THE DAILY BRIEFING

US EXPANSION emergency household repairs company homeserve has set up five new partnerships in the Us and said it is well positioned to cope with Britain leaving the eU.

the firm will reach 80m american households as a result of the deals, and expects to make a 20pc margin on its Us business.

shares rose 7.6pc, or 35.9p to 510p. BOSS POACHED troubled manufacturer Cobham has poached a new finance boss from rival defence firm QinetiQ.

Oxford graduate David Mellors, 45, will take over from Cobham’s current chief financial officer simon Nicholls on January 1. earlier this month Cobham announced plans to axe more than 80 staff in a bid to cut costs.

Its shares rose 5.9pc, or 8.8p to 159.2p. FUND RAISING exercise tracking company Fitbug has been given a new lease of life with a multi-million pound funding boost as a parting gift from its founders.

the aIM-listed firm raised £2.6m through a discounted placing of 0.25p per share. this was underwritten by investment vehicle NW1, which is run by founders David turner and allan Fisher, who are leaving Fitbug.

shares in the company have slumped 94pc in a year and fell further yesterday by 29.4pc, or 0.1p to 0.3p. DIVIDEND BOOST a birthday card and stationary firm that has relaunched as the Design Group reported a 3.5pc rise in sales to £237m with profit up 18pc to £10.8m for the year to the end of March.

shares in IG Design Group, previously called International Greetings, rose 8.8pc, or 13p to 161p. BUYING SPREE Outsourcing firm Bunzl’s half-year sales are expected to rise 9pc this year and it said it would continue to buy new businesses.

It said it had bought five businesses so far this year, spending around £80m, and was in talks to buy more in the second half of the year.

shares rose 5.2pc, or 112p to 2230p. TV DEAL sky has ramped up its Now tV service to allow customers to subscribe to television, broadband and phone packages without a contract.

From July, Now tV Combo will enable viewers to mix and match between different television bundles and choose between three speeds of broadband and three call packages.

shares rose 4.1pc, or 34p to 853p. BOOKIE PAYOUT Gambling firm Betfred has been shamed into paying out £470,000 to staff it sacked without redundancy settlements.

some 88 workers, mainly women, lost their jobs at a Betfred call centre in Wigan, Greater Manchester.