Based on the issue price, Deutsche Post was to rake in 6.6 billion euros ($5.6 billion) in the stock sale.The sale is part of the German government's program to privatize state-run monopolies. And with the European Union opening up more competition in various markets between its 15 countries, Bonn-based Deutsche Post is poised to become a continental powerhouse for letter and package delivery.One of Europe's most modern mail carriers, Deutsche Post will likely be one of the last ones standing after the trade barriers fall. Already, the company has moved to take over the Belgian-based express delivery leader DHL International Ltd.Deutsche Telekom, the state-run telephone company, is the only other government-run monopoly to have gone on the market and is still 58 per cent government owned.. Countrywide Assured, the UK's largest estate agent, will confirm today that it has received a number of informal takeover approaches. Countrywide Assured, the UK's largest estate agent, will confirm today that it has received a number of informal takeover approaches. The list of potential bidders will include Mediolanum, an Italian bank, that is 40 per cent owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the media magnate and former Italian prime minister. A US financial group is also thought to be in the running.But the company will make clear that the talks are at a very early stage and that an outright sale is only one of many options for the future of the group.Countrywide, which includes the Bairstow Eves, Bridgfords and Dixons estate agent brands, announced a strategic review in August.The move accompanied a warning that profits for the current financial year would be hit by the downturn in the property market over the summer. This, combined with a 27 per cent drop in interim profits to £20.9m, sent its share price diving 16 per cent to 104p.

A week later it said it had hired investment bank Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette to carry out a strategic reviewOn Friday, the shares closed at 100p, valuing the business at about £360m. According to reports yesterday, Mediolanum is preparing an offer at between 140p and 150p, valuing its target at £540mAlthough Countrywide's public woes acted as a signal that its corporate future was in doubt, Harry Hill, its chief executive, said recently he did not want to see a takeover.Other options include further acquisitions by Countrywide, a management buyout or floating off parts of the group. Countrywide also owns a life insurance business, a conveyancing and surveying operation.It is a member of a joint venture internet property business, www.rightmove.co.uk, together with Halifax, Royal & Sun Alliance and private UK estate agent Connell.Countrywide, which demerged from UK investment bank Hambros in 1998, has underperformed the FTSE All Share index by about 20 per cent so far this year.. Eurotunnel freight and shuttle trains are running through the Channel Tunnel despite a strike by train drivers over union recognition. Eurotunnel freight and shuttle trains are running through the Channel Tunnel despite a strike by train drivers over union recognition. Aslef members were staging the first of five 24-hour walkouts to protest against the company signing a single union deal with the Transport and General Workers Union.Aslef members picketed the Eurotunnel terminal near Folkestone today and the union said it was confident its action would hit services.But Eurotunnel said there had been "no significant effect" on shuttle trains and advised passengers there was no need for them to change travel plans.The union is planning four further strikes on Mondays over the next month.? Eurostar train services through the Channel Tunnel were not involved in the dispute.. The world's largest online marketplace for the trading of greenhouse gas "permits" opens for business today amid a fierce row between Europe and the US over whether this is the best way to combat global warming.

The world's largest online marketplace for the trading of greenhouse gas "permits" opens for business today amid a fierce row between Europe and the US over whether this is the best way to combat global warming. The organisations behind CO2e claim that the trading of greenhouse gas emissions will become one of the fastest growing commodity markets in the world with a potential value of anything between $100bn and $1,000bn. US representatives attending this week's global warming summit in The Hague have given their strong backing to emissions trading - whereby industrialised nations and energy intensive companies buy "pollution permits" from countries that emit much less carbon dioxide.The US, Canada and Japan, are backing plans to designate the world's rainforests, such as the Amazon, as "carbon sinks" that can soak up CO2 emissions, enabling other countries to meet their greenhouse gas targets set at the Kyoto environmental summit three years ago.But the European Union has rejected the US-led plan saying: "It does not ensure environmental integrity of the Kyoto protocol and it does not sufficiently address the concerns of the EU."CO2e , a web-based market place, will allow companies to obtain information about greenhouse gases and how to reduce their emissions as well as providing a platform for the trading of emissions.It has been developed by the US financial services group Cantor Fitzgerald and PricewaterhouseCoopers. They will earn commissions on every trade conducted on the website and consultancy work undertaken by firms who advertise on the site.Carlton Bartels, chief executive of CO2e , said: "This will become the market square for carbon finance."He said that a dozen trades had already been carried out on CO2e covering tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions. A group of UK oil and gas companies is also in discussions with the Government about using the market place to trade emissions..

My litmus test is the number of references to competition rather than competitiveness My litmus test is the number of references to competition rather than competitiveness AN ECONOMIC analyst from Mars (yes, they get everywhere) would have some difficulty in detecting any great break-point in the past eight years of the British economy. This is irritating to both Opposition and Government, which would like to see 1997 as a watershed. In truth, however, growth has continued, virtually uninterrupted, since 1992. Inflation, falling below 3 per cent in 1993, has moved very little since. And unemployment, which began falling that year, has just gone on down, to levels unseen since the 1970s.Is the pattern now changing? Certainly, there has been an about-turn on public spending, resulting in a big boost Meanwhile, however, the economy seems to be slowing.

Last month's upward blip in the claimant count suggests it may take a little longer than ministers hoped to drop below that politically important one million mark. Good news on the inflation front: wage rises have subsided since earlier this year, and expectations of the next move in interest rates are swinging from up to down. This is something of a triumph for the Monetary Policy Committee, which came in for quite brisk criticism for failing to raise rates in the summer.How close we had come to capacity is debatable. The National Institute, for example, argues that there is still more slack in the labour market than the statistics suggest.