THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ PIZZA PARTNERS A partnership between Domino’s Pizza and its London franchise business has been sealed with it taking a 75pc stake in a new company. It will pay £24m for the stake in the firm, which will consist of 25 existing Domino’s stores.

■ FINANCE ROLE The owner of Garfunkel’s and Frankie and Benny’s, Restaurant Group, has a new finance chief – Kirk Davis who joins from Greene King. ■ VENEZUELA VETO Traders at Credit Suisse have been banned from dealing in Venezuelan bonds due to a brutal crackdown by the country’s socialist government.

■ BANKS RANKED First Direct, Nationwide Building Society and the Co-op have topped a current account service satisfaction survey, while RBS has taken bottom place in the MoneySavingExpert.com study.

■ POWER LOSSES Energy supplier Npower lost about 120,000 customers over the year amid price increases on domestic tariffs. The Germanowned firm made a loss of £11m compared to a £67m profit in the first half of last year.

■ EXPORT BOOST Demand abroad for UK-built vans, trucks, buses and coaches soared 11.6pc during the first half of the year, with almost all headed to the EU. ■ INVESTOR WINDFALL Financial services investor City of London

Group is buying equity release company Milton Homes for £20.2m. The deal will see Milton investors pocket £13.2m in shares and £7m in cash.

■ HOMES BOUGHT Social housing firm Civitas has bought 21 homes, housing 183 tenants with disabilities, in the southwest for £22.9m.

■ PAIR POACHED Asset manager Liontrust has poached two veteran bond managers, David Roberts and Phil Milburn, from rival Kames Capital to launch three fixed-income funds next year.