"This is a very big market, and there is a lot of market share there to get."But just selling telecoms services will not be enough, Mr Michels said. In his first interview since confirming he would return to the US with his family, Mr Michels said: "I certainly have a respect for the board. But relations are always a challenge for corporate shareholders and the chief executive." Telewest is jointly controlled by US telecoms company US West and TCI, the giant media company controlled by John Malone. The two have not always agreed about strategy, and had differing views about Mr Michels' stewardship.Mr Michels, credited with seeing through the Telewest flotation in 1994 and the merger with SBC Cablecomms last year, was one of the industry's best-known executives.

He conceded, however, that "it is always difficult when you have different corporate shareholders with different views". Alan Michels, who abruptly left his job as chief executive at Telewest Communications this week, denied there had been a boardroom bust- up. "In view of the results for the first half, which will be announced in early September, our current expectations for the year as a whole have been reduced."Although raw material pulp prices have fallen back sharply this year, the company warned it would have to work through its higher priced stock before benefiting from the decline.Arjo's biggest problem is thought to be its carbon and coated paper operations in Europe, which are operating so badly that the company is more reliant on Appleton, its US operation.Market report, page 18. The cycle is exacerbated in the upswing by customers expanding stocks ahead of feared price rises and in the downswing by inventories being run down to take advantage of subsequently lower prices."We stated at our agm that the results for the first half would be poor and that the outlook for the rest of the year was uncertain," the company said. Forecasts for the full year tumbled from a consensus of about pounds 150m to around pounds 120m.Profit forecasts had already been slashed from about pounds 200m in April as the extent of the downward swing in the paper cycle became evident. The reduction follows five years of gyrating profits from the company.Having made profits of pounds 232m in 1991, profits slumped in 1992 and 1993, bouncing in 1994 to pounds 217m and then collapsing again last year to just pounds 72m. The share price, which has underperformed the market by almost a third over the past two years, has been almost as volatile as Arjo's earnings.In the summer of 1995, pulp was trading at almost $1,000 (pounds 650) a tonne but by the spring figures had fallen as low as $400.