds 20m-pounds 23m for a stake of between 40 and 48.6 per cent in Spie with the remainder of the shares acquired by management and employees.

But it has an option in six years to take full control by buying out the other shareholders.Amec and the Spie employees will pay the owners of the business, Schneider, pounds 40m in cash. Spie has also agreed to buy out Schneider's 50 per cent stake in the electrical services business Spie Trindel for pounds 75m.The deal follows Kvaerner of Norway's unsuccessful bid for Amec and Amec's failure to merge with fellow UK contractor, MacAlpine.Peter Mason, chief executive of Amec, said: "Europe is the largest construction market in the world and it is beginning to consolidate. In the long term there will only be half-a-dozen contractors left in Europe. If we don't do something we will be left behind and there won't be a UK player in that premier league."Amec employs 20,000 and with turnover of pounds 2.7bn is a big player in the oil and gas and rail markets and building and civil engineering.Spie, one of the 10-strong consortium that built the Channel Tunnel, is France's fifth-biggest contractor specialising in electrical and civil engineering construction and pipe laying. It has 28,000 employees and sales of pounds 2bn a year.In recent years, Spie's trading performance has been affected by a number of problem contracts and its exposure to property development.

Last year it made pre-tax profits of pounds 4m and this year Amec said it would be profitable at the trading level.But the property division, together with liabilities relating to a number of construction contracts and Spie's North American interests are being retained by Schneider. Spie has net cash of Fr1.2bn (pounds 137m).Amec said the acquisition would give it greater access to European and international markets, particularly France where construction output is forecast to grow by 0.4 per cent in 1997 after several years of decline.. National Express yesterday agreed to give undertakings on price and service levels on five coach routes between London and the North after the Monopolies and Mergers Commission ruled that its takeover of the competing rail service, Midland Main Line, was against the public interest, writes Michael Harrison. Accepting the MMC's findings, Ian Lang, President of the Board of Trade, said that if satisfactory undertakings had not been obtained by 20 March, he would force National Express to comply. But Mr Lang stopped short of ordering National Express to divest itself of the overlapping coach routes - an option preferred by the director- general of Fair Trading, John Bridgeman.The five services are between London and Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester where National Express controls 97 per cent of the coach and rail market after being awarded a 10-year franchise to run Midland Main Line in April.The group will be required to restrict increases in coach fares to the retail price index and maintain the current levels of service unless there is "a significant reduction in passenger numbers".Ernie Patterson, chief executive of National Express, welcomed Mr Lang's announcement, adding: "The behavioural undertakings sought are broadly in line with those we had previously offered."The MMC concluded that National Express's takeover of the Midland Main Line from British Rail would reduce competition in the leisure market on the five routes and lead to higher fares for both rail and coach passengers and a lower standard of services.Around 90 per cent of coach passengers and 40 per cent of rail passengers on the routes are leisure travellers.. MeesPierson, the world's oldest merchant bank, was bought yesterday for 2.5bn guilders (pounds 850m) by Fortis, the Belgian and Dutch-owned insurance and banking group. Founded in 1720 in Rotterdam as Mees and Zoonen, MeesPierson is being sold by the giant Dutch bank ABN Amro, which owns Hoare Govett, the London securities house. Hoare Govett is not affected by the deal, which represents one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the Netherlands.

The release of capital tied up in the MeesPierson business frees ABN Amro to concentrate on expansion elsewhere.Earlier this year it offered more than pounds 1bn for Standard Federal Bancorporation, one of the largest savings banks in the US Mid-west.This was the culmination of a series of acquisitions across the Atlantic, including three others this year, which have confirmed its position as the biggest foreign bank operating in the US.MeesPierson has less than a tenth of its business in the UK, but is a big operator in the Dutch corporate finance, fund management and private banking markets.The acquisition will make Fortis one of the three biggest financial services groups in the Benelux countries and the fourth-largest Dutch bank. Total assets under management will be pounds 80bn.Fortis said the acquisition would make a positive contribution to Fortis' earnings per share from 1997. The group will partially finance the acquisition by a rights issue early next year and the rest will be from bond issues and internal resources.The two parent companies of the group, Fortis AG of Belgium and Fortis Amev in the Netherlands, will contribute equal amounts in cash.Dennis Ederzeel, a banking analyst at Delta Lloyd Bank, said: "If you look at recent prices for takeovers, that's not an exaggerated amount." The price includes this year's profits and the goodwill payment is about 500m guilders.. It was not quite the triumphant day many had expected. True, Footsie stretched to a peak but after New York's heroics a more convincing advance had seemed inevitable. Retailers were largely responsible for confidence ebbing away in late trading. At the close the index was up 26.3 points at 4,077.6; during the session it touched 4,100.

Its previous peak, 4073.1, was achieved two months ago. Although some of the glory faded the stock market was able to point to three rampant sessions which lifted Footsie almost 100 points.Supporting shares were also in form with the FTSE 250 index ending up 41.6 at 4, 448.4, a three-day gain of 84.4.Retailers were hit by renewed doubts about the strength of Christmas trading. Cautious trading statements from major Marks & Spencer suppliers, Claremont Garments and SR Gent, added to the anxiety that the festive season, after a bright start, had faltered and hopes it could represent the biggest spending spree since 1988 may be dashed.Marks led the retreat, falling 11.5p to 472.5p Burton lost 3p to 151.5p and Next 7.5p to 544.5p. Boots, Dixons, Great Universal Stores and Sears were others to miss the Christmas party.Claremont said sales in the Christmas build-up were running below best expectations; Gent, reporting an pounds 11.1m loss, reported sales in line but margins feeling the pinch. Claremont fell 6p to 166.5p but Gent, which is in take over talks, added 2p to 59.5p.Oils enjoyed some strong gains with Enterprise Oil bubbling 22p higher to 636.5p as analysts calculated the asset valuations implicit from the Gulf Canada Resources bid for Clyde Petroleum. Clyde edged forward 3p to 119.5p and Cairn Energy 5p to 411p.The giants were in form with British Petroleum 11p firmer at 694p and Shell 12p at 994p.Ramco Energy was the star performer, flaring 137.5p to 1,030p.