What has been important is successful rationalisation on the back of consolidation

What has been important is successful rationalisation on the back of consolidation."Jefferson shares closed down 5p at 131.5p.. The consolidation sweeping Britain's regional newspaper industry does not threaten competition in local media markets, Tim Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press said yesterday. The consolidation sweeping Britain's regional newspaper industry does not threaten competition in local media markets, Tim Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press said yesterday. Johnston, Guardian Media and Newsquest, a division of the US giant Gannett, have requested regulatory clearance to mount estimated £500m plus bids for Regional Independent Media, the publisher of the Yorkshire Post. A decision is due in late October."If you look at the advertising market places we face intense competition from a wide variety of media," Mr Bowdler said "These are not monopolies. People get news and information from many sources."Our hope, and we've been lobbying strongly, is that the rules should be relaxed as far as they apply to the regional press," he added. The Government is to publish a communications white paper in the autumn on digital convergence and media ownership. Currently, any sale of newspapers with paid circulation above 500,000 is referred to the Competition Commission.The past year has seen the regional press sector become a hotbed of acquisition activity.

If a takeover of RIM is allowed, it could leave 60 per cent of the regional press in the hands of just four groups.Trinity Mirror is the biggest owner with a 19 per cent market share, while NorthCliffe, a division of Daily Mail & General Trust, and Newsquest each have a 14 per cent share. Johnston trails with a 10 per cent share, though a successful bid for RIM, which has 4.5 per cent share, would move it up the table."It's a good fit," Mr Bowdler said, commenting on RIM whose titles in Yorkshire do not overlap with Johnston's papers in Scotland, north-east England and on the south coast. "It would be a deal we could finance through borrowings but we would probably combine borrowings and a rights issue."His comments came as Johnston reported a 36 per cent jump in interim pre-tax profit to £35.2m, boosted by the acquisition of Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers in June 1999. Advertising volumes, up 9 per cent, were helped by strong gains in recruitment and national display advertising.Johnston shares closed down 2.5p at 370p The interim dividend was increased by 20 per cent to 1.5p.. Rolf Brewer, chairman of the Deutsche Börse, the Frankfurt exchange, said yesterday he believed that any "white knight" bid for the London Stock Exchange should not be a solely German initiative but should be an international effort by all those who back the Anglo-German iX plan. Rolf Brewer, chairman of the Deutsche Börse, the Frankfurt exchange, said yesterday he believed that any "white knight" bid for the London Stock Exchange should not be a solely German initiative but should be an international effort by all those who back the Anglo-German iX plan. The iX exchange merger has been thrown into doubt by Tuesday's hostile £846m bid for the LSE by OM Gruppen, owners of the Swedish stock exchange.The supervisory board of the German stock exchange has given its backing to plans to raise money to fund a counterbid for the LSE.However, Dr Breuer said yesterday such a bid "should be a common effort by all parties interested in the final success of a merger between Deutsche Börse, and the London Stock Exchange, for example our friends in Milan, Madrid and maybe a couple of others as well".The two southern European exchanges had signed up to join iX's pan-European bourse once London and Frankfurt had completed their first stage of integration. But they are now being assiduously courted by Euronext, the rival French-led exchange grouping of junior European exchanges.Dr Breuer, who is also chief executive of Deutsche Bank, the German exchange's biggest shareholder, insisted that a white knight bid would have to be at the request of the London Stock Exchange.Responding to questions from reporters at a ceremony to unveil the Deutsche Börse's new headquarters in Frankfurt yesterday, Dr Breuer said: "We will only act as a white knight if the London Stock Exchange asks," adding that no such request had yet been received.Although the LSE has postponed the 14 September vote of its shareholders to approve the iX merger deal, the German exchange yesterday said it would go ahead with its own shareholder vote on the same day, insisting that the OM bid did not put the iX deal in jeopardy.Frank Zarb, the chief executive of Nasdaq, who was present at the ceremony, also sought to distance himself from suggestions that the US technology exchange could break ranks with London and Frankfurt and mount its own bid for the LSE.

He said he was still keen on co-operation with iX.In contrast, Euronext officials said that the rival European grouping was open to an alliance with the LSE if shareholders felt they wanted an alternative to being taken over.In Stockholm, OM's shares rose for the second day running, closing up 16 kronor at 451. The fact that three-quarters of the bid is in OM paper would normally be expected to depress the value of its shares. LSE shares were last traded yesterday at £28.50 valuing the exchange at £849m - the highest level since trading started in July.LSE executives yesterday stuck to the official line that the OM bid offered nothing and that the iX deal was still on course. However, behind the scenes there was a growing recognition that the Exchange had a fight on its hands.. Shares in Parthus Technologies, the Irish chip designer specialising in mobile internet applications, soared 16 per cent yesterday after it unveiled a navigational technology called NavStream that will allow pinpoint location tracking. Shares in Parthus Technologies, the Irish chip designer specialising in mobile internet applications, soared 16 per cent yesterday after it unveiled a navigational technology called NavStream that will allow pinpoint location tracking. Parthus has also signed a licensing agreement with ARM Holdings, the mobile-phone chip designer.

ARM will incorporate the technology into its chips, which are used in most of the world's mobile handsets.The technology works by taking information from a global positioning system that uses satellites. Applications could aid emergency rescues and allow local area marketing to users of mobile phones.Kevin Fielding, chief operating officer at Parthus, said: "Our technology will be used in automobiles for navigation. It will also be used in cellular phones and personal assistants like Palm Pilot or Psion."Parthus stock, which floated on 19 May at 85p, closed up 38.5p at 271.5p, valuing the company at £1.45bn. Sales in 1999 were just £19m, but they are expected to grow rapidly as new mobile Net and other intelligent applications are incorporated into mobile handsets.Brian Long, chief executive of Parthus, said location-based services would serve the markets such as real-time maps and pinpointing the nearest restaurants or banks.Parthus, like ARM, licenses its designs but does not make the chips itself.

It collects licence fees of $1m (£680,000) and upwards for a chip design and receives volume-based royalties for each chip manufactured."General packet radio switching (GPRS) and higher data rates will make the applications must richer in terms of features that can be added," Mr Fielding said.GPRS networks, soon to be available in Britain, will allow mobile users to have always-on internet access.The Federal Communications Commission, the US regulator, has mandated that all mobile handsets in the US after 2001 must have locational capability built in. A similar dictate by the European Union will apply from 2002.. Some employees, will have to pay substantially higher charges than others on stakeholder pensions, the low-cost retirement saving schemes for all workers. Some employees, will have to pay substantially higher charges than others on stakeholder pensions, the low-cost retirement saving schemes for all workers. Under deals being negotiated by UK pension providers with companies and trades unions, some people will pay 50- per cent more than others in charges for their stakeholder schemes. Legal & General, which already has tie-ups with seven unions and other "affinity" groups of employees, has offered a stakeholder scheme to the IT workers group, the Computer Services and Software Association, for a flat charge of 0.65 per cent a year.In contrast, L&G will levy the maximum 1 per cent charge permitted for stakeholders on members of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) with a pension worth below £10,000.