Last Wednesday, the bank was forced to issue another profit warning – its third in eight months – leading analysts to the belief that the investment banking side had chalked up losses of up to £100m in the second half of the year, all but wiping out profits from the highly successful MAM.But the negotiations with Swiss Bank were sufficiently advanced by the time of last week’s warning that it would almost certainly have known about the problems.Analysts expect that the final price will be around Warburg’s net asset value, suggesting a figure in the region of £800m.Up to now, opinion in the City has been divided on how to price Warburg. The two sides held a crucial meeting late yesterday – at which many of the main elements of the deal were thrashed out – and discussions will continue this afternoon.
Sir David Scholey, Warburg’s chairman, led the negotiating team on the British side while the Swiss were led by Marcel Ospel, head of the international and finance division at SBC, with which Warburg will be merged if the deal goes ahead.A source close to the negotiations said that “all things being what they should be” an announcement would be made this week, with Wednesday a “reasonable guess” as to the date.Reports over the weekend that National Westminster Bank, whose name has already been linked with Warburg’s Mercury Asset Management funds management operation, might be interested in buying the whole bank were being played down by NatWest as “rumour and speculation”.Yesterday’s get-together follows two weeks of due diligence investigations by Swiss Bank during which no further skeletons are thought to have been uncovered at Warburg. The £800m sale of SG Warburg’s investment banking operations to Swiss Bank Corporation could be agreed as early asWednesday, writes Magnus Grimond. SBC-Warburg is already being suggested as the new name for the operation. Lbeckers placed flowers against a wall outside the synagogue and officials called a rally outside the City Hall to express outrage AP. Lbeck – Arsonists set fire to a storeroom at Lbeck’s synagogue, whose firebombing by young neo-Nazis during Passover last year shamed the nation. Coming on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender, the firebombing was deplored by German leaders.

It would be beneficial for courts if the definition of “violent offence” was amended to include words to indicate a violent offence would mean an offence leading to a reasonable apprehension of violence in the victim. Such a threat did not permit the imposition of a longer sentence under s 2(2) of the 1991 Act.Peter M Ashman (Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the appellant.. A threat with an imitation pistol could not lead to physical injury; but the apprehension of the victim was the same in either case. A further requirement was that reasonable people might venture out in public without the risk of outrage to certain minimum accepted standards of decency.James N Harper (Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the appellant; Christopher Prince (CPS) for the Crown.ThreatsR v Richart; CA (Cr Div) (Lord Taylor CJ, Owen J, Sir Laurence Verney, Record of London); 14 March 1995.Threats made over the telephone or by post did not amount to a “violent offence” within s 3(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. The judge in the later trial should have exer- cised his discretion under s 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to exclude that evidence.David Cocks QC, Alisdair Smith (Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the appellant; Mark Moore (CPS) for the Crown.EvidenceR v Sinclair; CA (Cr Div) (Lord Taylor CJ, Owen J, Sir Laurence Verney, Record of London); 14 March 1995.Where the victim of an attack died four days after the attack but before the accused was brought to trial, the victim’s evidence was admissible at the trial under s 106(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 because, at the time the relevant statement was made, the victim was a person and the statement was made by that person.Simon Farrell (Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant; Anthony Fogg (CPS) for the Crown.Judicial reviewR v Liverpool City Council, ex p Muldoon; R v Rent Officer Serice & anr, ex p Kelly; CA (Russell, Hobhouse, Morritt LJJ); 16 March 1995.For the purpose of RSC Ord 53, r 5(3) the Secretary of State for Social Security was not necessarily a person “directly affected” by judicial review proceedings concerning the payment of housing benefit notwithstanding that, as paymaster general, he had a financial interest in the outcome of such proceedings.Michael Beloff QC, Richard Drabble (DSS Solicitor) for the appellant; Nigel Pleming QC, Richard Bloomfield (DP Hardy & Co, Liverpool) for the respondents.Public decencyR v Walker; CA (Cr Div) (Lord Taylor CJ, Laws, Keene JJ); 6 April 1995.The common law offence of outraging public decency required as a necessary condition of guilt that at least two persons must have been able to witness what happened.

Bigamy
Whiston v Whiston; CA (Russell, Henry, Ward LJJ); 23 March 1995.A woman who committed bigamy in going through a ceremony of marriage was precluded, on ground of public policy, from applying for ancillary relief after the grant of a decree of nullity under s 11(b) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.Timothy Scott (Hughmans) for the appellant; Dorothy Seddon (Clive Shepherd & Co, Walsall) for the respondent.DamagesKnutt & anr v Bolton & ors; CA (Russell, Henry, Ward LJJ); 24 March 1995.Damages for disappointment or distress were not recoverable for breach of contract by an architect retained to design a house, since the provision of pleasure to occupiers, although ancillary, was not the very object of the contract.Jeremy Cousins (Scott & Co, Stroud) for the appellants; Hugh Evans (Pinsent & Co, Birmingham) for the respondents.DNAR v Nathaniel; CA (Cr Div) (Lord Taylor CJ, Owen J, Sir Laurence Verney, Record of London); 16 March 1995.Evidence of a suspect’s DNA profiles provided in 1991 for a rape investigation in respect of which the suspect was acquitted in 1992 was wrongfully admitted in the suspect’s later trial for a rape occurring in 1989 because after the 1992 acquittal the blood sample for the DNA profiles should have been destroyed. The following notes of cases were prepared by reporters of the All England Law Reports. There is a saying that when two elephants fight, the crust of the earth is broken It’s best to stay away until the fight is over.”. They don’t like what is happening but Inkatha has a gun to their heads. The IFP has promised to resist any crack- down on its activists.Until the dust settles, Chief Xolo said he will remain underground and other chiefs will play it safe.”My people are suffering.

The announcement has been met with criticism from Inkatha, which accused the government of “bully-boy” tactics. The real issues in KwaZulu-Natal are policing and law and order.”On Friday, the Safety and Security Minister, Sydney Mufamadi, said the government would deploy extra soldiers and police in specific areas of KwaZulu-Natal to quash mounting political violence. “You can change the pay structure, but unless you protect the chiefs they are never going to open their mouths freely and speak their minds. The test, experts say, will inevitably involve bloodshed.”Important as money is, the ultimate weapon over the chiefs is violence,” said Mary de Haas, a lecturer in social anthropology at Natal University, now working for the government on plans to accommodate traditional leaders in the new South Africa. “No doubt, the IFP is going to test the effects of central government payments to the chiefs, especially in terms of what it does to their loyalties,” Senuo Mchunu, ANC party chairman in KwaZulu-Natal, said.