In Short

Budget Travel parent may up fuel chargeTUI, Europe's biggest tourism firm and the parent of Budget Travel, said it is considering increasing fuel surcharges for its flights in the winter season after the price of oil reached a new record of more than $70 (€57) a barrel yesterday.

TUI currently charges flight-only customers on its Hapagfly German carrier €14 extra each way to help counter rising fuel costs.

Prices charged by TUI's tour operators, as well as outside tour operators using Hapagfly, could also rise, a TUI spokesman said. The size of any increases had not been decided. "We cannot rule out that that would then also lead to higher prices for trips in the 2005/06 winter season," he said.

Europe's airlines have been adding surcharges to air tickets since last year as they try to combat soaring fuel costs. US crude oil futures touched a record peak of $70.80 a barrel yesterday. - (Reuters)

Autogrill's Cork airport contract

The Italian group Autogrill has won a 10-year contract to run restaurants at Cork airport, which it expects will generate total revenues of some €100 million. Autogrill, a restaurant chain that owns road and airport food outlets around the world, said in a statement yesterday the new contract was part of its plan to expand in airport catering. - (Reuters)

Old Mutual in talks with Skandia

South African insurer Old Mutual yesterday said it had held talks with Skandia about a possible takeover bid of about $5.7 billion (€4.7 billion), but the Swedish savings firm said it was waiting for a formal offer.

A deal would boost the South African company's presence in Britain, where Skandia has a fast-growing business, and enable Old Mutual to meet its goal of reducing its reliance on its home market.

Old Mutual said talks with key Skandia shareholders led it to believe that a majority of them would welcome such an offer, worth about 42 crowns (€4.50) per share, of which 40 per cent would be in cash and 60 per cent in shares.

A source close to the negotiations, however, said part of the Skandia's board remained unconvinced. - (Reuters)

PanAmSat bought for $3.2 billion

Communications satellite operator Intelsat Ltd has agreed to buy rival PanAmSat Holding Corp for $3.2 billion (€2.6 billion), creating the world's largest commercial satellite fleet, the companies said yesterday.

PanAmSat stock rose almost 22 per cent after Intelsat said it would pay $25 a share for PanAmSat, a roughly 25 per cent premium over the stock's closing price on Friday and a 40 per cent premium over its initial public offering price in March. Intelsat will also refinance or assume about $3.2 billion of debt of PanAmSat and its subsidiaries.

The deal will vault the merged company ahead of SES Global. - (Reuters)

UK's mid-tier law firms on the up

The top 100 UK law firms have made combined profits of almost £3 billion (€4.4 billion) - with the biggest four accounting for 37 per cent of that - on about £10 billion of fee income, as annual league tables show the top City solicitors' practices bouncing back after three tough years.

However, the figures for 2004-05 reveal a new divide: the profits of mid-tier firms have improved while bigger rivals have stagnated.

Corporate law firms, few of which publish their results, are about to find their finances under scrutiny as the leading legal journals publish annual tables assessing everything from total profits and how much each firm's equity partners earned to the costs incurred per lawyer.