In a letter to shareholders Wickes' chairman Michael von Brentano said: Unless the resolutions are

In a letter to shareholders, Wickes' chairman Michael von Brentano said: "Unless the resolutions are approved by shareholders, the group is likely to be unable to continue to trade." An extraordinary general meeting on 6 January 1997 will vote on the refinancing proposals, the centrepieces of which are a deeply-discounted rights issue to raise pounds 53.2m, new banking facilities of pounds 52m and a pounds 100m capital reduction.Under the terms of the rights issue, which is fully underwritten by SBC Warburg, investors are being offered one new share at the equivalent price of 15p for every share held. Wickes, the do-it-yourself retailer whose former bosses are being investigated for fraud, yesterday warned shareholders that the company faced receivership unless they backed a large refinancing package. He has acted as commercial manager to Lennox Lewis, the former world heavyweight boxer champion.His connection with boxing continues via International Boxing Corporation which manages the affairs of Alfred Kotey, a star boxer from Ghana.In the past he is thought to have owned nearly 1 per cent of Arsenal, the Premier League football club based in north London.. In a crown court, the maximum penalty that could be imposed is two years in prison.He managed money for wealthy and famous people through his financial services firm, The Levitt Group, which collapsed in December 1990 with debts of pounds 34m.Mr Levitt is a keen sports fan. The ban was imposed by the DTI on Mr Levitt in November 1993. The DTI alleges that Mr Levitt took part in managing International Boxing Corporation, a sports promotion company, in contravention of section 13 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.Hearings for the case are due to begin at Marlborough Street Magistrate's Court on Monday next week.The action, which was instigated by the DTI on 20 November, also charges Michael Jacobs, a director of the firm, with aiding and abetting Mr Levitt.The DTI also issued charges under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985 against Mark Segal, Cecil Halpin and John Wiffen for making statements which they knew were false that Mr Levitt was not involved in the management of the company.If found guilty, then the charges against Mr Levitt could carry a six- month jail term or a pounds 5,000 fine if the case is conducted in the magistrate's court. The Department of Trade and Industry has charged Roger Levitt, the controversial former investment adviser, with breaking a seven-year ban on him conducting business as a company director. Northern, which is on the receiving end of a pounds 782m bid from another US utility, CalEnergy, disclosed in its final defence document earlier this week that the joint supply venture would achieve annual cost savings rising to more than pounds 28m, evenly split..

Sir Bob Reid, London's chairman, said that the proposed tax changes had forced it to re-examine spending on programmes such as its tunnelling network underneath the capital. In the first half of the year London's capital expenditure reached nearly pounds 60m, of which pounds 49m was spent on replacing and modernising its infrastructure.It has a further pounds 200m committed to a portfolio of projects involving the airports group BAA, the Channel Tunnel rail link and the Docklands Light Railway.But investment in assets with a long life has been thrown into confusion following the Chancellor's decision to increase the tax take on the utilities by reducing the proportion of such spending which can be offset against tax from 25 per cent to 6 per cent a year.London remained tight-lipped on the alliance with Northern, saying it could not comment because it was deemed by the Takeover Panel to have been in an offer period since 20 November, after it emerged that the US utility Entergy was interested in a possible bid.A tie-up with Northern on the supply side would be a way of helping the two companies to retain their independence. London Electricity, which is in talks to merge its supply business with that of Northern Electric to fend off hostile US bidders, warned yesterday that it was reviewing its long-term investment plans following changes in capital allowances announced in last month's Budget, writes Michael Harrison. Previously it had set a target of growing dividends by 6 per cent in real terms.The Keadby and Seabank power stations generate 1,400 megawatts of electricity and form the central part of Hydro's expansion plans outside Scotland.It had planned to enter the retail power market in a big way by buying British Gas's North of England and Scottish supply business but the deal was scrapped after BG decided it could not negotiate this deal and demerge its pipeline and supply businesses at the same time.. Without the extra coal burn, profits would have been pounds 6m higher than last year's pounds 61.7m.The strong underlying performance of the business, driven by further development of its interests south of the border, encouraged Hydro to increase its payout at the interim stage by 11 per cent to 5.3p. This forced Hydro to buy in extra quantities of coal to meet demand from its Scottish customers. "We would like to enter the domestic market and I am beginning to think this is the best means of doing so," said Mr Young.He was speaking as Hydro unveiled flat half-year profits of pounds 61.3m, due to the abnormally low level of rainfall in the six months to the end of September. Another area it is actively looking at is setting up deals to sell electricity direct to domestic customers once the market in England and Wales is opened up in 1998.Hydro is examining so called "affinity partnerships" whereby it would supply the electricity for sale through a well known brand such as a supermarket chain or bank.

Alternately, Hydro could reward shareholders with a 50p special dividend.Mr Young said that the company would wait until the end of the financial year to decide whether to seek further investment opportunities or return cash to shareholders. This is more than enough to fund a buyback of 10 per cent of its shares. By 1999 when the Seabank gas- fired plant in Bristol is on stream, more than half of Hydro's output will be sold in England and Wales.The Keadby acquisition, together with payment for Seabank, which is jointly owned with British Gas, will raise Hydro's gearing to 65 per cent.But its chief executive Roger Young, nevertheless estimated that Hydro will still have the capacity to return about pounds 200m of its capital to shareholders. The group is negotiating to buy Norweb's 50 per cent stake in the Keadby power station in Scunthorpe in a deal which is likely to cost it around pounds 240m-pounds 250m. Hydro-Electric already owns the other half of the station and has been selected as preferred bidder for the Norweb stake which is being disposed of by United Utilities, the group formed out of North West Water's acquisition of the regional electricity company.The Keadby deal will increase the amount of electricity Hydro is generating for England and Wales to 2,000 megawatts. Hydro-Electric, the Scottish power producer, yesterday unveiled plans for further investment in generating capacity south of the border while also holding out the prospect of a windfall payout to shareholders. Cheap if Bill Ainscough, the new chief executive, delivers on his promise to get return on capital up from 4.4 per cent to 10 per cent within 18 months just by managing the business better..