David Rickards, the owner of the internet service provider business Pipex, was yesterday celebrating the prospect of a £50m cash windfall after agreeing to sell his company to GX Networks. And importantly, the percentage of balances revolving has risen from 41 per cent during the first three months of the year to 70 per cent in June.”Card balances at the end of June were €68m (£47m), up from €34m at the end of the first quarter.. We would not rule out any opportunities, but we are still only 11 months into what was from the outset a three-year plan.”Mr Gratton said: “Encouragingly, behavioural data shows our French customers continue to have a high usage rate, indicating that la Carte Egg is their primary card. The company is due to announce third-quarter figures in three weeks, but because it is in the closed period it could not update these figures.A spokeswoman said yesterday: “It is no secret sales in France have been slower than anticipated, and we are well aware of our duties to shareholders and staff. Mr Gratton said: “Sales volumes have been slower than expected and we continue to monitor progress closely, but we are controlling costs and we still think there is a viable business in France.”When Egg went into France last October it said it was aiming at 1 million customers by the end of next year, a target it has abandoned – by July this year, only 115,000 customers were sharing 42,000 cards. So far it has spent nearly £100m setting up the business, but customers have proved hard to come by, and word is the company could earmark the rest of the £200m investment for redundancies and other shutdown costs.The arrival of David Doyle as finance director this week could prompt what investors believe is an overdue review of the business, but Egg claimed his arrival was unconnected with the French question.The one remaining option is that Egg will find a French joint venture partner to spare the blushes of the chief executive, Paul Gratton, and it is understood that talks with possible partners have taken place during the summer.In July, Egg said that the French losses jumped from £5.5m to £48.7m in the first half of the year.

The internet bank Egg refused to comment yesterday on growing speculation that it is about to close or sell its troubled 11-month-old French operation. The company, created and 79 per cent-owned by Prudential, has admitted that it was finding the French market harder to crack than expected but is continuing to insist that it is doing no more than monitoring the situation.
The company has tried to export its successful low-cost credit card offering to France, where credit cards are not so widely used. These include using the money saved to increase Monsoon’s investment overseas.. A spokesman for Stoneycroft said the Simon family had achieved its “main target” of getting the company moved to the secondary market.

“Now we can push for changes to the company which we think are needed,” he said. It had no choice but to switch its listing, it added, because under UK listing rules unless a company can show it intends to increase the number of shares in public hands to above 25 per cent it must de-list from the official list.A spokesman for a quorum of the remaining independent investors said: “They decided they would rather remain shareholders than be taken out at 140p per share, which is simply unacceptable.”By declining to exercise the put option, the minority shareholders have stymied the Simon family’s ultimate goal of lifting its stake to 92.5 per cent without paying a significant takeover premium.The size of the Simon family’s ultimate shareholding, held via a number of Guernsey-based trusts, will not be clear until next Wednesday when the deal final closes. Stoneycroft, the investment vehicle owned indirectly by the family of Monsoon chairman, Peter Simon, said the Simon family’s combined shareholding had increased to 75.4 per cent, taking its stake above the 75 per cent threshold for a listing on the main market.Independent shareholders have tried and failed to get the City regulator, the Financial Services Authority, to intervene to prevent the company transferring to the AIM market.Monsoon said in a statement that it would seek admission to AIM “as soon as reasonably possible”. Independent shareholders in Monsoon yesterday vowed to retain their investment in the retailer rather than sell up at 140p per share, even though that meant accepting the company’s decision to move from the main market to AIM. This would lift the average North West Water bill from £245 to £266. Northumbrian’s prices are due to remain frozen at an average of £206 under the regulator’s current price controls.

More than 13 million households face the prospect of higher water bills after the industry regulator Ofwat said it was considering whether to allow three big suppliers to increase their charges. Whitbread’s Travel Inn and Travelodge, which is owned by Permira, have expressed a desire to acquire Premier Lodge.Spirit’s bid, worth an estimated £2.5bn, was backed by CVC Capital Partners and Blackstone Group.. They plan to hang on to the pub arm’s Premier Lodge chain of mid-market hotels, dashing rival budget hoteliers’ hopes of picking up the 140-strong chain. However, it does not currently have any pubs in its portfolio.Nomura and PAI are expected to keep the S&N estate, which includes brands such as Chef & Brewer and Barras, intact.