However if no partner is found then under current proposals Zenith will be owned

However, if no partner is found then, under current proposals, Zenith will be owned equally by Cordiant's other two businesses that are being demerged - the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency and the Bates marketing group.Zenith has offices in 22 countries but is considered too small to compete in the media buying sector, a business that entails an agency buying advertising space for clients.Regardless of any poison pill, some industry experts question how attractive Zenith would be to a buyer. One said: "Zenith is interesting because of the accounts it holds. But what would stop those accounts moving back to its former parent company in the event of a takeover?"The Cordiant demerger, which could formally take effect in December with the stock listing of Saatchi & Saatchi and Bates in both London and New York, has put all three groupings into play as potential takeover targets.One rival media services group said it would certainly take a look at the individual businesses. A senior executive said: "Everyone in the industry will be putting the [acquisition] slide rule over all these new companies."Lorna Tilbian, media analyst with Panmure Gordon, said: "Both [Saatchi and Bates] could go in takeovers. It seems likely that a partner will be brought in to Zenith so it can be floated off."But speculation about Saatchi & Saatchi and Bates as takeover targets was brushed aside by Mr Seelert He said: "Frankly we do not see it that way. Both are robust companies that are perfectly capable of standing on their own."Young & Rubicam, one of the US advertising groups linked by analysts as a possible future partner for Zenith, ruled itself out of the running yesterday.. St Ives, the printing group, believes in managing its businesses, rather than doing endless deals, which is a bit surprising since its chairman, Miles Emley, is a former deal-maker at the Rothschilds merchant bank.

By sticking to its last, the group has built market-leading positions in printing markets ranging from Bibles to the sleeves for CD-Rom discs by running a tight and well-invested ship. That formula continued to deliver the goods in the latest half year to January when profits jumped by a fifth to pounds 23.5m, more than the group made in the whole of 1992. The figures were muddied by exchange factors and a pounds 1.68m maiden contribution from Perlmuter, the US direct response and commercial printer acquired in September, but underlying growth was still probably into double figures. As ever, some of St Ives' cylinders fired better than others. Books was a flat market, with Bible exports hit by the strong pound and paperbacks showing little sign that the end of the net book agreement is boosting sales. Work printing the reams of documentation associated with City bids and deals has also gone quiet in the run- up to the general election, even if St Ives did pick up the massive Halifax Building Society conversion and the British Gas demerger. It is warning that the hiatus could continue for a while after May.However, the cuts in pagination and delayed launch of titles which hit last year's results from the magazines division have reversed in the wake the 20 per cent cut in paper prices over the past year.

The Christmas decision by RR Donnelley of the US to close its York plant, one of the top five or six magazine printers in the UK, also brought a windfall in the shape of contracts for Vogue, Top Gear and in-house mags for Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's Homebase. The troublesome new presses at the Caerphilly works are now nearly fixed - some two years after the first was commissioned.But the real growth areas, where St Ives is concentrating its sales efforts, are in direct response, multimedia such as CD-Roms and so-called international corporate finance. It also continues actively to look abroad to extend all its interests. Perlmuter, picked up last year in the US, and Johler Druck of Germany, in for a full six months this time after its acquisition in 1995, are both in direct marketing.

The former seems to be dovetailing well with St Ives' Florida operation, while plans to increase capacity by up to 12.5 per cent in Johler is indicative of the health of the German company and its markets.Prodigious cash flow, equivalent to after-tax profits in the half year, should leave the company with net cash at the year-end. Profits of pounds 47.5m would put the shares, up 3.5p to 545p, on a forward multiple of 17. Booming consumer expenditure looks set to make up for thinner times in financial markets, but Mr Emley may need to work up another foreign deal to get the shares on the move again.. There is only one problem with DFS Furniture according to Sir Graham Kirkham, the founder and executive chairman of this retailing phenomenon: it is too good to be true. Like all good jokes, this one carries the germ of truth within it. Yesterday's interim figures to January, showing pre-tax profits up 24 per cent to pounds 18.7m, were as excellent as Sir Graham believed and higher than City expectations. But most of the increase in sales, which soared 44 per cent to pounds 126m, was propelled by new stores.

Like-for-like growth through comparable stores grew by a meagre 3.3 per cent and Sir Graham said he had seen no sign of any great upturn in overall consumer spending. This underlying figure may prove a cause for concern, especially with consumers almost certain to face higher interest rates immediately after the general election. But DFS is determined to protect itself by increasing its store openings in the South-east of the country.It has created a Greater London bridgehead with three stores in New Malden, Sidcup and Croydon. It will supplement those by opening in Milton Keynes in August and Reading in October.DFS had promised to open 15 to 20 stores in the three years from April 1995. It is now saying it will almost certainly exceed this figure.Sir Graham insists that he operates a well-sprung machine that is built to withstand any prevailing commercial environment."DFS has never relied on a buoyant economy or a housing boom for its growth.