Marconi yesterday looked certain to hit its debt target well ahead of schedule after selling another of its businesses, sending its shares up 16 per cent. In the year ended March, it made a pre-tax profit of £36m.The disposal of Marconi’s 50 per cent share, which is still subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close before the end of the first quarter of next year.Other assets that Marconi could sell include its printing equipment business Marconi Data Systems as well as its electronics business Marconi Applied Technologies. Its 72 per cent stake in Easynet, its 50 per cent share of a venture known as Confirmant with Oxford GlycoSciences as well as its share of a venture called Ultramast with Railtrack could also go.Just two days ago, Marconi announced it had reached an agreement to sell Marconi Commerce Systems, its petrol pumps business, to Danaher of the US for $325m (£225m) cash. It also bought back about £150m of bonds.The company has also raised about £43m by selling shares in Lagardere, another £45m by selling stock in both Lottomatica and Siemens Telecommunications, known as Sietel, and an extra £67m by selling certain properties.Marconi, which is still negotiating with its bankers over to renegotiate its loan facilities, hopes to complete its financial restructuring by next March.Analysts, however, believed the company would eventually have to mount a fund raising exercise, such as a rights issue.”Ultimately they’ll need a rights issue at some point, I imagine. I would say, however, that that wouldn’t happen for another 12 months,” one said.. The chemicals maker ICI yesterday completed the sale of its 30 per cent stake in Huntsman International but noted the money would not materialise until 2003.

In return for the delay, it will have to pay interest until the deal is completed as well as a penalty fee of $32.7m if it is not completed by that stage.Huntsman Speciality Chemicals could, however, cut the total amount it has to pay for the 30 per cent stake by up to $20m by making advance payments.Shares in ICI closed down 13.5p at 370p as investors fretted over the company’s delay in getting the cash. It needs the money to help pay 3bn of debt.ICI, where Brendan O’Neill is chief executive, estimated that the gross proceeds, including interest, it will book from the deal at £285m. Net cash proceeds, however, would be more like £190m, it said, adding it expected to record a profit after tax on the sale of about £140m.The company, which noted that the deal is still subject to certain regulatory approvals, said it would use the cash to pay down debt.Only last month, the company announced it was shedding a further 1,300 jobs following the downturn in demand caused by the 11 September attacks. The job losses were expected to cost ICI £120m and were to include 275 redundancies in the UK and the closure of a plant in Plymouth.. Bioglan Pharma, the crisis-stricken skincare specialist, has sold off its most promising drug product in a last ditch attempt to stave off bankruptcy. Bioglan keeps the rights to Solaraze in Europe, where it has been rolled out in the UK, Germany and Sweden.SkyePharma shares soared 3.75p to 58.25p because it has managed to extract an extra £5.2m in payments from Bioglan and Quintiles as part of the deal, on top of the £6.9m milestone payment due from Bioglan this month.

In return, it has dropped its threat of legal action for Bioglan’s alleged breach of its marketing obligations.Michael Ashton, SkyePharma’s chief executive, said the deal laid to rest fears that had dogged his share price as the Bioglan crisis unfolded. It ensured Solaraze could be launched in the US next month as planned, compensated SykePharma for recent delays, and brought in a powerful new sales partner, he said.”Launching a product in the US is quite a sizeable event and Bioglan had a salesforce that was designed to grow but, under their present financial circumstances, they couldn’t do it. We are happy with the Quintiles agreement and with how much marketing effort they are going to put behind Solaraze.”Bioglan shares fell 2p to 9.5p.. Tomkins, the engineering conglomerate, is to pay a settlement worth £6.92m to its former chief executive, Greg Hutchings, after dropping claims that he abused company perks. He has maintained that he acted within both corporate governance rules and the law.A settlement reached between Mr Hutchings and the company will see both sides drop all existing and potential claims against each other relating to his departure.Tomkins will release 2.9 million shares purchased by Mr Hutchings but kept from him pending the outcome of any legal action. It has also agreed to contribute £500,000 to his pension and pay £300,000 towards his legal costs.Mr Hutchings, who earned £1.4m last year, had been considering suing Tomkins for £8m in a wrongful dismissal claim, although he had not instigated formal proceedings.The claim would have comprised £3m in pension contributions, £1.5m in a pay and bonus and the value of the 2.9m shares released yesterday.Tomkins, which had been aiming to settle the matter before the announcement of its half-year results in the middle of January, is thought to have incurred a legal bill of at least £500,000.A spokesman for Mr Hutchings said: “He is very pleased that this is settled. He can now draw a line under the affair and move on to other things.”Tomkins also voiced pleasure at having brought the episode to a close “If you go to court the only people who win are the lawyers.