Pan Europe Weekly News

Due to the holiday period, the next Market Updates will be w/c 5th January 2009.

Week ended 12 December 2008

Basic materials: Venture Production began production at its Stanford gas field in the North Sea. Arkema will acquire a small US speciality chemicals business. Rio Tinto will cut capital spending and reduce its workforce to pay off a US$10bn debt.

Financials: Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria plans to raise capital by selling preferred shares. The French government bought subordinated debt from BNP Paribas and Societe Generale as part of its plans to support lending and liquidity. HSBC Holdings pledged to increase its UK mortgage lending.

Media: Like-for-like sales at HMV were flat during the first half of the year, dragged down by poor performance of its subsidiary, Waterstone’s.

Real estate: Rugby Estates will concentrate on growing its asset management business and reduce its focus on direct property holdings.

Travel & leisure: Whitbread will reduce its capital expenditure next year, although sales at its hotels and restaurants continued to outperform.

We hold all the companies highlighted above.