Growth in house prices and Britain’s dominant services sector both slowed last month according to figures yesterday that gave the

Growth in house prices and Britain’s dominant services sector both slowed last month, according to figures yesterday that gave the first hint the rises in interest rates had begun to bite. EMI announced a music download programme about a year ago when it made over 140,000 tracks available to about 20 online retailers It said there were now more than 175,000 tracks available. Tony Wadsworth, the chairman of EMI Music UK, said: “EMI’s goal is to deliver music to consumers through as many new channels as possible.”Napster, which has transformed to legal from an illegal site, remained tightlipped on what it planned to charge customers. The supermarket chain is planning to launch a service that will allow customers to download popular albums and tracks direct to their PCs or mobile devices.Downloading music has become an increasingly popular way to buy music, with singles costing about 99p and albums about £8.

Universal Music, meanwhile, said its European unit had converted its active catalogue into digital form so that some 300,000 songs can be sold in online music stores.The developments are part of the music industry’s attempts to encourage consumers to download music from the internet on legal websites as they battle against unauthorised downloading.Earlier this year it emerged that Tesco was also going to muscle in on the act. The music company EMI yesterday signed up Wippit as an online retailer of its music in a move that brings the number of online shops selling EMI music in Europe to more than 50.
Separately, Napster said it was launching a legal online music service in the UK by autumn. They will be followed by Omega International, a maker of kitchen units, which is looking to raise about £10m in a float in April or May that is expected to value it at up to £30m.. Merlin Biosciences, the venture capital group run by the biotech veteran Sir Christopher Evans, has a 27 per cent stake which it has agreed not to sell for six months.The performance of Ark shares, particularly when unconditional dealing begins next week, will be watched closely by other private biotechs, several of which are expected to push the button on their own flotations if Ark does not disappoint.Elsewhere, the financial software supplier Attentiv Systems yesterday said it would launch a £30m float on the Alternative Investment Market by the end of March, while Moneybox, a cash machine operator valued at about £85m, is also looking to list this month. Its shares, priced in the middle of the range at 133p and three times subscribed, closed at 135p.Although loss-making, Ark has four products in or ready for the last stage of human trials, including a treatment to slow the growth of brain tumours. The company also has a product on the market, a medical boot used as a dressing for foot and leg ulcers.

It has assets of $2.4bn and is expected to be worth between £700m and £800m when it floats.Separately, Ark Therapeutics yesterday became the biggest IPO in the biotech sector for more than three years, raising £55m in a flotation that values it at £168m. A series of other listings were announced yesterday, showing confidence of a renewed appetite for public offerings.
The float will value the 49-year-old Mr Catlin’s stake in the Catlin Group at £20m. “I needed to borrow £15,000 from the bank to set up the business. I had a mortgage of £40,000, I was earning £20,000 and had a wife and child to support, so it was amazing the bank even lent me the money. We had to share a photocopier with the people next to us at Lloyd’s and it took us about two years to afford a fax machine,” Mr Catlin said yesterday.He said there was investor demand for strong insurance companies and that the business had grown to such a size that it needed more funds to continue to grow. It raised $482m (£264m) of private equity in 2002 and plans to raise up to $350m when listing.The company, which operates in the Lloyd’s of London market as well as Bermuda and the UK, yesterday announced its full-year results, which showed a 66 per cent increase in premiums to $1.2bn.

Stephen Catlin, who founded an insurance company 20 years ago with just £25,000, yesterday announced plans to float his business, which is now worth £700m. Last year, Deloitte resigned as the company’s auditor after its staff were targeted.The BioIndustry Organisation, the biotech sector lobby group, saidPhytopharm’s move illustrates the need for a single piece of legislation to crack down on animal rights protestors.. The company insists it has cleaned up its act, but Shac’s campaign against its shareholders and advisers drove it to delist from the London Stock Exchange in 2002. Mr Rees said: “Having protestors running around desks, throwing leaflets at you has been upsetting for our employees”.Yamanouchi is bankrolling human trials of Phytopharm’s most advanced drug, an Alzheimer’s treatment, and Shac posted the company’s address on its website last month.HLS has been at the eye of the storm over vivisection since lax standards were exposed in the Nineties. Daryl Rees, the chief operating officer, said it had been forced to take action, the first quoted UK drug company to do so under harassment legislation. Three named members of Shac, and the organisation more generally, have been told they must limit any protests close to Phytopharm’s Cambridgeshire headquarters to six people and to two hours a week.The injunctions came after Phytopharm alleged in the High Court that members of Shac had broken into its offices and intimidated staff.