He has always had an affinity with numbers, he says, but no formal business training. The plans he showed to the bank were based on playing around with spreadsheets.”It was fairly easy to model the business, albeit all completely self- invented,” he observes.A few months after the launch, Anderson noticed that the magazine was running at below the death-scenario level. It stood him in good stead when he visited his local bank manager.”One of the joys of being in Somerset was that I don’t think my bank manager had ever seen a presentation with spreadsheets before. Usually he had farmers asking for money, scratching their heads and saying: `What do you think then?’” he says.Anderson, who wears his 42 years very lightly, presented the bank with three scenarios “including the death one” in which Anderson would lose his house In the early days, Future did almost die At the time it seemed reasonable. Anderson has always been a bit of a nerd, interested in games, spreadsheets and generally fiddling with technology. I was so happy to be free to do the thing I had been getting really excited about,” he recalls.The object of his enthusiasm was a magazine for Amstrad users, Amstrad Action. This is at least partly because Bath is intertwined in his mind with the success of his company.Anderson started the company after being fired by his then employer for refusing to move the magazine he edited to Ludlow.”I remember driving down the motorway singing at the top of my voice.

The Future sale was part of a pounds 2bn disposals programme instigated by chief executive Marjorie Scardino and designed to refocus the business into four key areas: educational and consumer book publishing, business information and broadcasting. As far as it is concerned, Future gave a good return on investment and was a profitable business but one “that was worth more to someone else than else than it would be to us”, a spokesman says.Anderson is also quick to point out that the Future which has just made its market debut is a different beast from the one Pearson sold, as it now includes Anderson’s US business interests, Imagine Media, and Il Mio Castello, an Italian publisher acquired in March.According to co-lead manager Warburg Dillon Read, Future’s growth projections (for operating profits on a pro-forma basis) amount to 55 per cent this year, 39 per cent next year and 36 per cent in 2001, which is the “incredible potential” to which Anderson refers.As for the London thing, Anderson is practically allergic to the capital. It was also awareness that the thing had incredible potential beyond what Pearson saw in it.”Pearson’s view is naturally somewhat different. The potential horror was that it would be taken over by something like an IPC, ripped apart and moved to London and I would have felt really miserable about that whole scenario. We spent the money because we thought we knew what to do with the company and we had a different vision from the other buyers, but we weren’t laughing up our sleeves or anything,” he says.Anderson and his partners had only 10 days to raise pounds 100m. He heard about the sale through an investment banker.”I think Pearson would have preferred me not to participate in the auction – it complicates things when the founder of a company comes back into it – but I just had to get back involved.

Given that the company has just attained a valuation 450 per cent higher, that looks like a bargain.”Clearly, in retrospect, it was a terrific bargain. He bought it back last year, with Future chief executive Greg Ingham and Apax Venture Partners, for pounds 142m. His clothes, like his demeanour, are understated if unquestionably expensive.The former computer games magazine editor made his first fortune when he sold Future to Pearson for pounds 52.7m in 1994, trousering somewhere between pounds 30m and pounds 40m in the process. Ranked 600th in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, Anderson had an estimated personal wealth of pounds 40m but few of the trappings that went with it. Future just happened to be [laughs] in one of those growth hotspots.”Colleagues are convinced that his new-found status as seriously rich won’t change him – he was not exactly short of a bob or two before the flotation. He prefaces many of his answers with awkward little coughs and chuckles; he uses the phrase “it turns out” frequently and attributes much of his success to luck.Here’s a snatch of Anderson-speak: “A huge piece of luck was to discover after the event – we didn’t know this at the time – that there was this giant trend away from generalist media to specialist magazines. At the end of the first day’s trading that had risen to pounds 632m, valuing his 25 per cent stake at pounds 140m.Yet Anderson appears more flushed with embarrassment than success.

Seeing him folded neatly and unobtrusively into a corner of the sofa in the Bath hotel where we meet, it is easy to believe.
Last month, the company he launched with a pounds 15,000 bank loan in 1985 floated with a market capitalisation of pounds 577.5m. The founder of the UK’s fourth-largest magazine publisher, Future Network, is slight in build and unassuming in manner. Apparently, whenever Anderson has a meeting at one of the company’s offices, he waits patiently to be collected from reception rather than marching straight into the boardroom. Publishers are often tall (IPC’s David Arculus), capable of losing a metre or two from their waistlines without appearing svelte (the late Robert Maxwell) or large in presence (Rupert Murdoch). Chris Anderson does not fit the mould of the multi-millionaire media mogul. The standards are pretty low with contract magazines out there and it’s a pretty wide-open market.”In the US he plans to get particular help from a man who used to work on the international side of the City, his old friend, the disgraced former Barings director, Peter Norris.This may raise eyebrows in some quarters but you get the feeling that John Brown doesn’t give a fig Things are anything but orthodox at his company..

The New Paradigmers hold that the internet and other new technologies have set the stage for a long-term boost in productivity. This prospect, they hold, means the record stock market makes sense.High share prices, in turn, bolster the confidence of American consumers – thereby completing the virtuous economic circle The sceptics say the New Paradigm is an illusion. But if Mr Kuroda plumps for weak yen, the floodgates may open and a selloff of Japanese financial assets could destabilise a still-recovering global financial system.In every nook and cranny of high finance, meanwhile, a debate rages about the US economy. A weak yen, he thinks, will help Japan by helping Japanese exporters.

The gradual appreciation of the yen gave global investors a reason to stick with their yen-denominated assets despite zero interest rates.But Mr Kuroda is thought to be opposed to a strong yen. Two weeks ago, the country’s long-time Deputy Minister for International Finance, Eisuke Sakakibara – “Mr Yen” – stepped down. He was replaced by Haruhiko Kuroda.Mr Sakakibara kept the Japanese financial system from haemorrhaging money – despite the fact that interest rates are zero – by allowing the yen to rise. “But these same fund managers have their own money in cash.”In parts of the financial world there is now something approaching mute panic about Japan. Maybe there really is something unreal about the good times we’re enjoying.The financial world runs these feelings through the prism of its disciplines and comes out with a more sophisticated sense of foreboding.”All the US fund managers I talk to have their clients’ money fully invested,” says investment adviser Andrew Smithers.

We may be in for a modest but not unhealthy expansion of the the economy this year.But virtually everyone, from the shrewdest City fund manager to the most lowly wage slave, shares a sense of foreboding Maybe the best is behind us. Gordon Brown and Eddie George may have engineered a soft landing for the economy. But Alan Greenspan and other Group of Seven central bankers opened the money taps. G7 economic policy makers have acted skilfully to mop up after the emergency.Consumer confidence is rebounding. Investors – at least, US retail investors – barely remember that the New York Stock Exchange actually closed at the height of the panic.And yet, despite the good economic news, there is an underlying economic logic to the Blair-Prescott fight last week. The London and New York stock exchanges may have hit record highs last week.

For a moment it looked as if the whole world was going to follow the region into deflation. But the rest of the world has been insulated because Japan is a nation of savers, and its citizens have been living on savings stuffed in the mattress.Last year the Asian asset bubble collapsed. Since then, Japan has suffered something approaching a 1930s-style deflation. The first great blow to the post-Cold War global economy – the pricking of the Japanese asset bubble – happened before he came to power. The new Cabinet will oversee Phase Two of the Third Way – and middles are always tougher than beginnings.There are, however, no obvious economic reasons for Blair and Prescott to fight.

The driver of the MGF was then arrested and taken to Daventry police station for questioning. He was released yesterday on police bail, pending further investigations. Two passersby saw the crash and alerted the emergency services. The accident at the circuit, which today is the venue for the British Grand Prix, happened late on Friday night when a T-registration MGF sports car drove on to the track, then spun off and overturned between Vale and Club corners.
Three men including the driver, all navy servicemen from Helston in Cornwall, crawled free but a fourth man was trapped and later pronounced dead at the scene.

A post-mortem examination revealed he died of asphyxia due to crushing injuries.The four men were crammed into the little sports car capable of travelling from 0-60mph in just seven seconds. Lists his recreations in Who’s Who as bridge and country pursuits.. A 32-YEAR-OLD Royal Navy serviceman was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after a fellow navy helicopter crewman was killed in an accident on Silverstone motor-racing circuit, writes Mark Rowe. Recently signed up to back a no-vote in any referendum on the euro.SIR CHIPS KESWICKDirector of Bank of England since 1993 and senior banking and capital markets adviser for Societe Generale. Director of De Beers Consolidated Mines and Persimmon, the house builders.

Featured in BBC2’s Blood on the Carpet, which told the story of Granada’s corporate assault on Forte. Last autumn led unsuccessful attempt to overturn the National Trust’s ban on stag hunting on its land.SIR ROCCO FORTEChairman of RF Hotels Ltd and son of Lord Forte, who lists his interests as fishing, shooting and fencing. It’s best to do these things the country way.”BARONESS MALLALIEUHigh-profile supporter of the pro-blood-sports lobby, leader of the Labour Party’s Leave Country Sports Alone group and President of the Countryside Alliance. Probably Britain’s single biggest charitable donor, thought to have given at least pounds 120m to British causes View on hunting: “I think hunting should be preserved.

The letter, entitled British Field Sports Society/Countryside Alliance Organisation for Response to Field Sports Survey, urges hunt supporters to “turn the tables” on “a well-organised campaign against us “through sheer weight of numbers.”It is followed by a list of well-known hunt supporters whom it claims have already been contacted including Baroness Mallalieu, the Labour peer.The Countryside Alliance confirmed that the list included leading supporters of field sports but could not confirm they were part of the chain.SIR JOHN PAUL GETTYBillionaire philanthropist who adopted British nationality. We think it is a wonderful whizzy idea but it is actually not any use to us.”The letter has been circulating via the post for the past few months and has recently been put on the e-mail system. In its letter to the Shooting Times the Alliance urges recipients to help them to “discover who started the chain”.”We don’t know who has initiated this,” said a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance. “We have tried very hard to track down where this comes from.

BRITAIN’S GAS producing giant, BOC, is likely to accept a joint bid by its French and American rivals Air Liquide and Air Products this week in a deal worth about pounds 7bn, according to people close to the companies BOC’s board meets tomorow. “I do think there will be some kind of deal,” said Fred Siemer, an analyst at FH Siemer. “But it’s enormously complex – in the US alone hundreds of factories are involved.”
The deal – which would value BOC, the world’s number two gases company, at about pounds 14.50 a share – is likely to mean job losses and factory closures at the company.”This is why [BOC chief executive] Danny Rosenkrantz has tried to stop the deal,” said a source close to the talks.Air Liquide, the number one gases company, and Air Products, number four, want to rationalise the relatively static industrial gases sector by carving up BOC’s units in the US and Asia.But the process of divvying up BOC’s assets is complicated by the fact the industry operates as a patchwork of national semi-monopolies, and further consolidation could be stopped by competition authorities.”If Air Liquide and BOC combine their CO2 businesses in the US, they will have over 50 per cent of the market. The market capitalisation still falls short of the pounds 623m that BSkyB was willing to pay until its bid was blocked in April by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission.The unwillingness of fund managers to invest in football clubs suggests that Manchester United may be ripe for going private. Two of Mr Ferguson’s own horses are trained at the Ballydoyle stables in Ireland, which Mr Magnier owns. It is believed that only last week Mr Ferguson attended a lunch at which Mr Magnier and Mr McManus were present.Although Manchester United shares have performed better than those of most quoted football clubs, analysts still believe its current stock market valuation of pounds 557m undervalues the club.

Mr Edwards’ apparent desire to leave the club has been heightened by the continued criticism to which he has been subjected by certain sections of United supporters.Officially, the club is refusing to comment on the bid speculation, wary of risking further attacks from fans who may resent the idea of a Magnier- inspired takeover.Meanwhile it has emerged that Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s treble-winning manager, may be the pivotal figure who introduced Mr Magnier and his associates to Mr Edwards. It has been suggested that Mr Byers will rule out the possibility of a media group bidding for Manchester United, which would encourage Mr Edwards to countenance a bid from Mr Magnier. Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, is expected to clarify the rules governing football club ownership later this month These have remained uncertain since BSkyB’s bid was blocked. They may also call upon former stockbroker Dermot Desmond.Mr Edwards is thought to favour a bid from a media group but there is continued uncertainty about whether such an approach would receive regulatory approval. There is no doubt that the combined wealth of Mr Magnier, Mr McManus and Michael Tabor, a leading light of the bloodstock world, would fit the bill. It is this condition that is said to have scuppered an earlier approach from JP McManus, the legendary gambler who was only interested in buying Mr Edwards’ shares.But sources remain convinced that Mr Edwards, who was said to be particularly disappointed by the failure of BSkyB’s bid, is keen to sell his stake to any party with the resources to maintain United’s status as the world’s biggest club. Mr Edwards, who owns 11 per cent of the club, is thought to be insistent that a bidder purchases the entire club and not just his stake.

Mr Magnier’s interests are so closely guarded that his main business vehicle, Coolmore Stud, is an unlimited partnership and hence is not even obliged to publish accounts.
It is understood that Mr Magnier has had a conversation with Martin Edwards, the chief executive of Manchester United, about buying the club but a deal remains elusive. They cite the example of his friend Joe Lewis, the equally wealthy and secretive currency trader, whose attempts to buy Christie’s, the auction house, collapsed in the face of intense public interest in his affairs. Insiders believe that John Magnier, the hugely successful breeder and owner, would be unwilling to undergo the scrutiny that would result from owning a large chunk of a public company. It is not the kind of example the President appreciates.He must instead rely on supporters like the man I met on the central square in Prokuplje on Thursday night, who explained why he is in favour of Mr Milosevic: “He defends the people.” It is a not a line that you hear often in Serbia, these days Those in the crowd around him looked on in sheer disbelief.. MANCHESTER UNITED is likely to be taken private by the horse-racing tycoon who is leading the race to control the Treble-winning quoted football club.

When the Albanians returned, thousands of Serbs found new homes in Montenegro. They are being ordered to return to Kosovo, even when they do not wish to do so. The children of Serb refugees are not allowed to enrol at local schools – unless, that is, they fetch up in the little republic of Montenegro, which still practises Yugoslav tolerance.While Serb troops were running amok in Kosovo, Montenegro gave shelter to tens of thousands of Albanian refugees. The loss of Kosovo is so humiliating that the Serbs fleeing their homes have officially become non-people There is no reference to them on television. He has also, however, made a string of promises, all of which he has broken.The economy is in a worse state than when he came to power – and was, even before the Nato bombing began. His reign is based on intolerance, more than on fear – which makes him potentially much more durable He has repeatedly won elections, some of them fairly.

This was her first outing as a political candidate- in-waiting since she confirmed last Tuesday that she was forming an “exploratory committee” to look into running for a US Senate seat in the Empire State next year. With none of the usual power-trappings and hoopla of the White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton journeyed through successive upstate towns, some with such Shakespearean names as Verona, Rome and Syracuse, to make first contact with its voters. IT WAS a First Lady-lite who travelled through a swathe of central New York state last week. But she is almost there and that is causing a stir, because of who she is. Who is the retail king in America? (Who also happens to be the wholesale king.) Wal-Mart is the wrong answer Bill Clinton, of course..

If it did, it would be airport hangar campaigning and downtown rallies Hillary isn’t retailing quite yet. Last week, she was meeting mostly with small groups stocked with people hand-picked by party organisers. The opposite would be wholesale politics, if such a phrase existed, which it doesn’t, yet. Corner-shop campaigning, where hands can be shaken and eyeballs eyed. RETAIL POLITICS is the new phrase for a practice as old as politics itself It is campaigning at street level.

`PRIEST’ ROBS RHODES BANK

Police on the resort island of Rhodes are searching for a man who robbed a bank dressed as a Greek Orthodox priest.. TURKS HALT IRAQ OFFENSIVE

Turkish security forces said they ended a week-long offensive into northern Iraq, after killing 40 Kurdish separatist guerrillas who are loyal to condemned rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.. . Six African governments involved in the 11-month war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a ceasefire accord but without the rebel groups who have been fighting to oust President Laurent Kabila. It was her first time in Berlin, and she tried to store up lots of sleep so as to be ready. “This place is just wild,” she said, wriggling her bottom furiously.. “When we began 10 years ago, we made music of the kind that others should have,” said dissident DJ Wolle Neugebauer “Today the same kind of electronic sauce pours out of every radio station.”But for Hans Pikkemmant, a 44-year-old club owner atop one of the floats, it is still “the greatest event on Earth – the girls take off all their clothes.” He had shelled out DM50,000 (pounds 17,000) on his lorry, sound system and 12 bodyguards, and the right to drive all this gear in the parade.Annika Mayer, aged 19, her body painted and “Music is the key” sprayed across her breasts, had come from the small town of Cochem in the Rhineland for two days of concentrated fun.

On the eastern side of the Gate, the annual “Hate Parade”, this year rechristened the “F— Parade”, was under way, organised by techno fans who think both the music and the main event have become too commercialised. That means he does not need to pay for waste disposal – nor clean on his vast earnings. The council footing the bill would be quite happy to see the Love Parade somewhere else, say Paris.But Berlin’s mayor, Eberhard Diepgen, is a fan, and saves the day every time. The event draws lots of tourists and, more importantly, helps to re-establish Berlin as one of the coolest places on the planet. “More people in New York have heard of the Love Parade than of Adolf Hitler,” an organiser claims.By the time the procession set off on the road which cuts across the Tiergarten towards the Brandeburg Gate, peace had been restored: the sponsors had been lumbered with the clean-up bill.It’s not only the council that fails to greet the event with total enthusiasm. That decision, by a local council, was itself the latest twist in the long-running dispute about who should pay for the disposal of the mountains of rubbish left behind.A few years ago, when the Parade was beginning to get seriously big, Dr Motte had the foresight to register it as a “political demonstration”.

The DJ known as Dr Motte, who dreamt up the idea 10 years ago and continues to be in charge, had been refused liquor concessions along the route. If the three-hour procession, involving 50 sound-pumping floats, is not enough, revellers can adjourn to the clubs where the music will go on through to tomorrow morning.
Also part of the choreography, however, are the rows that precede the event, culminating in threats to take the Love Parade to Paris This year was no different. There is a relaxed dress code – as little as possible – you can test your ecstasy tablets at one of the stalls, and dance until you drop. Since its humble beginnings 10 years ago, when a group of 150 techno fans marched down the Ku’damm, the Love Parade has become an annual ritual, almost always blessed with hot, sunny weather and a good-natured, if somewhat spaced out, crowd. A MILLION people, their bodies writhing to the hypnotic beat of techno, crammed into the centre of Berlin yesterday for the world’s biggest annual rave.