LONDON: InterContinental Hotels Group, the world’s largest hotelier, said yesterday it had agreed to allow rival Queens Moat Houses to use its brand name under a franchise agreement for 20 years.

The owners of Queens Moat Houses – US-based investors Goldman Sachs, said half of its 32 Moat Houses will be franchised to InterContinental in line with the new corporate strategy of the group. InterContinental will use its Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza branding on the 16 Moat House properties in exchange for a royalty fee estimated between 3 and 5 percent of profits.

Although it effectively means the end for the brand ‘Queen Moats House’, it is expected to bring in more revenues from the franchise than while being run as Moat Houses.

The ‘Queens Moat House’ brand was in the 70’s and 80’s a very successful brand. However, the fortunes of the UK hotel group changed and a downturn began which led to the near collapse of the business in 1993. With debts having mounted to Ł630 million, the management had no option but to put up the 32-strong estate for sale. Goldman Sach’s property investment wing Whitehall Partners took over the group for around Ł54 million last year.

There is also good reason to believe that the group has put up another 8 Moat Houses for sale and is considering options for the remaining 8. Queens Moat Houses have only two options before them – a franchise similar to the InterContinental deal or a sale of the properties to independent operators.

11 of the franchised Moat Houses will be refurbished and converted into Holiday Inns and two into Crowne Plazas. IGH have yet to decide about the remaining three. The franchised establishments will continue to be managed by Queens Moat Houses.

The Moat Houses on Doncaster, Harrogate and Stratford are among those slated to become Holiday Inns.

For IGH the deal is similar to Stardon Hotels whose five establishments were last month franchised to IGH bringing the total number of InterContinental brand establishments to 227 in the UK.

LONDON: U.K. cable television firm NTL is ready to offer 10Mbps as the standard speed for broadband customers. There will be no additional cost for the service. The company will upgrade its subscribers with 3Mbps service first, which will be completed by the year-end.

NTL is also aiming high. It is confident it can further improve the speeds to 30 Mbps or even 50 Mbps using its cable network or through ADSL2+ DSL broadband connections. Then, there are other services in the pipeline, like high-definition TV, 1000-channel global radio, domestic video conferencing, global gaming, low cost telephony and video e-mail.

The company’s chief executive Simon Duffy feels he will be able to move all its broadband subscribers to 10 Mbps by 2006. NTL’s network connects 97.9 million homes, while it has nearly three million residential customers. The number of broadband customers in the U.K. is 1.4 million.

NTL said its plan will enable a customer to match speed, usage allowance and price to their individual needs. A new user can straightaway log in to 10Mbps connection without any hassles.

“Our broadband services will become amongst the most innovative in the world and certainly well ahead of anything else in the UK,” said Duffy.

In the U.K., broadband constitutes 50.7 per cent of net connections. UK Online, the net service provider owned by Easynet, became the first to offer 8Mbps broadband at the end of 2004, while another provider, Bulldog, upgraded customers from 4Mbps to 8Mbps at no extra cost.

Healthcare giant Bupa has brought out the nursing home business, ANS, in a deal reportedly worth £328 million. The Associated Nursing Services PLC chain runs 44 facilities that are largely purpose-built homes for the elderly. The business, which is owned by brothers Nick and Surindar Dhandsa, is estimated to be Britain’s seventh largest company.

Dr Nick Dhandsa and his two brothers are in possession of about two-thirds of the company, with the rest of the stock being held by family friends and other directors. Mark Ellerby, the managing director of Bupa Care Homes, was elated at beating off stiff competition from Blackstone to acquire the NAS chain; “We are delighted to be able to announce the acquisition of ANS today. ANS is one of the finest care home groups in the UK and a very successful business, and this acquisition will help us to improve the range of care services we offer to our residents,” he said.

ANS chairman Dr Nick Dhandsa set up the homes in 1981. “I got royally hacked off with the NHS and decided to set up a healthcare business,” he commented. They were valued at just over £29 million in 2000, when the family acquired controlling interest in the business. Current estimations place ANS’ annual turnover at £90 million with an operating profit of £30 million.

Bupa will also take on a debt of around £100 million as a part of the deal. “Bupa is the leading player in this sector with a wealth of experience and, like ANS, has a reputation for quality. This is a positive move for our residents and our employees,” Dr. Dhandsa commented. He however expressed a wish to hold on to a cosmetic surgery facility in west London. “We set it up over the course of last year and are looking to keep the business and grow it,” Dhandsa said. “Cosmetic surgery is a good business to be in.”

In the backdrop of the bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, it would be natural to expect that the tourism to that place would be drastically reduced. But in a surprising statement, tour operators have said that they have not had as many cancellations as they expected in the aftermath of the bombings.

Top tour operator Thomas Cook has said that it would waive amendment fees for people wanting to switch their destinations away from Egypt and consider each such request on a case-by-case basis. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website has warned travelers to Turkey and Egypt that a substantial threat exists in those countries and that travelers who still choose to go there do so at their own risk. Three Britons have so far been confirmed dead in the Sharm bombings while another seven are listed as missing.

However, apart from asking travelers to remain vigilant Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw has asked them to go on as they normally would. In this situation, the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said that tour operators could continue to take bookings for holidays in Sharm el-Sheik, “The FO is not advising against travel to the area and, as such, tour operators’ normal terms and conditions apply unless the tour operator is unable to provide the contracted services,” said an ABTA spokesman. Customers, who were scheduled to halt at the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Namma Bay, are being accommodated elsewhere as that particular hotel has been badly hit by the blasts.

Harry Helps, a spokesman for Thomson said, “Bookings to Egypt will be down for the remainder of the summer, but Egypt is quick to recover, we’re hoping bookings will be back to normal for the peak winter season.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that post the 7/7 London bombings, the UK has been hit with a £150 million loss as visitors to the country are expected to reconsider traveling to the UK.

LONDON: Actress Cameron Diaz won a libel she filed against British newspaper the Sun for an article contending she had a “romantic relationship with a TV producer, Shane Nickerson. The star, whose roles in “Charlie’s Angels” and “Shrek” are legion, got an apology and an undisclosed sum as damages.

The Sun article said Cameron, 32, who is dating singer Justin Timberlake, and Nickerson, who is married and has a daughter, “enjoyed more than just a professional relationship”. Cameron sued the newspaper accusing its article is without any substance and it had damaged her reputation.

Cameron’s lawyer Simon Smith told libel judge David Eady that the paper in its article on 12 May 2005 said Cameron was seen along with Nickerson stopping behind bushes in Santa Monica, California.

The newspaper, said Smith, has subsequently conducted investigations and has found that its report is baseless. It now accepts that the relevant incident “involved no more than Ms Diaz giving a friend a goodbye hug and any suggestion of a romantic involvement is entirely untrue and without any substance whatsoever”. It has apologized to the star and admitted the allegations were unfounded and should not have been published. It has also agreed to publish a “prominent” apology.

Smith said the article had damaged his client’s personal and professional reputation and had caused distress to her, Timberlake, Nickerson and his wife. The paper had agreed to pay the actor “substantial, undisclosed damages and to reimburse in full the legal costs incurred by her in pursuing this matter.

“In those circumstances and in light of this vindication my client is prepared not to proceed any further against The Sun newspaper.” The paper said the article was based on a previous report in the National Enquirer magazine of the U.S.

Smith said the settlement did not concern National Enquirer and the proceedings against this publication will continue.

In a separate case, John Rutter, a photographer, who had taken pictures of a topless Cameron before she became a star, and attempted to sell them back to her for $3.5 million, was found by a U,S. court as attempting to blackmail her and was convicted on Monday last.

LONDON: Aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce defied expectations and posted a 54 per cent increase in profits for the first half of the year, pre-taxation.

The company’s pre-tax profits were 260 million pounds against analysts’ predictions of 229 million pounds, The company said the strong demand for aircraft engines from airlines had contributed to
the show.

The company will pay an increased dividend — by 5 per cent — for the first time since 2001. It pays in non-ordinary B shares instead of dividend to save money on taxes.

For the half-year under review ending 30 June, the company recorded sales of 3.18 billion pounds, an increase of 14 per cent on an underlying basis. Civil aerospace requirements contributed to 64 per cent of the revenue. Its defence, marine, energy and financial services divisions too showed higher revenues. The defence business, catering mainly to the U.S. Department of Defense, had its profits go up from 12 million pounds to 94 million pounds, while profits in marine division rose by four million pounds to 39 million pounds.

Its average net debt for the half year was reduced to 377 million pounds from 626 million a year earlier, while its order book had a record value of 21.9 billion pounds, Chief executive Sir John Rose told news persons in a conference call, “We are pleased with the first-half results, I think they represent very good progress in all the major elements of the business.”

Said Sir John, “We remain on target to generate continued growth in profits and reduction of average net debt in 2005.” Rolls Royce is hoping that the Airbus A350, set for launch in 2010,
will have a Rolls engine.

Sir John lamented the lack of research and development facilities in Britain as a result of which its ideas are turned into workable products outside. He pointed out that Rolls Royce’s substantial
product development is based in Germany. “The Government is doing the right thing in funding universities but industry is where ideas get turned into wealth,” said Sir John.

He said the issue is of vital importance as low cost countries have forced the industry to specialise in “high value added” products. This needs huge R&D; expenditure and the company spent 147 million pounds in the first half (almost 50 per cent of its turnover).

He also highlighted how the low cost economies of India and China are producing four million graduates every year compared with 250,000 in the U.K. Rolls Royce’s competitor GE has two of its four R&D; centres located in India and China.

Rolls Royce may not move any of its R&D; activities to developing countries, because “we are not very sensitive to labour costs as we’re high value added”, but it may think of drawing on the “global pool of engineers”.