Thursday morning business bulletin

Jun 12 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Carphone Warehouse and Argos owner Home Retail Group fell heavily today as the City’s backlash against consumer-facing stocks showed no signs of easing.

Stronger mining and energy stocks meant the FTSE 100 Index gained 2.1 points to 5725.4 in the first hour of trading, but this masked another turbulent session for housebuilders, retailers and banks.

Carphone led the Footsie fallers board, down 8% or 17.75p to 210p, after revealing broadband connections in April were hit by the house market slowdown.

Home Retail Group was also punished for a 12% fall in sales at Homebase, even though trading at Argos was better than expected and the company stuck by profit forecasts. Shares dipped 14.75p to 209p, a fall of 7%.

In the banking sector, the underwriters of the HBOS rights issue were given a further headache after shares moved further away from the company’s 275p discounted offer price, down another 3.25p to 254.75p.

Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch was today mulling a 47 billion US dollar (£24.1bn) approach from Stella Artois maker InBev to create the world’s biggest beer company.

Belgium-based InBev’s proposed acquisition - put forward late last night - would see the new company leapfrog current number one, Peroni brewer SABMiller, to form one of the world’s five biggest consumer firms.

InBev said there was limited overlap between the two businesses and wished to pursue a ``friendly combination" with Anheuser.

Lambert & Butler cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco today said it had secured the backing of investors for its £4.9bn cash call.

The company announced that 97.19% of investors agreed to buy shares under its fully underwritten one-for-two rights issue at 1475p each.

Imperial is raising the cash as part of a move to repay debt after its £11bn buyout of Spanish firm Altadis, which owns brands such as Gitanes.

As a result of the push to tackle debt, Imperial Tobacco said it would be able to maintain its investment grade credit rating and its dividend policy.

Imperial recently reported profits from operations of £918m for the six months to March 31, an increase of 38% after benefiting from a contribution from Altadis following the acquisition in late January.

The pound at 9am was US$1.9526 compared to US$1.9636 at the previous close while the euro at 9am was £0.7900  compared to £0.7922 at the previous close.