Stolly vodka battle sends Allied diving

Stolly vodka battle sends Allied diving

A ROW involving the Russian government and vodka ownership rights sent spirits lower at Allied Domecq, down 5p to 423 1/4p. It emerged that 67,000 cases of Stolichnaya vodka belonging to Allied is caught up in a dispute between Moscow and SPI Spirits, the overseas exporter of the brand.

SPI Spirits has accused the Russian government of blocking a major vodka shipment. The government said it, and not SPI, is the rightful owner of the brand.

Allied, which secured the US distribution rights for Stolichnaya from SPI in 2000, insists it has enough Stolly to ensure it does not run short. About 1.3m cases are sold in the US each year.

Drinks rival Diageo fell 2p to 880p ahead of an investor conference in New York today and tomorrow. Analysts want more news on how its integration of the Seagram operations is going and on new product launches.

'Expect profit-taking,' says broker ABN Amro - unless Diageo can give more evidence on how it will achieve 5% volume growth and 10% sales revenue growth.

Merger speculation in banks sent Lloyds TSB soaring to 732 1/2p before it fell back 13p to 708p. Rumours of a £70bn tie-up with Deutsche Bank persist, although Lloyds has repeatedly denied it.

The Footsie closed down 46.9 to 5203.6 after losing an early 47.9 lead. It was a day of thin trading at the start of the short pre-Easter week, with 2.3bn shares turned over, down from 3.2bn on Friday.

It was a bad day for the UK's new economy, with media, telecoms and techs diving. Granada and Carlton fell on digital difficulties. Advertising giant WPP was off 22p at 788 1/2p and Pearson, down 23p to 899p. Daily Mail & General Trust bucked the trend, up 1/2p to 744p.

Vodafone dropped 4p to 130p, as the launch of its GPRS roaming service, enabling users to use mobile services such as e-mail across Europe, left the market underwhelmed. Smaller rival MMO2 dropped 1 3/4p to 70 1/4p. BT provided some relief to beleagured telecoms investors with a 3 1/4p rise to 280 1/2p.

Motor dealer Quicks held at 98 1/2p after recommending a 100p cash offer from rival CD Bramall, valuing it at £40m. Bramall lifted its stake to 50.48% after buying 8m shares from Guinness Peat last week. Quicks, lifting full-year pretax profits from £1.9m to £2.5m, is the latest to be snapped up in a sector ripe for consolidation.

Packaging company Rexam was 16p lower at 474p after denying reports it is studying a proposal to bid for part or all of US-based Crown Cork & Seal Co.

Red is the colour at the top of the Premiership, but it is Liverpool and not Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson's team slipped 1/2p to 124p after the City discounted its chances of winning the title after their weekend defeat at Middlesbrough.

Embattled engineer L Gardner rose 2 1/4p to 18 1/4p after agreeing increased banking arrangements. It says it now has adequate working capital facilities but expects half-year losses.

Future Network, publisher of the Official Sony PlayStation magazine, gained 5 1/2p to 62p on turnover of 16.5m after Numis Securities put a target price of 80p on the stock.

It's the end of the road for small shareholders in Aim-listed WILink. com, the financial information provider unchanged at 1 3/4p. In a previous life the firm was Knutsford, the vehicle backed by the 'dream team' of Sir Archie Norman, Nigel Wray, Nick Leslau and Julian Richer, and hyped up to 270p on hopes of a big retail takeover.

WILink wants to swap every 250 of its 1p shares for one £2.50 share. Holdings of less than 250 shares will be given cash. The company's losses widened to £42.5m from £3.7m after big goodwill write-offs.