"Adair Turner has been used to buy time for the politicians, in order to maintain the momentum of procrastination," he said.Last night, there were already signs that business leaders are preparing to criticise parts of the Turner report. "We find it very unhelpful that a report which should receive a fair hearing is undermined before it is even published," John Cridland, the deputy director of the Confederation of British Industry, said. "By the time the report was published, I was already busy defending the unpalatable bits that had been leaked."Like Lord Turner, who will present his report to John Hutton, who has been Secretary of State at the DWP for less than a month, Mr Pickering's work was commissioned by a minister who had moved on. "Two days before my report was published, it was selectively leaked and it was obvious the leak had come from government sources," Mr Pickering said. Alan Pickering, who produced A Simple Way to Better Pensions for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), said he believed the Government had deliberately leaked the contents of the Turner report over the past month in an attempt to sabotage the work of its author, Lord Turner of Ecchinswell. Mr Pickering said government ministers used identical tactics ahead of its publication in July 2002 The report was subsequently shelved.
The author of the last government-commissioned report into pensions reform accused the Government yesterday of using the same dirty tricks to undermine the forthcoming Turner report as it had employed to derail his own recommendations three years ago. It has a talented, driven management team that has built a broad range of high-quality entertainment and factual programmes and formats over the past 10 years."Shed's shares leapt more than 10 per cent on yesterday's news, to close up 11.5p at 118.5p, giving Shed a market value of £59m.. Sanjay Wadwhani, a director of Ingenious Corporate Finance, which advised the shareholders of Ricochet on the deal, said: "There's been quite a lot of activity in the sector over the past few years. The industry has been hugely fragmented - there are 800-plus production companies in the UK - and it's inefficient to be as fragmented as that."Commenting on the deal yesterday, Eileen Gallagher, the chief executive of Shed, said Ricochet was "a perfect fit for Shed.
The Communications Act, which came into force in 2003, ensured production companies are rewarded with a much greater share of revenues from television programmes which they devise and develop.Previously, the broadcaster that financed the production would maintain the rights to any future sales, with the production company receiving a small one-off fee, and only a small part of any future revenues from syndication.The deregulation sparked a wave of consolidation in the sector, as revenues in production companies have soared. A further £5m is payable conditional on Ricochet's performance over the next 18 months.Earlier this year, Shed became the first production company to exploit regulatory changes that favoured the independent sector to take a listing, on the Alternative Investment Market. The pair are now set to eventually realise some £22.5m and £7.5m respectively from their shareholdings. Both will stay on at Shed once the deal is completed, and will be appointed to the enlarged company's board as executive directors.The deal comprises £10m in Shed shares, £7.5m in cash, and a further £7.5m in loan notes, redeemable on the first anniversary of the transaction's completion. Shed Productions, the Alternative Investment Market-listed television company responsible for programmes such as Footballers' Wives, snapped up its smaller rival, Ricochet, for £30m yesterday, making its founder more than £22m. Ricochet, best known for programmes such as Channel 4's Supernanny and Selling Houses, was launched by Nick Powell 10 years ago.
He owns 75 per cent of the company, with its creative director, Nick Southgate, owning the remainder. It floated on AIM in May last year to raise funds for its plans.Analysts at Oriel Securities said: "You can double, or you can quit. That would appear to be the choice that Urban Dining was facing in the dog-eat-dog casual dining market, and it's chosen to quit." They pointed to Yates's decision to sell itself to Laurel last year and "it did its shareholders [GI Partners at the time] no harm at all".. It has been associated with a number of restaurant chains, including the seafood chain Loch Fyne.The company was set up two years ago by Mr Metcalf, Mr Tomlinson, who both hailed from Pizza Express, and Mr Woodcock as an investment vehicle designed to pick up assets in the restaurant sector. Glen Tomlinson has been appointed executive chairman and is leading a strategic review of the business, which may result in a sale Tim Woodcock stays on as finance director.
Mr Woodcock said yesterday: "We are disappointed but accept the reality of the situation. There is an awful lot of corporate activity in the sector and Tootsies is a good brand. We expect interest from both trade and financial buyers."Urban bought Tootsies for £31m in November last year and has been on the lookout for three other established restaurant brands. Urban Dining, the restaurant operator behind the Tootsies chain, put itself up for sale yesterday and parted with its chief executive John Metcalf after a poor trading performance.