March 17 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories

on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not

verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

- A group of Thames Water's creditors have offered 3.35

billion pounds ($4.45 billion) of new equity and up to 6.55

billion pounds of new debt as part of their latest bid to rescue

Britain's biggest water company.

- Financial services firm StoneX Group ( SNEX ) proposed an

all-cash acquisition of CAB Payments ( CABPF ), valuing the

cross-border payments provider at 241.4 million pounds ($321.01

million).

The Guardian

- National Car Parks, Britain's largest car park operator,

has gone into administration, appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers

(PwC) as administrator after struggling to meet looming rent and

creditor payments.

- Chinese-owned Syngenta will invest 100 million pound to

build a research centre for agricultural bioscience at its

Jealott's Hill site in Berkshire.

The Telegraph

- Close Brothers said it "strongly disagrees" with

short seller Viceroy Research's report saying it was short the

British financial services firm.

- Building materials firm CRH announced intention to

delist from the London Stock Exchange and cancel preference

shares.

Sky News

- American real estate giant StepStone in talks to

buy stake in 4.5 billion pound recapitalisation of Center Parcs

UK.

The Independent

- Britain's corporate registry Companies House said a glitch

in its online filing service had allowed people to view and edit

information for other businesses and their directors, a flaw

that may have gone undetected for five months.

- Global beauty retailer Sephora said it will open its first

stores in Scotland this summer, with new outlets in Glasgow and

Edinburgh marking the brand's debut in the country three years

after launching its first UK shop in London.

($1 = 0.7520 pounds)

(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)