"It's certainly true that I will be able juillet to offer advice," Mr Dunn fr said. html Mr Murdoch's News International owns Fox Television in the juillet 2004 fr html US, 40 per cent of British broadcaster BSkyB and stakes files journal juillet2004 journal in files broadcasters in Australia, Germany and Asia. "I am fr extremely delighted with juillet2004 this position," Mr Dunn said juillet last 2004 night. journal Richard Dunn, former Thames Television chief, is to head News International Television, bringing him back to centre stage in Britain's media journal scene. The appointment journal takes Mr Dunn into Rupert Murdoch's expanding journal media orbit, where he is to run files journal juillet2004 journal the company's fr non-US global television interests. If we html bought juillet2004 an operation we files would get some 2004 of what html we want and a lot of journal what we don't juillet want.". While pre-tax profit had fallen from £235.8m to £150.2m, all investment banks had suffered files from last year's bond collapse, he said, and Morgan's non-trading activities were powering ahead.Mr Dobson rejected claims that Morgan was dragging its feet juillet 2004 fr html over building a new equities business in London for Deutsche.He said: "We're not juillet2004 2004 going to make a big acquisition in investment banking for journal the sake of it.

There's no panicky feeling that we've got to have it [an equities operation] now."Mr Dobson said that Deutsche had not set any deadline for building Morgan into a top world investment bank based in London. "We imposed a five-year timetable on ourselves," he said.Mr Dobson and Morgan's chairman, John Craven, are in talks with a number of top executives already heading up investment banks, in order to recruit the right people for the new equities operation.Mr Dobson said: "We are very pleased with the very high quality of people, who are already doing responsible jobs, who are interested in the opportunities offered by the Deutsche link with Morgan."He said in the uncertain climate following Barings and the aborted merger talks between SG Warburg and Morgan Stanley, now was an ideal time to recruit."I think we can cherry-pick what we want. Morgan Grenfell, the London investment bank owned by Deutsche Bank, slashed its bonuses in the wake of tough markets last year, cutting administrative costs by £40m to £309m. Morgan's chief executive, Michael Dobson, said that much of the £40m cut was bonuses and reflected tough trading conditions. Dealing profits fell to just £50m after 1993's "stellar performance" of £219.3m, Mr Dobson said. He remained firmly upbeat, however, pointing to the bank's 32 per cent return on capital and its £62.9m dividend to Deutsche.

These would have to go beyond savings he had already assumed in setting existing price controls.Mr Byatt welcomed North West Water's move, but he added: "I do not think the special dividend for shareholders would have been acceptable without the payout to customers."Jack Cunningham, shadow industry secretary, said: "Handing back a tiny fraction of monopoly profit as a public relations exercise is not good enough."North West Water said that the initiative for a payment to customers came from the company rather than the regulator, although Mr Byatt had been kept informed.Sir Desmond Pitcher, chairman, said there had been discussion on whether to make an annual payment related to the size of bills but that Ofwat and North West had agreed on a £6.50 flat rate.Greed image, page 40Comment, page 41. Ian Byatt, director-general of water services, said: "Meeting shareholders' wishes for ever-higher dividends could be inconsistent with the longer- term investment needs of the industry." He added: "Whilst I do not control dividends, I do not expect companies to make decisions which could jeopardise the longer-term interests of the industry." Mr Byatt said he was aware that the City was placing pressure on water companies to increase their dividends, possibly because of the threat of a "windfall" tax on utilities if the Labour Party came to power.However, he said continued dividend growth well above the rate of inflation was acceptable only if companies consistently made substantial savings from efficiency. The broadside came as North West Water announced a special dividend of 4.74p per year for the next five years, but won Ofwat's approval by linking it to an annual £6.50 payment for each customer. Ofwat, the water industry regulator, yesterday warned companies against excessive dividend payments at the expense of customers. Mr Duffield said it had been helped by the fact that its involvement in Latin America was small compared with its activities in the Far East.Invesco, a bigger fund manager, reported an 18 per cent rise in pre-tax profits last year. Funds under management were £42bn at the end of 1994, down from £45bn a year earlier, mainly because of the weaker dollar and market depreciation.Funds scramble, page 40.