Despite the damper put on all markets by John Major’s decision to hold a gun to his own head and say back me or the Prime Minister gets it, and John Redwood’s OK then, shoot retort, Cable & Wireless Plc shares took heart from what Lord Young had to tell the annual meeting, and were sixpence to the good at 419 pence by late morning. Lord Young said he was greatly encouraged by the first two months of the group’s financial year so far. He also said that the 80%-owned Mercury Communications Ltd was now well and truly back on the growth path after last year’s restructuring and staff cuts, and that the company hoped to could find a way of melding together its One-2-One UK mobile telephone venture with the systems in which it has stakes in France and Germany – it uses the same technology as its 20%-owned Bouygues Telecom SA mobile network and Germany’s E-Plus, in which it is interested via Veba AG. No word on whether any British Telecommunications Plc stalking horses have been spotted.
