Total approaches ex-FSA chief

SIR Howard Davies, famously attacked for being 'asleep on the job' as chairman of the Financial Services Authority, is to become a non-executive director at French oil giant Total.

Davies, now running the London School of Economics, will take on a three-year term at the Paris-based business if the appointment is approved by Total's shareholders in May. It refused to disclose his potential salary but the group typically pays directors a fixed amount of e15,000 (£10,095) a year and an extra e4000 for every meeting they attend.

Davies is fast following in the footsteps of Royal Mail boss Allan Leighton, who famously declared he was 'going plural' after quitting Wal-Mart Asda and promptly took up a string of nonexecutive posts. After parting company with the FSA last year, investment bank Morgan Stanley revealed last month it wanted to appoint Davies as one of two new directors this April.

For Total, the move to hire one of the most prominent former regulators in Europe could help to distance it from any hangover caused by the mammoth nineyear corruption trial that rocked its subsidiary Elf Aquitaine.

The group announced the move alongside fourth-quarter results which showed profits rose 9% in the final three months to e1.75bn (£925m) on the back of the buoyant oil price. Profits for 2003 surged 17% to e7.34bn as oil and gas production rose by 5%.