UK SEEKS PACT WITH JAPAN FOR INFORMATION EXCHANGE
Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard
said he will use a coming trip to Tokyo to seek a memorandum of
understanding between Britain and Japan on the exchange of
information to fight fraud in world financial markets.
    He told journalists that he would be seeking an agreement
with Japan similar to one struck last autumn between the U.K.
Department of Trade and Industry, on the one hand, and the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission on the other.
    Market sources have persistently speculated that it was
information passed on to the U.K. By the SEC through their pact
that triggered the DTI's investigations into (Guinness Plc's)
<GUIN.L> takeover of <Distillers Co Plc> last year.
    The probe, launched in December, triggered the resignation
of some of Guinness' senior management, including Chairman
Ernest Saunders.
    The Trade department, however, has never confirmed this and
has yet to state what its investigation actually concerns.
 REUTER
