However, it has already made a number of unexpected and dramatic moves in the past week.Last week it announced the appointment of Sir Christopher Bland, currently the BBC’s chairman, as chairman in place of Sir Iain Vallance.Last Thursday BT said it was selling its stakes in Japanese and Spanish mobile operators to Vodafone and on Friday it disposed of its stake in Malaysia’s second-biggest mobile operator These moves altogether will raise £4.7bn. It also announced the sale of its City of London headquarters.BT is expected to confirm shortly the £3bn sale of Yell, the directories business, to a private equity consortium as long as clearance is received in time from the Office of Fair Trading.The company’s aim is to reduce its £30bn debt by £10bn by the end of this year. Its rights issue, at £5bn somewhat smaller than had been expected, will follow Vodafone’s successful £3bn placing last week.BT had planned to float a 25 per cent stake in BT Wireless, the mobile phone division, but is thought to have opted for a complete break-up instead. The weak state of the stockmarket, especially for telecoms shares, during the past 12 months has prevented the partial flotation.The real shock for small shareholders will be the decision not to pay a final dividend, if confirmed. BT pays out £1.4bn a year in dividends, a figure seen as too high by many analysts.City expectations for BT’s profits centre on £2bn, down from £2.9bn the previous year.Sir Peter Bonfield, BT’s executive chairman, would not confirm late last week, after the announcement of the disposals, that the company would also go ahead and launch a rights issue. However, he said then: “There are other things we’ve got on the stocks.”.

Pay settlements have nudged lower on average in the past month, but earnings growth is still picking up in many parts of the country and in sectors with skill shortages, according to a new analysis published this morning. Pay settlements have nudged lower on average in the past month, but earnings growth is still picking up in many parts of the country and in sectors with skill shortages, according to a new analysis published this morning.
The latest evidence that the job market is still very tight is not expected to deter the Bank of England from cutting interest rates this week in reaction to the US economic slowdown, however. The Monetary Policy Committee is not thought likely to want to wait until next month because it is due to meet on the eve of the likely general election date.Pay settlements have centred on 3.5 per cent in the past few months, according to Incomes Data Services, but a slightly higher proportion of the April than the January deals have been for less than 3 per cent. However, the review adds: “A number of recent pay reviews include significant increases in the form of market supplements on top of the basic increases.”This has been particularly true in the public sector, for groups like nurses and midwives, where about 100,000 people in the South are receiving new market allowances of up to £1,000.

In the private sector Railtrack has agreed a 3.6 per cent pay rise plus a London market supplement. Safeway has reclassified stores in Bracknell, Reading and Milton Keynes in order to pay staff there the inner London rates, while B&Q has introduced a new geographical pay structure on top of a 10 per cent pay deal.The IDS report concludes: “Our analysis of pay settlement levels should be regarded as something of an underestimate of what is happening to total spend by employers as we do not include such market allowances, nor do we add any weighting for variable bonuses.”Research published last week by the Office for National Statistics showed that bonuses can have a significant impact on average earnings growth. In February this year a shift in the timing of bonus payments added 1.5 percentage points to an average of 6.0 per cent. However, recent surveys have suggested that the slowdown in the economy has started to affect employment prospects.Separately, a report from the London Business School published this morning says reducing the inflation target from 2.5 per cent to 2 per cent could cost 50,000 jobs because of lower growth. The Conservatives have announced they would consider reducing the target, and last week the National Institute of Economic and Social Research recommended lowering it..

Sir John Banham, chairman of Kingfisher, confirmed yesterday that he would retire this year but moved to quash speculation that his decision had been prompted by a boardroom bust-up. Sir John Banham, chairman of Kingfisher, confirmed yesterday that he would retire this year but moved to quash speculation that his decision had been prompted by a boardroom bust-up.
Rumours had circulated in the City that Sir John had fallen out with Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, the retail group’s chief executive, over the future of Kingfisher.The group is in the process of splitting itself into two separate companies, each consisting of a group of Kingfisher’s existing brands One would be made up of Woolworths and Superdrug. The other would include the Comet electrical goods chain, the home improvement chain B&Q, and Castorama in France.Sir John said in a statement that he was “delighted” that Sir Geoffrey would continue at the helm of Kingfisher. ” In my five years as chairman, Geoff Mulcahy and I have worked together to focus the development of the group around its core strengths,” he said.Sir John, who is 60, had planned to announce his departure at Kingfisher’s annual general meeting later this month, but was forced to confirm weekend press speculation that he was planning to leave the company.He said: “I have thought for some time that it would be right for me to announce my decision to stand down as chairman this year.”Sir John, who is paid £200,000 annually, will depart later this year, once a new chairman has been found.It is believed that the Kingfisher board has been split over whether the Woolworths division should be floated or sold off, with the City favouring the latter. There are also thought to be disagreements over whether the company should be pursuing both options simultaneously, rather than going for either a flotation or a sale.After a meeting last Friday, the board decided to send a message of solidarity to investors, saying that the plan to look at both possibilities remained in place.Gerald Corbett, the former Railtrack chairman brought in to head Woolworths earlier this year, would become head of the new independent company if this division floated..