THE financial crisis facing the food retailer Kwik Save appears to be coming to a head amid reports that the company is running out of basic merchandise in some of its shops.

Insiders indicated before Christmas that Kwik Save, with 220 outlets and 4,000 staff, was on the brink of securing a refinancing package. But there are still no signs that the company has secured any new cash.

And since the start of the month, stories have emerged that some shops have been left without basic groceries such as salt, sugar and tinned vegetables. The Warburton bakery group has stopped delivering to some stores.

PA opens India tech centre

PA CONSULTING, one of Britain’s biggest consultants, is opening a new technology development centre in Bangalore as it seeks to capitalise on its “best-ever” year in 2006.

Flush with the £170m that it raised last month from the sale-and-leaseback of its offices in Victoria, central London, PA is also keen to build up its business in America, possibly by acquisition. The firm plans to recruit a team of 50 engineers in India to add to the 300 technologists it has in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, and Princeton, New Jersey.

ODL takes on spread betters

DERIVATIVES and foreign-exchange broker ODL Securities has bought Bestconnect, an electronic-dealing service, from investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort for about £5m. ODL, led by Graham Wellesley, a descendant of the Duke of Wellington, aims to use Bestconnect technology to launch into the retail spread-betting market competing with rivals such as CMC and City Index. Last year Wellesley lost out to City Index in the battle to buy IFX, the spread-betting and forex group.

Chinese buy car trim maker

ONE of China’s largest car-parts makers, Huaxiang, is understood to have bought Lawrence Automotive, a maker of wood- veneer trim. Huaxiang is said to have paid about $5m (£2.5m) for Lawrence, which was previously owned by Magna Corporation, an American car-component manufacturer.

Camus opts for the private life

PHILIPPE CAMUS, the French technocrat who helped unite the French and German defence industries, is to join the world of private equity as head of a new fund set up by Evercore Partners, a boutique investment firm. His move will intrigue the aerospace industry. Camus was involved in amalgamating the French and German companies that created EADS, the parent company of Airbus.