THE story will be painfully familiar to many people who have
bought or sold property: the deal is done and the price agreed,
but nothing has actually been signed. Then when contracts are
due to be exchanged, one party discovers or invents a hitch.
Embarrassment and mutual recriminations follow.  That was
roughly the picture on September 12th, after Dome Europe, a
consortium led by Nomura, a Japanese finance house, backed out
of its deal to buy the Millennium Dome. David James, a corporate
rescue veteran who took over as the Dome's executive chairman
earlier this month, had predicted that Nomura would “make a
killing” from its £105m ($147m) purchase. Nomura, though it
specialises in turning a profit from waning businesses, decided
otherwise.  The reasons Nomura gave for its change of heart are
so plentiful that either the company is protesting too much, or
the Dome's finances are in an even more parlous state than was
previously apparent. Nomura says it was denied access to a
damning financial report; that the