SCOTTISH Radio Holdings has bought Parkin Advertising a Bristol-based outdoor contractor for pounds

SCOTTISH Radio Holdings has bought Parkin Advertising, a Bristol-based outdoor contractor, for pounds 89m In the year to 31 March 1999 Parkin made pre-tax profits of pounds 061m on turnover of pounds 359m The company's net assets at that date were pounds 085m SRH said it had no plans to cut staff numbers at Parkin and the company's managing director, Mike Parkin, would remain in his present post. If they sell the health clubs, for shares rather than cash to invest, they'll start to fade away and if someone wants the nightclubs they'll sell those too."Analysts tipped Whitbread, Holmes Place, Fitness First, Greenalls and Scottish & Newcastle as possible buyers.. "Both parties examined the prospect of a merger but were unable to reach an agreement on financial terms," he said.He added the group was examining its options in line with the strategic review announced in January, a statement interpreted as further indication the group is looking at a break-up.Shares in First Leisure dropped 7.5p to 246p while Cannons Group was unchanged at 192.5p, reflecting sentiment that the collapse of talks had left First Leisure more vulnerable.One analyst said: "When Michael Grade joined, the talk was of making proper money It's all a bit sad but those high hopes have faded. THE pounds 530M planned merger between First Leisure and Cannons Group has collapsed after the two groups indicated that Cannons had failed to offer a sufficiently high bid for First Leisure's health and fitness business, valued at around pounds 250m. Also emphasised is the value the MPC attaches to surveys of forward-looking indicators such as business confidence and manufacturing orders."The Transmission Mechanism of Monetary Policy" is available on the Bank of England's website: www.bankofengland.co.ukCopies of "Economic Models at the Bank of England" are available, priced pounds 10, from the Bank's Publications Group.. Included with the model descriptions is a discussion of the importance of judgement in policy decisions. The current treatment of expectations in the Bank's economic model is seen as inadequate, and is one of the areas earmarked for improvement.

Indeed, the priorities of Sushil Wadhwani, the former hedge fund director who will join the MPC in June, are likely to include refining the Bank's analysis of financial markets.Despite the theoretical tone of the publications, the Bank denies that its interest rate decisions are purely model-driven. Although the Bank is still a firm believer that, in the long term, there cannot be a sustained increase in the inflation rate without a sustained increase in the money supply, it is sceptical of the usefulness of the money supply as a short- term indicator of activity.Instead, far more emphasis is placed on analysis of the labour market, as well as the role played by market expectations of key variables such as interest rates, exchange rates, and inflation. But it may take at least a year before there is any appreciable effect on inflation.Moreover, a temporary change in interest rates may only have a short- lived effect on output, the paper says, but can affect the inflation rate for many years.Applying this logic to recent aggressive cuts in UK interest rates, we should soon expect to see definite signs of an upturn in economic growth. A movement in interest rates can affect growth almost immediately, according to the Bank. It explains how interest rate changes can have an immediate effect on variables such asbond and equity prices, market confidence and exchange rates, and how movements in these variables eventually affect both output and inflation.One of the paper's key contentions is that changes in interest rates affect economic growth long before they feed through into inflation. The move - designed to improve "the understanding and transparency of monetary policy", according to Eddie George, Governor of the Bank of England - follows pressure from both inside and outside the Bank to promote openness and improve accessibility. At the request of Select Committees in both the Commons and the Lords, the Bank is also to release a short paper explaining the way it believes changes in interest rates - the main tool of economic management used in Britain - impact on inflation and economic growth.The paper, called "The Transmission Mechanism of Monetary Policy", provides one of the most clear insights to date of the thinking of the MPC.

THE BANK of England will today publish for the first time comprehensive details of economic models used by the Monetary Policy Committee when setting UK interest rates. What is this fund meant to be, where's the money coming from, and what is Mr Murdoch doing entering the Internet venture capital business so late in the day? All very odd, very odd indeed.. Even so, it must have been clear to Mr Booth that his number was up.The other side of the official story - Mr Murdoch's new Internet venture capital fund - seems strange too. Mr Booth is said to have been so apoplectic with rage that he refused to go back to the office for five days, returning only after it became obvious the merger wasn't going to happen.

Well maybe, but there may be more to this than meets the eye. NOTHING IS quite what it seems in Rupert Murdoch's business empire. Officially the explanation of Mark Booth's abrupt departure from his post as chief executive of BSkyB is that he found the offer of a cut of the action heading up Rupert Murdoch's assault on the Internet too much to resist. He even turned down a $25m golden hello from Bill Gates at Microsoft to sign on the dotted line. Given that under the terms of the right issue the Malaysians could end up with 60 per cent of the company, perhaps it would be kinder for all concerned if they bought the remainder and took the company private.. In the circumstances, recruiting the power of prayer to the board in the form of Pat Robertson, the American TV evangelist, was perhaps the only strategy left.The tragedy of Laura Ashley is that somewhere, in some form, there is a brand with some value trying to get out.