Most notably, he provided the dollars to rescue both the Canary Wharf development in London’s Docklands, the home of this newspaper, and the Euro Disney theme park in France.Perhaps most astonishing, however, given the conservative nature of the Saudi royal family, was Prince Al-Waleed’s decision last year to sign an agreement with rock star Michael Jackson to establish a joint venture company named Kingdom Entertainment. The company was created to promote concerts, films, television projects, fun parks and hotels.TWA said yesterday that its newly installed chairman, Gerald Gitner, was told by the prince that he had no plans to increase his stake in the carrier. To gain his 5 per cent holding, the prince purchased 2,088,000 shares of common stock. With TWA shares priced at $6.875 at the close on Tuesday, that would translate into a fairly modest investment of $14.34m.While the prince’s investment will provide a morale booster for TWA, the future of the carrier remains uncertain. Last month, the main union at the carrier tried to promote a possible bid for control by a New Jersey investment group with participation by Russia’s number-two airline, Transaero. Nothing appears to have come of the approach, however.In announcing the fourth-quarter losses, Mr Gitner blamed several factors beyond the TWA 800 crash. In particular, he pointed to previous management for attempting an over-ambitious flight schedule in the 1996 summer season that led to poor reliability and on-time performance.Last month Mr Gitner announced new moves aimed at saving the airline, including the disposal of its ageing jumbo jets, which will be replaced by new and more efficient Boeing 767s and 757s..

The Co-operative Movement mobilised its defences against Andrew Regan’s Lanica Trust yesterday when it hired one of the City’s top merchant bankers to represent it. The appointment of Brian Keelan of SBC Warburg came as a group of nearly 50 Labour MPs put down an Early Day Motion denouncing Mr Regan as an “asset stripper”.
The motion said: “This house deplores an attempt by asset strippers, hiding behind brass plates in Monte Carlo, the West Indies and the Channel Islands, to seize the assets of the Co-operative Movement which for more than a century has served the best interests of Britain’s consumers.”It urged the Bank of England, the DTI and the Stock Exchange to “halt this charade before another scandal in the City emerges”.The motion caused a furore at the House of Commons as six of the 47 signatories were Labour Co-op MPs who failed to record their interest.The MPs said they had received no backing from the Co-op since 1992 and had not thought there was anything to declare.The Co-op’s appointment of Mr Keelan was taken in the City as a signal that the movement is taking the Lanica Trust approach seriously.It also forges an odd union between one of the City’s most aggressive, red-blooded takeover specialists and a democratic movement founded in the early nineteenth century to improve the conditions of the working man.Another twist is that it pitches Mr Keelan on the defence side of a “bid” when he usually represents the bidder.His past battles include representing Trafalgar House in its failed bid for Northern Electric and a failed break-up bid for National Power by the Southern Company of America.The Co-op denied that Mr Keelan’s appointment heralded a takeover bid battle.”It is not as if we are preparing for a hostile bid. But you need merchant banking advice.”Warburg has provided the Co-op with financial advice since 1964.Mr Keelan has been recruited to give specific advice on how it should consider the approach by Lanica’s associate company, Galileo.It is thought the Co-op is expecting Lanica to make its move in the next 10 days or disappear from the scene.Though Lanica has secured backing of pounds 1.5bn and due diligence money of pounds 10m from City institutions such as Schroders and Perpetual, the Co-op is expecting Mr Regan to withdraw from the fray.Lanica Trust said it was bemused by Mr Keelan’s appointment.”They keep saying the matter is closed. But if that is the case why have they appointed Warburg? It all seems rather odd.”The Co-op maintains that a break-up bid is precluded by the group’s structure in which it is owned by its members – the regional societies.The movement has its roots in Rochdale where a local warehouse became the first Co-op shop in 1934.It grew to include supermarkets as well as a chain of funeral parlours, travel agencies, opticians and garages.It owns the Co-operative Bank and the Co-operative Insurance Society.It has huge farming and milk interests. It also has a manufacturing business which makes safety footwear and shirts.The Co-op is formed of 51 regional societies, of which the largest are the Co-operative Wholesale Society, which owns the bank, and the insurance business, the Co-operative Insurance Society.The movement’s combined turnover exceeds pounds 7bn.Comment, page 21. Kingfisher, the Woolworths and B&Q retailer, reported record sales and profits yesterday as it unveiled plans to expand its overseas interests. Strong performances from Woolworths, B&Q and Comet helped Kingfisher to a 25 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to pounds 388m last year.

However, profits at Darty, the French electrical retailer, were held back by a weak French market and the strength of sterling.
In spite of the record performance, Kingfisher chairman Sir Geoff Mulcahy expressed caution about the prospects for this year. “We expect competition to be intense and to see low growth both here and in France,” he said.Kingfisher said its trading since 1 February had been encouraging but declined to give a figure on like-for-like sales growth. This prompted some analysts to express caution about prospects for this year. “It will be a more difficult year especially in France, which accounts for 30 per cent of Kingfisher’s profits,” said John Richard at NatWest Securities.Kingfisher has opened its first store in Asia with a branch of B&Q in Taiwan. It says the store is trading well and a further two will open this year.

The group said it was possible that its other formats such as Superdrug and Comet could open in Taiwan and other Asian markets. Kingfisher is also considering expanding into emerging markets in Europe to complement its interests in France.Sir Geoff Mulcahy, chairman, did not rule out acquisitions to boost Kingfisher’s expansion but declined to comment on speculation linking the group with the Littlewoods high street stores recently put up for sale, or the Wickes DIY business.It is expected that Kingfisher will examine the Littlewoods documents compiled by BZW. While some of the sites would be suitable for branches of Woolworths, it is thought unlikely that Kingfisher would be interested in bidding for the whole chain.Kingfisher’s group sales were 10 per cent ahead last year at pounds 5.8bn. Like-for-like sales across the group were 7.4 per cent.Kingfisher shares closed 22.5p higher at 697p.Investment column, page 22. Rexam, the packaging group formerly known as Bowater, yesterday announced 1,200 job cuts alongside record losses of pounds 190m as new management attempted to draw a line under past mistakes. Around 500 jobs are to go in the UK, including the loss of 100 places at a factory at Fishponds in Bristol, which is to be closed, with smaller numbers going from most parts of Rexam’s British businesses. Jeremy Lancaster, who took over as chairman last year, said the job cuts and exceptional charges totalling pounds 358m resulted from the decision announced in September to “clear the decks by taking action over our under-performing businesses, by making disposals, removing excess capacity and making our historic capital expenditure work for us.”
Twenty businesses earmarked for sale have been grouped in a new Octagon division.

Together with operations to be closed and disposals already completed, these account for a pounds 254m goodwill write-off in last year’s figures. Restructuring and rationalising the businesses to be retained will cost a further pounds 73m, after tax, Mr Lancaster said, with the axe falling most heavily on the food and beverage packaging and coated films and papers divisions. Cost savings are expected to total pounds 20m on an annualised basis.Most of the businesses being sold came as a result of a buying spree conducted by previous management at Rexam, many coming as part of the acquisition of Norton Opax in 1989 and DRG Packaging and Cape Allman Packaging in 1992. The company admitted yesterday that, “with the benefit of perfect hindsight”, it was clear it overpaid with some of the acquisitions.The weight of the charges turned pre-tax profits of pounds 180m into losses of pounds 190m last year, but Rexam is holding the final dividend at 8p to make an unchanged total of 14.1p for the year. Sales were flat at pounds 2.28bn.Rolf Borjesson, the chief executive who moved over from Swedish packaging group PLM last year, said: “I believe we can move this group from pounds 2bn of sales to pounds 3bn of sales over the next three to four years.” This included raising food and beverages from pounds 400m to pounds 600m of sales and healthcare from pounds 200m to pounds 400m.Rexam conceded that market growth alone would take turnover to pounds 2.5bn, but Mr Borjesson said the rest would be made up through acquisitions The shares rose 3.5p to 332p..