But even without that, operating profits still slumped by a disappointing 11 per cent to pounds 78m. Like most of the rest of the UK textile industry, Coats has been tardy at addressing the threat from overseas competition. But the group has been spurred into action by the looming demise in 2005 of the multi-fibre agreement, the textiles trade treaty that has protected high-cost Western producers. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that the shares have underperformed the rest of the market by more than 40 per cent over the past five years. Take a company operating in mature, cut-throat markets, subject to hugely volatile raw material prices, and you have a pretty accurate picture of Coats Viyella's struggle over recent years.

We are quite happy with that approach."Mercantile & General, the reinsurer which the Pru recently announced it was selling to Swiss Re for pounds 1.75m, contributed pounds 90m to group profits in the first six months of the year.Despite this contribution, Mr Davis restated his view that there were "no significant operational and strategic synergies between M&G and our other businesses".The sale of M&G, together with a much smaller Dutch operation, Prudential Leven, gives the Pru a pounds 1.8bn war chest to fund future acquisitions.Mr Davis said the company wanted to buy a mortgage lender to build its customer base but he refused to be drawn on which building society, if any, the Prudential was talking to."We are interested in buying a building society but for its branch network and its customer base rather than its mortgage book," he said, adding that the priority at present was for the Pru to complete its disposal of Mercantile & General.Profits at Jackson National, the Pru's US arm, rose 30 per cent to pounds 153m, contributing more than a third to the insurer's overall returns.. Our view is that this is what customers want now."What they are doing has a solid underlying sense. They do not want to take on long-term commitments but prefer to make a single contribution when they have the resources."When they feel they have the resources they will come back again. Mr Davis said: "The first half of 1996 has been a productive period for [us].

We have made significant progress in shaping the company to ensure continued success."Among the company's growth areas, seen as key to its medium-term development strategy, the UK delivered profits of pounds 203m, 2 per cent up on last year, excluding the bank set-up charges.Sales of single premium products rose by 50 per cent to pounds 1.577bn, while regular premium contribution sales reached pounds 157m, up 15 per cent.Industry analysts have traditionally seen single premium income as less significant for insurers because they are capable of fluctuating heavily.However, Mr Davis said: "When we spoke to the analysts some were sceptical But we do not think that is the case. Prudential, the UK's largest insurer, yesterday said its plans for a telephone bank offering mortgages and savings products were on target for a launch date of 1 October. Peter Davis, group chief executive at the Pru, said the bank's services would be aimed primarily at the company's existing customers. "We are planning to have a range of mortgages available, as well as several deposit accounts, but because of competitive pressures we cannot say too much until the end of the month."The pounds 33m development costs of the Pru's new banking arm helped dent the insurer's half-year profits, which still reached a record high of pounds 421m, up from pounds 390m in the first six months of last year. BCCI had not got any real security in this extraordinary situation.

This was a big factor leading to the closing and collapse of BCCI."We say the Gulf Group and Gokal himself had a dishonest relationship with senior officials of BCCI going back to the Seventies. Within that relationship, Gokal and the Gulf Group secretly received millions upon millions of dollars from BCCI in the Eighties," said Mr Hacking.After the collapse, most of the conspirators went to Pakistan where they were safe because there was no extradition treaty with Britain, the court heard.Mr Gokal also went, but in December 1994 caught a plane travelling from Pakistan to the United States which put down in Frankfurt to refuel Mr Gokal was arrested and extradited to Britain The trial is expected to last six months.. The head of an international shipping and trading empire plotted with senior officials of the collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce International to syphon off millions of pounds, leading to its collapse and a disaster for its depositors, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. Abbas Gokal, 60, and his two brothers had run up a $1.2bn (pounds 770m) debt to the bank when it folded in July 1991, said Anthony Hacking QC, prosecuting. Mr Gokal had operated a massive swindle involving corrupt officials, secret global bank accounts, vast numbers of fake documents and other people's money to fund a lavish lifestyle, he alleged.A false document factory was set up in BCCI's City of London headquarters in Leadenhall Street to feed the fraud, the court heard.A sham financial structure was created "which was used as a screen to deceive the outside world as to what was really going on between him and BCCI", Mr Hacking told the court.Mr Gokal, 60, has denied conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to account falsely between 1985 and 1991.He ran a collection of companies from Geneva and London called the Gulf Group, according to the prosecution.Bribes were paid to three of the BCCI officers involved in the fraud, routed through bank accounts that Mr Gokal controlled, the prosecution alleged.Documents signed by him were found by the Serious Fraud Office in a safe deposit box in the City of London "which showed that he and his two brothers owned and controlled the companies involved in the frauds", said Mr Hacking."They show that he and his two brothers incurred $1.2bn of debt owed to BCCI There was no real security. One suggestion is that internal management targets for Taunton, the cider company bought by Mr Clark for pounds 271m last September, had been raised to unrealistic levels on the back of booming cider sales during the long, hot summer of 1995.Mr Clark has already incurred the wrath of fund managers last month when it emerged that Mr Aikens received a pounds 430,000 relocation package after the company moved its headquarters to Bristol from Guildford.. The three brands affected by the shift in consumption pattern account for about one-fifth of Clark's estimated profits this year of pounds 50m."There might be more to this than just alco-pops," said a fund manager.