London open: Footsie slips in early dealings

London's blue chips have made a sluggish start to the week with corporate activity limited to a bit of asset and balance sheet tidying up by Punch and LandSecs.Punch Taverns has bought back another tranche of convertible debt due for redemption next year, reducing the amount outstanding to just over £100m. The pub owner has bought a total of 33.9% of the original nominal value of the 5% convertible bonds due 2010. The bonds will be cancelled.Land Securities has sold its one third ownership of the famous Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham to the Future Fund, an investment fund for the Australian Government, for £210m. Banks are flat despite some seemingly well-informed reports at the weekend that Royal Bank of Scotland is mulling a share issue of between £3-4bn to reduce its dependence on the UK government's toxic asset protection scheme (APS). Lloyds confirmed last week that it too wants to reduce its participation in the scheme.ITV is down as the tough negotiations over the appointment of Tony Ball as its new chief executive continue. ITV are balking at the former BSkyB man's reported £30m pay package demand.Northern Foods, the company behind Goodfella's pizza and Fox's biscuits, has announced that Andrew Booker is to stand down as finance director. He is to be replaced by Simon Herrick, who is currently finance director of Comet owner Kesa Electricals. Booker will remain as finance director until December 31.Oil and gas firm Soco said the Vietnamese government has approved the development plan for the Te Giac Trang (TGT) field. First Oil from the TGT Field is targeted for mid-2011 and tenders for a number of long lead items are already under evaluation. A contract for the floating, production, storage and offloading vessel is currently being finalised, it added.