But analysts said that rival ventures had faced similar problems and doubted if Dr Roberts could properly be blamed for its poor performance.The company under Mr King's hands-on style of management has now purged the old board with the single exception of the chairman, Ed Wallis. He had a two-year rolling contract and a remuneration package worth pounds 248,000 a year, according to the last published accounts. Dr Roberts is to leave on 19 September to "pursue career opportunities outside the company". Analysts expect it to carry on selling its down its stake in Guinness to fund the acquisition of more GrandMet shares..

Shares in PowerGen the larger of the two specialist electricity generators, fell 7p to 773.5p against the market trend yesterday after the company abruptly parted company with Dr Alf Roberts, commercial and general manager of the new business ventures division, which includes the central heat and power division, upstream oil and gas and international ventures. LVMH will not raise objections to the deal at the EC hearing.It wants to form a three way spirits company, incorporating Moet Hennessy, its champagne and cognac business, and United Distillers and IDV, the spirits arms of Guinness and GrandMet respectively.LVMH is still the largest shareholder of GrandMet and Guinness, owning more than 11 per cent of each company. Both groups are confident that they will not have to make major concessions, such as giving up brands, to get the deal through. Of course as the October deadline for the competition inquiry result and the subsequent shareholder votes on the deal gets nearer we will want to meet shareholders to tell them of our latest plans."Mr Arnault has no plans to meet Guinness and GrandMet in the near future.GrandMet and Guinness are due to report to the European Commission on Thursday in an attempt to counter claims that the deal raises competition worries. The delaying tactic raises the possibility that Mr Arnault will not unveil new plans to block the deal until the eve of the shareholders vote, not due until October at the earliest, in an attempt to catch the UK drinks companies by surprise and postpone consummation of the deal further. An LVMH spokesman said yesterday: "We have no new charm offensive planned and we are definitely not arranging new appointments with GrandMet and Guinness shareholders at the moment The ball is in the other side's court. The controversial head of LVMH, the French luxury goods group, is likely to hold off for the next few weeks at least, leaving GrandMet and Guinness guessing on what his strategy will be.

Bernard Arnault is planning to leave his next charm offensive on the shareholders of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness until the last possible moment before meetings are held for investors to vote on the pounds 23bn merger of the two UK drinks giants. Swiss Bank Corporation and Japan's Long Term Credit Bank have taken stakes in each other. Nikko has formed a joint venture with Smith Barney, the American broker. Barclays and Bankers Trust are talking about swapping stakes with Takushoku Bank and Nippon Credit Bank respectively and closer links between International Bank of Japan and Deutsche Bank are expected..

Between 1990 and 1995 Japan was stripped of about pounds 6 trillion of assets, more than the economic loss it suffered during the Second World War. That has threatened Tokyo's position as a world financial centre.In an effort to learn how to compete more competitively, Japanese banks and brokers have been scrambling to forge co-operative links with foreign partners. It was not clear yesterday whether the cuts at Yamaichi would represent the start of a larger scale clear-out of staff in the City.It is thought more likely, however, that the reining in of the Japanese brokers' overseas operations is a reflection of the profound problems facing the financial sector in Tokyo.After six years of recession, and faced with astronomic bad debts after the 1980s property boom, the government has stepped in with proposals for Japan's own Big Bang, a radical overhaul of the whole financial system designed to break down rigid barriers between different types of financial institution and restore Tokyo's competitiveness.Although Tokyo has been rocked by the pay-off scandal, many believe the government and financial institutions committed a greater crime by allowing the 1980s asset bubble to spin out of control before mishandling its collapse. An escalation of costs together with poor trading meant a reduction in the London office was inevitable, the broker said.The suspensions, described yesterday by one rival as a way for Yamaichi to save some face, will allow one month of consultation to determine the exact number of redundancies which are likely to take place at the end of September.In June, the broker announced the closure of its futures and options unit in London, with the loss of 15 jobs It cited tougher competition and shrinking margins. The broker employs 340 staff in its securities operation.No specific areas are being targeted by the broker and it said it intended to remain involved in the origination, trading and sales of both equities and bonds. Yamaichi refused to give details on those involved, but confirmed the cuts were likely to go beyond junior staff and would involve some of the 40 Japanese staff in London.

While this year's losses may have proved the final straw, the performance of the London operation is thought to have been a problem for many years."It is a process of the accumulation of losses over a long period of time," a spokesman said He added that job cuts were likely to be across the board. More than a dozen people have been arrested in the affair, which involved bribing racketeers to prevent them disrupting annual meetings.Yamaichi's problems in London stem from a costly bid by the broker to follow its Japanese rivals in a programme of "globalisation", a planned diversification out of their huge but stagnant domestic market.Yamaichi is much smaller than rivals Nomura, Nikko and Daiwa, which are understood to have taken much more seriously their international expansion plans. The job cuts that are likely to result from the move represent the loss of almost one in seven of the broker's securities staff in London, an embarrassing reversal of its global ambitions. The retreat in London follows similar withdrawals from other European markets, including Madrid and Berlin.