GUINNESS this week became the latest in a growing list of public companies to bemoan the rising charge on earnings due to the strong surge in the value of sterling against overseas currencies. The Guinness share price suffered after the company issued a trading statement which talked in terms of taking a £60 million "hit" to its trading profits this year. It has been expected that last year's annual profits at Guinness would come in at around £958 million with the magic £1 billion level exceeded in the current year but the impact of sterling's appreciation sent brokers back to their calculators.

Sterling's advance began last August and by the end of the year its value had surged more than 14 per cent, a pattern which has continued into the new year with sterling reaching the highest level against a basket of major currencies since it dropped out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in late 1992.