The Board believes that the Fundraising, the Citi Loan Repurchase and CWG Share
Purchase will:

* place the Songbird Entities on a more secure, longer-term financial footing;
* allow the Company to simplify further its capital and governance structure;
* potentially improve liquidity in the Company’s Shares which are admitted to
trading on AIM; and
* provide an attractive basis for increasing the Company’s stake in CWG’s
property portfolio.

The Board also believes that, for Shareholders, the Compensatory Open Offer
presents an attractive basis for acquiring an indirect interest in the CWG’s
property portfolio.

Shares hit due to tenant court case and regulation
Enterprise has fallen by 16% over the past month and underperformed the market
by 21% due to noise surrounding the tenant court case and regulation fears.
In our view, the recent court case may be of limited precedence re. the
percentage of divisible profit to be charged as rent. We understand this lease is
an unusual one (only one of eight such leases for ETI), which is unassignable and
has non-standard clauses. Conversely, the ruling does conclude that the RICS
method of rental calculation, applied by the pubcos, is fair.
Regulation is clearly a near term threat for the industry and shares have been
weak as a result. However, we do not feel the beer tie would likely be removed
even if the issue was referred to the Competition Commission. We also continue
to believe there is a good chance the issue is not referred as the OFT may not
have evidence to suggest the beer tie has an adverse effect on the consumer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6224090/Bank-calls-crisis-meeting-for-experts.html

…looks like an even worse response ie. At least in 1992, they
tried and failed to fight it, now, with no options left and a
bust UK plc, they’re calling a ‘talk-shop’ to discuss with just
the same cluleless people who did’nt predict the problems in
the first place…
- In short, sub parity pound and AAA downgrade looks like its
brewing, GBP and its assets could be very marginalised.

Yet mid-cycle earnings unlikely for at least 2 years — We continue to expect the
airline industry to make record losses this year and break-even at best in 2010.
Therefore, 2011 is probably the earliest that mid-cycle earnings can be achieved
and more realistically 2012. The industry still suffers from over-capacity,
depressed business travel demand and inefficient cost structures and these are
unlikely to be reversed meaningfully until 2011. On average, airlines are now
trading on 10x mid-cycle EPS, the basis of most of our one year target prices. In
the long-term, though, share prices could double to the cycle peak but we do not
expect this to be for at least 4-5 years

Top picks are the recent laggards: Aegean, easyJet, Lufthansa and Ryanair —
These names are at the high end of the quality spectrum in this sector. We have
lowered our risk rating on easyJet to reflect its relatively strong balance sheet.

British Airways downgraded to 2H and SAS downgraded to 3S, Air France-KLM
remains a Sell/High Risk (3H) — These three are among the strongest performers
of the last 3months and are vulnerable to any disappointments. If the merger with
Iberia and JV with American Airlines happen, there could be more upside to BA.

In the core cash equities business, UK volumes declined 43% YoY to £4.6bn per
day, with Italian turnover down 33% YoY to €2.8bn. Volumes have improved in
Sept (currently up ~12% month-on-month) although this mainly reflects a
seasonal bounce in activity levels following the summer lull. Guidance that the
yield on UK cash equities trading is expected to fall to ~0.85bps following the
implementation of the new tariff from 1 Sept ’09 is slightly higher than our
estimate of 0.82bps. However, LSE market share of FTSE100 value traded
continues to decline at a pace of~2% each month and currently averages ~65%
in Sept. We continue to see risks to pricing & margins as a result.
In terms of the outlook, management commented that “although market
conditions remain challenging, the Group continues to see good levels of activity
in many parts of the business”. CEO, Xavier Rolet, also highlighted “we continue
to take actions to ensure the Group is well placed to compete and develop”. The
company hosts a strategy update at 9am this morning (dial-in +44 20 7162 0025)
during which we hope to hear more about opportunities for further cost savings.
We retain our Underperform rating and will review our estimates following the
meeting.

We’ve travelled the world in our search for the perfect beef to use for steaks. We’ve been to a Wagyu farm just outside Kobe in Japan, we’ve eaten our own body weight in USDA Prime (the best America has to offer) and have popped down to Argentina to try the meat of their Pampas grazed cattle in their native habitat. And our verdict? That the best animals for steak are well-loved traditional breeds born and raised right here in Britain.

Until recently Britain was rightly famed for producing the best beef in the world. It’s no coincidence that the animals that produce the best beef in America and Argentina originate from British cattle, even the famed Japanese Wagyu were crossbred with British breeds in the nineteenth century to improve their flavour.

Recent ‘advances’ in mass-meat production have gone some way to knock us off the top spot. It’s a crying shame, but most of the beef you buy in Britain now is produced to be sold as cheaply as possible, regardless of flavour. So it’s no surprise that it’s a pale imitation of what it once was. But there are still some fantastic producers out there using traditional breeds and traditional methods who are producing beef that still tastes better than anywhere else in the world.