Thursday evening business bulletin

Aug 7 2008 By nebusiness

Four past and present British Airways executives are facing the possibility of up to five years in jail after trading chiefs today brought price-fixing charges against them.

Announced by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the charges relate to fuel surcharges over the period July 2004 to April 2006.

The four, who include BA’s current head of sales Andrew Crawley, will appear at City of London Magistrates Court on September 24.

The OFT said the four, including former commercial director Martin George, were charged with ``having dishonestly agreed with others to make or implement arrangements which directly or indirectly fixed the price for the supply in the UK of passenger air transport services by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways".

The other two men are former communications head Iain Burns and former UK and Ireland sales chief Alan Burnett.

The charges have been brought under the Enterprise Act 2002. Under section 188 of the Act it is an offence for individuals dishonestly to agree that businesses will engage in certain types of cartel activity, namely price-fixing, limiting supply or production, market-sharing and bid-rigging.

Individuals convicted of the cartel offence under the Enterprise Act may be sentenced to up to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

UK and US authorities have already fined BA a total of around £270 million over the fuel surcharge offences.

More than 300 jobs were saved at Henry J Bean’s owner Food and Drink Group today following the sale of 17 bars after the firm went into administration.

Administrators BDO Stoy Hayward secured the sale of the bars to private equity-backed Mainpaint, with 300 jobs and eight head office roles transferring to the new owner.

But 125 staff are being made redundant after administrators were unable to find a buyer for the remaining 11 bars in Food and Drink’s portfolio.

The unsold sites will be shut down, including The Breakfast Club in Birmingham and Henry J Bean’s in Bristol.

And investors are likely to receive nothing after the deal with Mainpaint.

Food and Drink, which also runs The Puzzle and Jamies Wine Bars chains, declined to reveal the sale amount, but said it was ``a consideration which is not expected to result in any return to shareholders".

Around 1,000 jobs were under threat at Cains Beer Company today after the brewer and pubs group went into administration.

The future of the group’s historic Cains brewery in Liverpool and its 100 pubs now hang in the balance.

But administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers said they were working with staff and landlords to ensure the brewery and pubs remain open while it seeks a buyer for the business.

The pound at 5pm was US$1.9430 compared to US$1.9480 at the previous close while the euro at 5pm was £0.7893  compared to £0.7912 at the previous close.