THE DAILY BRIEFING
SHARE DEAL Insurer Aviva is buying back £600m of shares to return cash to investors. It is part of a plan to use up £2bn of spare money, with £500m to be spent on buying other businesses and the rest to be spent on paying off debt.
MEDIA WATCH Publisher Trinity Mirror’s £126.7m deal to buy titles including the Daily Express and the Daily star has been referred to the media watchdog.
BIT BOOST The bitcoin boom helped profits at trading firm Plus 500 more than quadruple to £174.3m in the first three months of 2018 – but the firm said it will be a one-off boost and the hype has faded.
STORE SALES sales at the John Lewis Partnership edged up just 0.3pc in the week to April 28, dragged down by a 0.3pc drop in its department store sales.
FAST ROLE Fast fashion retailer Missguided has poached n Brown’s merchandise director robin Gartshore as chief trading officer.
HIGH FLYING The number of passengers travelling through Heathrow Airport soared to record highs of 17.7m during the first three months of the year – up 3.1pc compared to a year earlier.
PAPER CUT The chief executive of newspaper publisher Johnston Press Ashley Highfield has quit after seven years.
CHAIR SEARCH shareholder adviser Glass Lewis has called for Deutsche Bank investors to search for a successor to chairman Paul Achleitner at the German lender’s annual meeting later this month.
OLD JOB Donald Trump’s shortlived press secretary Anthony Scaramucci, sacked from the President’s administration after just ten days last year, is returning to his old hedge fund, skybridge Capital.
BUYING SPREE Insurer Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group is plotting to buy more businesses after acquiring a consultancy and a medical insurance broker in February.
AUSSIE DEAL Media agency ZPG – which DMG Media, owner of the Daily Mail – has a 30pc stake in, has sold the Australian division of Hometrack for £71m.
SKY REVEAL The Government will give its verdict on 21st Century Fox’s £11.7bn bid for sky by June 13, Culture secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed.