It was "vital that Hong Kong remain the vibrant financial centre with its own economic system that we know now".The eminent supporting cast on the platform included Wang Xue Bing, chairman of Bank of China, who reinforced the promise that his organisation would not seek special privileges.Other speakers were Patrick Gillam, chairman of Standard Chartered, and Sir William Purves, chairman of HSBC, who said: "I have a feeling that we will look back on China's resumption of sovereignty in 1997 and say this was the moment when Hong Kong became truly world-beating.". China pulled out all the stops yesterday to reassure the City that it would back a separate Hong Kong currency, and promised that if necessary it would use its own reserves to support the 13-year-old link with the US dollar. In the case of one available franchise, Scotrail, National Express already has a virtual monopoly over coach travel between London and Scotland.It means the on-going investigation by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission into the acquisition of Midland Main Line will take on even greater significance. Mr Patterson said he would be submitting evidence to the MMC later this week and was expecting a final decision in November.National Express made the announcement as it revealed a 160 per cent surge in pre-tax profits in the first half of the year to pounds 20m.Excluding the impact of the recent takeovers, operating profits went up by 143 per cent to pounds 19.5m.The company said it was looking for further takeover opportunities beyond the rail sector.It is close to finalising a joint bid for the privatisation of Australia's airports, in competition with BAA..

A long-simmering advertising war between Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB and ITV companies last night erupted into an unseemly and public row - and all because of a series of television commercials. He suggested Opraf's strategy was to try to guarantee bids for the least attractive franchises, which include the cash-starved West Coast Main Line.But National Express admitted its approach could bring it into further conflict with the competition authorities. The annual report of the Morgan Grenfell European Capital Growth Fund shows that the fund had 3.35 per cent of its assets in the electronic components company's shares as at 31 January, 1996.. National Express Group, the coach, bus and train operator, yesterday pledged to bid for all the remaining rail franchises in a move that intensified the battle over the final phase of the controversial rail sell-off. The company, which already controls two rail franchises, put itself firmly in competition with Stagecoach Holdings, the acquisitive transport group which has already made the same commitment. Earlier this year National Express won the bidding to operate the lucrative Gatwick Express franchise, claimed to be the only profitable route on the old British Rail network, along with Midland Main Line which runs trains from London's St Pancras station to the East Midlands and Sheffield. In the first two months' trading these rail businesses made operating profits, including Government subsidies, of pounds 401,000.Twelve more rail franchises are still up for grabs, but National Express said Opraf, the rail franchising office which is managing the privatisation process, had made it clear it preferred bids from each interested company for most or all of the remaining franchise areas."We think we're going to get another slice of the action," said Ernie Patterson, chief executive. Its discovery sent regulators on the trail of Mr Young and his dealings last month.

Last week Morgan Grenfell froze Mr Young's assets and those of Russ Oil.Set up on 22 December 1995, Russ Oil has the same structure as the other holding companies set up by Mr Young, apparently to hide the extent of his stakes in unlisted Scandinavian companies.It emerged yesterday that the name of one of the Luxembourg holding companies - Horten Technology Holding SA - may have been based on name of the home town of Sensonor, a high technology firm based in Horten, Norway.Sensonor's flotation was handled by Carnegie in 1994. They are trying to establish whether he made any personal gain.To date, the Serious Fraud Office has not been passed any information which has led director George Staple to open a formal investigation into the affair.Russ Oil and Technology, which is Luxembourg-registered, is at the centre of the inquiries. It also emerged that Deutsche Bank had been ordered by the German banking supervision authority to report to it every day on developments in the Morgan Grenfell situation. Another pounds 24m was withdrawn from the Morgan funds yesterday, considerably less than the total of pounds 232m redeemed by worried investors on the previous three working days.But with Deutsche's contribution, the funds only had a pounds 300m cash pile when they resumed trading last Thursday, and less than pounds 50m of this remains,which is thought to be too small a cushion even if the level of redemptions continues to slow at its current rate."Imro is working with Morgan Grenfell to ensure that appropriate measures are in place," an Imro spokesman said.In the meantime, investigators are looking for evidence that Peter Young, the fund manager at the centre of crisis, owned stakes in the maze of Luxembourg shell companies he set up. The idea that we have only been mining the easy seams is also rubbish. If they are the easy ones then I would hate to see what the hard ones are like," he said.He was speaking as RJB announced flat profits of pounds 86m for the first half after an operating loss of pounds 15.3m on the Ashfordby colliery on sales of 20 million tonnes.Productivity improvements continued to outstrip reductions in prices charged to the two generators National Power and PowerGen and sales remained comfortably ahead of projections in its 1994 prospectus..

"These people wandering God's earth saying RJB is going to collapse are as wrong now as they were two years ago. He dismissed suggestions that RJB would have difficulty making sufficient profits from the new colliery or that it was being developed because the company was running out of seams that could be mined easily at its 20 existing collieries.Charles Kernot, mining analyst with brokers Paribas Capital Markets and a long-standing bear of RJB, said the outlook remained one of lower prices, lower output and lower earnings "I remain wary about Budge's plans. The profit margins are not substantial and, in any case, it is going to cost a lot more than pounds 300m to keep RJB's output at the current level of 40 million tonnes a year."In May he issued a highly critical note saying he was convinced that a new deep level mine would not be an economic proposition for RJB, adding: "The only way an investor in RJB Mining Shares can make a profit from buying them today is to be able to sell them to a more naive investor at a higher price tomorrow."But Mr Budge rejected the criticisms. The colliery, which could eventually employ 500 miners, will take 10 to 15 years to come into full operation and produce about 3 million tonnes of coal a year. RJB said that seismic surveys of the Witham district just north of Newark pointed to 655 million tonnes of workable coal in three seams.