Monday evening business bulletin

Jun 30 2008 By Andrew Mernin

A profit warning from the UK’s biggest care home operator Southern Cross saw shares slump by more than 80% today.

The Darlington-based group said occupancy levels at its 700-plus homes were lower than expected because central Government social care funding had reached local authorities later than in recent years, with admissions now taking longer.

The update spooked investors and the resulting sell-off wiped almost £500m off the value of Southern Cross today.

The firm currently has 33,450 residents - 90% of available beds - but said the lower occupancy levels reduced its scope to cut costs, hitting its financial performance since March.

The City chief directly in charge of supervising Northern Rock at the time of its collapse left the Financial Services Authority (FSA) with a £612,000 pay-off, it emerged today.

Clive Briault stepped down as managing director of the FSA’s retail banking division in April ``by mutual consent". The pay-off for Mr Briault, who had been with the FSA since it was set up in 1998, emerged in the FSA’s annual report published today. It included £326,452 in salary, a £30,000 performance-related bonus, as well as £202,500 in compensation for loss of office, £36,000 in pension contributions and £17,500 in professional fees.

The details come after the FSA faced heavy fire for not foreseeing the problems at Northern Rock, whose funding dried up in the credit crunch last summer.

Ports and property group Forth Ports today unveiled a renewable energy joint venture with Scottish and Southern Energy that looks set to create up to 200 jobs.

The initiative, called Forth Energy, will see renewable energy projects developed at Forth Port’s sites across England and Wales, starting with a £12m wind energy project at the Port of Tilbury in Essex. Edinburgh-based Forth announced the venture as it gave a bullish update on trading, saying that first half results were set to come in ``well ahead" of last year.

For more on these and other North East business stories see the Journal tomorrow.

The FTSE-100 index at the close was up 96.0 at 5625.9. The pound at 5pm was US$1.9910 compared to US$1.9946 at the previous close while the euro at 5pm was £0.7910 compared to £0.7897 at the previous close.