An announcement confirming the rescue deal for the ailing low-cost supermarket chain could come as early as Tuesday.

There have been reports that some suppliers have refused to deliver to Kwik Save stores in recent weeks. A visit to the company’s store in Yardley, Birmingham, on Friday found empty shelves and few customers.

The new investor is expected to demand sweeping changes at Kwik Save, which has struggled to hold its own in the fiercely competitive grocery sector.

One of the priorities is thought to be a shake-up of the management by recruiting a team of experienced food retailers. A source familiar with the situation said: ‘There will be a restructuring to enable a focused team to be brought in.’

It is likely that David Birchall, acting managing director and an investor in the company, will resume his role as commercial director.

The new backer is also demanding a clearout of underperforming brands at the company, which does not have an own-label line.

While cash will be spent upgrading some of the chain’s 210 tired-looking stores, funds will also be used to close down the poorest performing outlets.

Inevitably, the shake-up will see some of the firm’s 5,000 employees lose their jobs, though the exact number of redundancies is not yet known.

Kwik Save split from , owned by entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz and private equity firms Apax and Capital, last February.

It was acquired by a group of northern business magnates led by Richard Kirk, the former chief executive of fashion retailer , through their acquisition vehicle Back To The .

The new owners installed Paul Niklas, previously managing director of Formica UK, as chief executive. But he quit last June after only four months, along with new finance director Steve Payne.

Niklas’s replacement, Andrew Villars, a former director at pub company Spirit Group, has also parted company with the supermarket chain.

It is understood that cashstrapped Kwik Save has been offered more than one refinancing package.

Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has also been putting together a rescue deal. It is thought that Somerfield has been asked to write off a 20m loan as part of the PWC deal.

Executives at Kwik Save declined to comment.

The company is being advised by Manchester-based law firm DWF and , its corporate banker.

Other stories:
Clothing chain snaps up Kwik Save sites
Somerfield impatient with bid talk
Somerfield bid team in disarray
Co-op pulls up in race for Somerfield
Somerfield joins in sales slide

The company ordered Channel 4 to remove its name and branding from the programme with immediate effect.

The move came after last night’s episode saw an escalation of alleged racist bullying directed at Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said in a statement: ‘Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house.

‘We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse.

‘As a result, we feel that as long as this continues, we are unable to associate our brand with the programme. We had already made it clear to Channel 4 that were this to continue, we would have to consider our position.

‘Nothing we saw last night gave us any comfort. Accordingly, we have instructed Channel 4 to remove our sponsorship name and branding with immediate effect.’

Punters with apparent inside information cleaned up ahead of the announcement. slashed the odds of the company pulling out from 10-1 to 2-1 before suspending its book after receiving a flurry of ’sizeable’ bets.

Spokesman Darren Haines said the bookie became suspicious when about 15 bets of around 100 - all for Carphone Warehouse to withdraw - were placed within about five minutes.

‘It’s kind of specialised - we would consider 100 a large stake,’ he added.

The bookie suspended betting about an hour before Carphone Warehouse publicly announced its deal with Big Brother was over.

Paddy Power, which opened its book on the sponsorship arrangement on Tuesday, stands to lose a ‘little bit’ of money, Mr Haines said.

Following Carphone Warehouse’s announcement, cut its odds that this series of Celebrity Big Brother will be pulled before its scheduled end from 16-1 to 10-1.

Other stories:
Carphone tries new free broadband push
Carphone rapped for silent calls
Carphone in talks with Vodafone
Vodafone fury at Carphone poaching
Carphone ‘could lose Orange too’
Vodafone pullout hits Carphone
The Sunday interview: Charles Dunstone (the TalkTalk man)
Celador’s ‘Millionaire’ sold in 106m deal
Programme makers hit the big time
Endemol planning to float in London

Apple (AAPL) is sandbagging, Jim Cramer said Thursday on CNBC’s “Stop Trading!” segment.

Cramer said that, given the computer giant’s red-hot earnings report late Wednesday, the company’s below-consensus guidance is downright “insulting.” He said Apple’s obvious effort to talk down expectations shows once more that “press releases, unlike hips, do lie.”

Other than Apple, down $5 at $90, Cramer would generally shun tech, saying the season for buying technology stocks starts in August and runs through early January, with the annual Goldman Sachs technology conference.

Cramer wouldn’t buy PPG (PPG) , down 2% at $66.50, saying the U.S. economy is “not that strong” and the Pittsburgh-based industrial giant is “not out of the woods.”

BY REUTERS

Posted 1/22/2007

Treasury debt prices rose in light trade on Monday as bonds garnered modest bids due to weaker stocks.

“Weakness in stocks helped Treasuries to rally today,” said Chris Rupkey, vice president and senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

But Rupkey said there was a limit on how much bonds could capitalize on the weakness in stocks because equity investors were worried about the possibility of higher interest rates, which could cut into corporate profits, and how the Federal Reserve would respond if the economy came back to a “trend rate of growth.” Higher interest rates would be negative for bonds also, he said.

Traders said bond prices rose in light volume in a vacuum of guidance from fresh economic data and after the Treasury Department’s offering sizes of two- and five-year notes to be sold Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, were as forecast.

Remarks by San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen reiterating her view that interest rates were high enough to cut inflation but that risks have arisen from the robust labor market had no discernible impact on bonds.

Yellen said the fed funds rate at 5.25% “is currently within the moderately restrictive range that appears appropriate” given “middling” economic growth and the still-uncertain inflation outlook.

Financial markets believe that the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee will hold rates steady for several months. Yellen is not a voting member of the FOMC.

In late trade, the 10-year Treasury note was up 5/32 in price to yield 4.76%, down 2 basis points from late Friday.

Investors, particularly those from overseas, have been buyers of 10-year notes when the yield reached 4.80% and of two-year debt when the yield hit 4.95%, analysts said.

The Treasury Department said it would auction $20 billion in two-year debt Wednesday and $13 billion in five-year securities Thursday.

The Treasury is also set to sell $8 billion in 20-year Treasury inflation-protected securities on Tuesday.

NEW YORKA lawyer for the virtual world “http://secondlife.com/” has responded to a parody with something that’s quite different from the usual corporate .

Vancouver-based blogger Darren Barefoot had put up a one-page site, http://www.getafirstlife.com/, that imitates the look of SecondLife.com but promotes a real-life existence where you can work, reproduce and perish Д all for free.

The site purports to answer frequently asked questions such as “Why can’t I build a dirigible with my mind?”

That’s a dig at “Second Life,” where users with sufficient skill in three-dimensional modeling can build almost anything. The site includes a logo that’s a modified version of Second Life’s logo.

With a link, Barefoot invited cease-and-desist letters, the type lawyers often send threatening lawsuits if a site doesn’t pull down objectionable material.

Sunday’s note from Ginsu Yoon, a lawyer for Second Life, started out with the legalese of a standard nastygram Д Internet slang for a cease-and-desist letter Д but went on to say that “your invitation to submit a cease-and-desist letter is hereby rejected.”

Second Life representative Alex Yenni confirmed the note, delivered as a comment on Barefoot’s blog, was authentic.

“Linden Lab objects to any implication that it would employ lawyers incapable of distinguishing such obvious parody,” Yoon wrote. “Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humor, from which our lawyers receive no exception.”

The note even gives Barefoot a “nonexclusive, nontransferable, nonsublicenseable, revocable, limited license” to use the modified logo on T-shirts he sells.

Barefoot, whose day job is promoting software companies, wrote on his blog that the letter was an “enormous credit” to the company.

He writes that he doesn’t hate “Second Life,” but has been amused by the amount of hype and attention the world has attracted.