The sale means Dalgety will now consist only of PIC International Group, the world’s leading pig breeding and genetic improvement business. The management buyout team is led by Paul Kirk and Tony Taylor of Dalgety Agriculture.. CAPITAL RADIO, the music- based entertainment group whose bid to win control of Richard Branson’s Virgin Radio was blocked earlier this year, has agreed to buy 90.1 per cent of Xfm, the London-based alternative rock station, for pounds 14.5m. The deal is subject to approval by the regulatory authorities.

The Monopolies and Mergers Commission rejected Capital’s pounds 87m bid for Virgin Radio on competition grounds after deliberating for six months, just after a consortium led by the Chris Evans, the DJ, had snatched control of Virgin with a slightly lower bid of pounds 85m.
David Mansfield, Capital Radio’s chief executive, said the bid for Xfm would not be referred. Acquiring Xfm would give Capital Radio the two FM stations and one AM station in the London area, which it is allowed by the Broadcasting Act 1996. Unlike the acquisition of Virgin Radio it would not materially increase the group’s share of the listening audience in London or the share of advertising revenue.Xfm has only 0.6 per cent of the listening hours and even less of the advertising revenues. The station began broadcasting only last September and has lost up to 11 per cent of its initial audience in the last three months. Capital intends to inject more mainstream rock music into Xfm’s playlist and introduce its expertise in marketing, advertising sales and programming.”We are not collecting nuggets of gold here, we are acquiring a seam of gold but we have to dig to find it,” a spokesman said.Chris Parry, Xfm’s managing director and co-founder, will continue as a director and retain the outstanding 9.9 per cent stake in the company.After taking into account start-up costs, Xfm lost pounds 1.7m in the year to the end of December and the deal is unlikely to have a positive impact on Capital Radio’s profits this year.

The shares rose 30.5p to 660.5p.Capital FM is already the market leader in London radio, with 15.5 per cent of the capital’s audience, Capital Gold has a further 5.2 per cent. The group controls around 60 per cent of the commercial advertising revenue.. LEE WESTWOOD, in his first round in Europe this season, was pleased with the start and the finish but not much in between when he finally got to play his first round in the Italian Open. The world No 20 wasted no time, breaking Bjorkman in the first game and needing just 59 minutes under darkening skies to surge to his third career win against the Swede.
A chilly crowd warmed to Agassi in the first game of the second set when he hid behind a ball boy after a sharp clap of thunder, but there were few real scares for the eighth seed.The rapid-fire match was in stark contrast to the day’s first clay court marathon.

ANDRE AGASSI dodged sprinkles of rain – and one mighty thunderclap – on his way to a 6-2, 6-2 win over the second seed Jonas Bjorkman to reach the semi-finals of the BMW Open in Munich yesterday. Belgium, however, are unlikely to oblige but a more thorough test will be supplied by New Zealand, who England face soon afterwards in an attractive double header.
The women’s convincing victories in the Four Nations’ Tournament in Massachussetts which ended last weekend provide plenty of optimism, but a clearer picture of progress will be possible after this weekend’s two- game series against the Dutch, and then against the world and Olympic Champions, Australia, at Milton Keynes on the 12th and 14th May.. Having completed his team line-up during the week with the selection of David Luckes as his second goalkeeper, coach Barry Dancer will be looking for stronger opposition than that provided by Scotland, Wales and France over the past two weekends. ENGLAND’S teams continue their World Cup preparations today with the men playing Belgium in Brussels and the women tackling the Netherlands today and tomorrow in the Frockey Stadium in Utrecht, one of the two venues for the Cup, writes Bill Colwill.