The gas effect is likely to be exacerbated in the short term, say analysts.The fortunes of the electricity generation business are increasingly intertwined with gas - helped by the notorious "dash for gas" in the wake of the 1984 miners' strike. Combined cycle gas-turbine power stations now account for the bulk of the electricity generated in this country. Unusually, the prospectus suggested a range of 180p to 280p a share - far wider than in previous privatisations, and a sign of the difficulty the Government has had in determining its worth. The motto seems to have been: "Let the market decide." Put that with the part-paid nature of the offer, and investors are on to a potentially mouth-watering return, at least for year one.The single most important factor for share prices of the generators in the medium term, however, is the outlook for electricity prices Most analysts believe prices will fall, damaging profits.
He then turned to his finance director and muttered "especially if she's got big tits" Unfortunately he had forgotten to turn his microphone off.. The arrival on the stock market of fully fledged sectors, such as water and electricity, has become an almost routine affair. As a result, investors are once again being offered an array of incentives to climb aboard the privatisation gravy train.The shares will probably yield more than 7.5 per cent, the rate of other electricity companies. Power generation, a sub-group of the electricity sector, has taken a while longer.
But its final shape became clearer last week after British Energy, the nuclear power generator, unveiled its prospectus. And Mr Lamb told me British Gas once lost its 'G', which brought it perilously close to becoming British Ass.But the most famous story, which I hesitate to repeat (but will) was of a utility chairman who perorated pompously about the importance of women and said that of course if the right woman presented herself she would become a board director. But I was a little surprised to see that the 13 founder members of the centre's Forum for Business Success are all chaps. Admirable chaps no doubt, but chaps nonetheless.Call me new-fangled, but I have this funny feeling that Tomorrow's Company should have at least the odd woman in it.CROWN Communications is the biggest organiser of annual general meetings in the country - which means, I reckon, that it must have presided over a few cock-ups in its time.Nick Lamb, Crown's managing director, will admit to only one: during an electricity company's AGM the lights started flickering - because a rival company was digging up the road outside.I was once at a British Aerospace AGM when the 'B' fell off (I wrote wittily of the chairman having a bee in his bonnet). That is because it pushes some admirable notions, including the abolition of the stock market. The detectors would beep loudly whenever MPs wander from the truth.
(I think the Westminster noise abatement people might have something to say about that one.)o Quick-drying printing ink so that Sunday paper readers don't have to keep washing their hands. (Ah, Mr Collins, but if you have pink ink on your hands on a Sunday, it is surely a subtle badge of discernment.)Men of tomorrowTHOUGH I dislike jargon with some intensity, I have always had a soft spot for The Centre for Tomorrow's Company. I think I know a few companies that may being going through planetary hiccups right now.MORE things that should exist, but don't - from Keith Collins of Whitton, Middlesex:o Lie-detecting apparatus, to be worn by MPs in the House of Commons. She will not tell them just to stop working ("Shares in ICI have been suspended because Pluto is in conjunction with Saturn"), but will suggest this might be a time to rethink and restructure."The trouble is that difficult periods tend to be up to three years long," she says. "Australians, Americans and Continentals are more open- minded," she says. They want to know when to launch a new product, or maybe open a factory.Sometimes, of course, the stars tell her that it is really not a good time for a business to be in .. business - which is a bit awkward. She says that if you treat the BBC's foundation date as its birthday, you get a chart that plonks it right in the middle of the entertainment industry.Ms Orr is unusual among astrologers in that she will do charts not just for individuals but for countries and companies as well "Companies have birth times," she says.
"It may be the incorporation date, or a moment that symbolises the company, such as the time a significant product was launched."She says that the business people who consult her most are non-British entrepreneurs. In its blurb the company says this "continues our three year repositioning strategy" and "further emphasises that the old Rhino is extinct". I can't help feeling the Worldwide Fund for Nature should be objecting.Stars of businessDID YOU know that the BBC is an actor? Well it is, according to Marjorie Orr, a Scottish astrologer based in Hampstead. Rhino Group has changed its name to The Electronics Boutique. Whenever we do anything wrong, he says, it is almost certainly a design fault in whatever we are fiddling with.