It has been a very busy week, with several companies issuing statements on top of continued news on the progress of the bid for Abbey and Morrisons disposal of Safeway stores.

Banco Santander (BSCH) has announced it is to call an extraordinary general meeting on October 20 in order to seek approval from shareholders to make the bid for Abbey National.

This will bring completion of the deal one step closer and those not wanting to receive shares in the Spanish company should be looking to sell their shares now as the price will only move in line with that of BSCH's share price and is unlikely to vary much from the current levels.

Morrisons has reached an agreement with the Office of Fair Trading over the fate of the Leeds city centre Safeway store on Bond Street.

This is one of the stores flagged for sale by the OFT as part of its terms to allow the takeover to proceed. But no offers have been received for the store, the lease is due to expire in December 2007 and the landlord would like Morrisons to surrender it earlier than that. The OFT has therefore agreed Morrisons does not need to sell it and it will close on a date to be agreed by the landlord and Morrisons.

H C Slingsby reported a 43 per cent jump in pre-tax profit on the back of a growth in business and improved profitability. The interim dividend was also raised by 40 per cent to 7p. The news helped the shares continue on their upward trend.

ICM Computer also reported results ahead of market expectations. Chief executive Barry Roberts announced a four per cent increase in the annual dividend and said he believed the group was experiencing "overall healthy underlying demand" for its services.

MOS International's results, meanwhile, showed full year losses narrowing from £1.74 million to £385,231.

As you may have read in this column, MOS has been winning new orders regularly over the last few months and chairman Philip Wood stated that he did not feel that the results adequately reflected the "progress being made and the improved financial position of the group".

With a strong forward order book, this stock remains one to watch.

Real Affinity, the direct marketing and communications group, has appointed a new chairman. In addition it has confirmed that the recent acquisitions, Navigator and Holly Benson, are performing well and meeting expectations.

Atlantic Global announced a fall in pre-tax profit on the back of higher spending on sales and marketing.

The company now expects second half profits to be similar to the first half although benefits should begin to flow through from the recently launched Corporate Vision product.

Finally, a trading statement from Filtronic stated that it expected first half results to be "broadly" in line with market expectations and that the company is considering a flotation of its Mobile Antenna Business on the Helsinki stock exchange.