On this front, too, the package did little to address the problem. The most striking element of the package was the long overdue decision by the Bank of Japan to bring down the official discount rate from 1.75 to 1.00 per cent. Yet lower interest rates will do nothing to deter short- term investments in yen when the currency is appreciating at such a rate.
The root problem, agree most Japan watchers these days, is the persistent trade surplus. On the same day as the package was unveiled, the Japanese Finance Ministry announced that the surplus for 1994/95 was $118bn – about half with the US alone – down only fractionally on the $122bn run up in the preceding year. Markets had written off the Japanese package to stem the rise and rise of the superyen in advance as a worthless exercise: the reality did nothing to change the verdict.

Back from the Easter break, the currency markets continued to put the dollar under pressure, with 80 yen to the dollar becoming the new unthinkable threshold to succeed the formerly unthinkable threshold of 85 yen. However, a spokesman for Vodafone denied that anyone would lose out “This is just another way to market. The dealer and the high street retailer will always be there.”. The company already spends £8m to £10m a year on advertising.Success with the four-week trial will see the direct marketing approach extended nationwide. Although Vodafone will have to buy the phones, market them to consumers and pay a fee to the service provider, it will no longer be paying the upfront subsidy, which can be £200 or more for each person coming on to the network.Vodafone says the savings will be modest, but believes it will gain more knowledge about its customer base.

Consumers who sign up will be passed to the service providers, who will also be paid a fee for taking the customer on and billing them in the usual way. These companies then market the airtime to the customer through the dealers and high street outlets which also sell the phone. Massive subsidies are paid by Vodafone and passed on down the chain – topped up by the service providers – to allow the phone to be sold to the customer at a fraction of the market price.This upfront cost of getting people onto the network has already resulted in warnings by Sir Gerald Whent, Vodafone’s chief executive, that the continued boom in mobile telephony could be to the company’s cost in the year to 31 March.The trials now under way could save Vodafone an estimated £30 to £40 for each customer who comes onto the network through the direct sales route.Vodafone is offering digital mobile phones for £51 exclusive of VAT through the advertisements. In the advertising campaign phones are being offered for as little as £51.It is a further blow to retailers following the decision by Alan Sugar in November to abandon high street stores and sell Amstrad’s computers and mobile phones direct to the public.Some retailers were critical of Vodafone’s strategy, saying customers needed face-to-face contact when buying a phone. A spokesman for Comet, the Kingfisher subsidiary that has a deal to sell Vodafone packages, said: “Buying a mobile phone is a complicated business. Customers need to have someone to explain how all the tariffs work.”Traditionally, Vodafone has sold wholesale airtime on the network to middlemen called service providers.

The scheme, which is running in the north of England, will not cut the price of phones but will save the company thousands of pounds a month and enable it to find out more about its customers. This should help Vodafone to combat the high churn rates afflicting the industry, where customers buy phones and then cease to use them.
The scheme, which will go nationwide if successful, will mean some consumers buying their phones by answering television and newspaper advertisements. Vodafone has launched a trial scheme to sell mobile phones direct to the public for the first time, bypassing specialist dealers and high street outlets. He holds exercisable options over nearly 290,000 shares, for a potential profit of £650,000 at last night’s close.Viscount Blakenham, chairman, exercised no stock options He received a total of £454,000 last year.. He received a salary of £280,000, a bonus of £140,000 and other benefits of £90,000 for a total of £510,000. Frank Barlow, managing director, made a gain of £83,700 by exercising his option over 30,000 Pearson shares granted in 1988 at 342p per share.

The options were exercised at a market price of 621p.
Mr Barlow also received remuneration of £492,000 last year, made up of £300,000 in salary, £150,000 in bonus and a further £42,000 in other benefits. Mr Barlow holds further options over 320,000 shares, now exercisable under the Pearson stock plan, for a potential gain of more than £700,000 at last night’s close of 555p.The plan allows executives to exercise options granted after 1988 following the third anniversary of the grant.David Veit, the company’s US-based deputy managing director, made a gain of £74,200 by exercising options over 31,046 shares at 330p. Two senior executives of Pearson, the media and entertainment company, last year exercised stock options to realise gains of £157,900, the company’s annual report disclosed. Barclays Bank’s index of mortgage lending showed a 25 per cent rise in lending last month, but the increase in activity was purely seasonal.Lending in March was 13 per cent lower than a year earlier.. But the proportion of wholesalers planning price increases has fallen.Unadulterated gloom yesterday came from the housing market.