THE DAILY BRIEFING

SCOTTISH SLUMP The Spanish owner of Scottish Power saw profits dive in its UK operations last year as 160,000 customers switched to other suppliers. Customer numbers at Iberdrola, which recently announced a 7.8pc hike to its standard tariffs, fell from 5.5m to 5.3m.

PAY DEALS Pay rises have remained around 2pc over the past year, although public sector workers have received half that figure, a report showed. A study of 167 settlements by wage analysts XpertHR found a median increase of 2pc in the latest three months.

INSURER FLOATS Insurance firm GBGI has joined the AIM junior stock market in a £130.4m float. Shares were worth 155p on its maiden trading day.

STRONG RESULTS Events organiser UBM reported a strong performance as it invested in Asia and offloaded its newswire service.

The FTSE 250 firm said revenue rose 12.1pc to £863m, while profit was up 23.5pc to £863m in the six months to December 31.

HOTELS BOOST AccorHotels, Europe’s largest hotel group, reported a boost in revenue last year – although its French business was affected by terror attacks. Revenue rose 0.9pc to £4.8bn.

STAYING PUT Alistair Cox, the boss of Hays, has rubbished fears that Brexit will prompt a City of London banking exodus, as the recruitment giant reported its best profit in eight years. Turnover rose 7pc to £2.5bn, while profit was up 17pc to £96.2m.

SOARING SHARES Shares in tunnel excavating firm GME Group Holdings were suspended by Hong Kong’s securities regulator just hours after they first listed, when they soared by 543pc.

BT BOSS BT has appointed a new boss to head up its Continental European operations following the £530m Italian accounting scandal. Chet Patel will take over from Corrado Sciolla, who quit last month.

MAIDEN PROFIT Metro Bank is on track for its first annual profit thanks to a surge of new customers – 260,000 customers in the last year – to take its total to 915,000.

EXPANSION PLANS Online estate agent Purplebricks is raising £50m to expand into the US, selling shares at 220p. The stock was up 2.2pc, or 4.75p, to 226p.