National Statistics, which produced the figures, said the record investment was largely driven by the £23.4bn takeover of Orange by France Telecom.. Lasmo, the oil and gas independent which last month agreed to be taken over by Amerada Hess of the United States, yesterday announced a better offer from Eni, the Italian energy group. Lasmo, the oil and gas independent which last month agreed to be taken over by Amerada Hess of the United States, yesterday announced a better offer from Eni, the Italian energy group. Eni offered 200p a share, or £2.7bn in cash, easily trumping Amerada's 180p-a-share cash and shares offer worth £2.4bn.Lasmo, which also comes with net debt of £600m, switched its recommendation to the Eni bid, which has the support of 25 per cent of Lasmo shareholders.The American company surrendered. "Amerada Hess does not intend to revise the terms of its cash and stock offer for Lasmo," it announced.Eni moved to take a seemingly unassailable position, buying 28 per cent of Lasmo in the market, as a massive 595 million shares changed hands yesterday. "It's all but over," said a source in the Italian camp.Amerada had not been able to build up its own stake in Lasmo. Rules prevent a bidder buying shares in a target unless the offer is all cash.Lasmo, whose chief executive is Joe Darby, announced earlier this year that it wanted to sell some assets, kicking off a process that led to the two bids for the entire company, first from Amerada on 8 November. The latest offer came at a 42 per cent premium to the Lasmo share price before the Amerada approach.

Amerada's offer has been hit by technical delays and the offer documents only went out on 13 December.Paul Murray, Lasmo's finance director, said: "We first talked to Eni earlier this year about assets disposals. Then, last week, they called us to say they wanted to start due deligence on the company."Analysts were asking yesterday why Lasmo had not sounded Eni out before agreeing the Amerada offer. Eni had declared that it wanted to expand its upstream activity at the beginning of this year and it bought a UK independent, British Borneo, in March.Eni has been seen, for some time, as the most likely bidder for Lasmo or Enterprise Oil, the only other remaining large UK independent. With the high oil price this year, companies in the sector are awash with cash.Eni's chief financial offer, Marco Mangiagalli, said yesterday that it was considering a bid for Lasmo before the Amerada deal was announced.Peter Hitchens, an analyst at Williams de Broe, said: "Eni are more desperate [for a deal], whereas the Amerada was just having an opportunistic stab."Eni tried to buy Petroz of Australia earlier this year but was outbid. It was also thought to have been in failed merger talks with Spain's Repsol.Eni, in which the Italian government has a 35 per cent stake, has said that it wants to increase its oil output from the 1.2 million barrels a day to 1.5 million by 2003.

Lasmo will add nearly 200,000 barrels a day to its production.Mr Hitchens said: "I don't think it's a good deal for Eni Lasmo production has peaked and it will now decline.

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Oil prices will also head down."Eni put the synergies from the deal at 80m euros (£50m) a year, much lower than the $130m (£88m) that Amerada said it could extract.. Troubled mutual life insurer Equitable Life will sell subsidiary Permanent Insurance to the rival Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society for £150m, it said today. Troubled mutual life insurer Equitable Life will sell subsidiary Permanent Insurance to the rival Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society for £150m, it said today. Permanent provides income protection, life assurance, critical illness and long-term care products in the UK. It has 225 staff, mostly based in Exeter, who will continue in their jobs.Equitable, the world's oldest insurer, ceased accepting new business earlier this month.It put itself up for sale in July after losing a legal battle in the House of Lords and being ordered to make payments to 90,000 holders of its guaranteed annuity policies.

The Lords decision left Equitable with obligations of £1.5 billion.Chris Headdon, Equitable chief executive, said today he was pleased the sale of Permanent had been achieved quickly and on terms which represented a substantial return to Equitable Life members on their investment.. Hepworth, a UK supplier of boilers and radiators, yesterday became the latest British firm to cede its independence to a German rival, as it unveiled a £692m takeover by the privately held Vaillant. Hepworth, a UK supplier of boilers and radiators, yesterday became the latest British firm to cede its independence to a German rival, as it unveiled a £692m takeover by the privately held Vaillant. Hepworth agreed to the deal, which values the company at 285p a share, after failing in its own attempts at driving consolidation within the European heating sector, including an approach to Vaillant. In November the UK group admitted it had received takeover approaches from more than one party.Jeremy Lancaster, chairman of Hepworth, said: "While it is sad to see [the company] lose its independence, the board could not ignore the price that Vaillant has offered ... and the strong commercial fit between the two businesses." Shares in the UK group closed up 27.5p at 280.5p.It is not expected that the deal will result in significant job losses among Hepworth's 5,000-strong staff, although the company's non-core building materials unit is thought to have been earmarked for disposal. The agreement gives Vaillant access to Hepworth's Glow-worm and Saunier-Duval brands, creating one of the biggest European manufacturers of domestic gas heating equipment.Hepworth's chief executive, Jean-François Chêne, will join the enlarged group as chief executive, while other directors, including Malcolm Heald, finance director, will leave the company.Other UK companies bought by German firms this year include Thomson Travel, which was swallowed by Preussag, Thomas Cook, now owned by C&N Touristic and, Laporte, the UK chemicals company that last week announced a £1.36bn takeover by Degussa-Hüls..