UK: THE DISASTER BUSINESS.

Computer failure is not the only company nightmare. Bombs have brought a new view of risk - and a windfall for some.

Michael Warner won't forget 24 April in a hurry. It was his 46th birthday. It was also the day that he and 24 colleagues at chartered surveyors Richard Ellis narrowly escaped being blown up by the IRA. The firm had called a partners' meeting for that day, a Saturday. It was a toss-up whether it should be in an hotel or in the firm's boardroom at Old Broad Street in the City. The vote went in favour of a Surrey hotel. Had they chosen the boardroom the partners would have caught the full impact of the Bishopsgate bomb which went off at 10.24am. They would have been cut to ribbons, says Warner. 'The practice could have been decimated.'