THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ PROFITS HIKE Its takeover of wholesaler nisa helped the Co-op Group log a 10pc rise in sales to £5bn in the six months to July 7. Pre-tax profits surged to £26m from £14m a year earlier.

■ SPIN OFF Shares in Investec surged 8.4pc, or 40.5p up, to close at 525.2p as the South African banking group’s board announced plans to spin off its asset management division.

■ TECH CASH Building society Nationwide is not planning redundancies and will maintain its branch network as it invests another £1.3bn in tech to help ‘simplify’ operations.

■ SALES SLUMP Clothing chain White Stuff plunged to a £5.2m loss last year from a £7m profit a year earlier. Revenues at the retailer also fell to £140m in the year to April 28 from £151m 12 months earlier. ■ SWEDE DEAL Finance firm Close Brothers Group has sold its retail finance arm to Swedish payment company Klarna Bank.

■ BAD NAME Scandal- hit lender Danske Bank had such a toxic reputation that fellow lender Deutsche Bank would only work with one in ten of its customers, it is claimed. Danish lender Danske is at the heart of a moneylaundering row which has seen its compliance chief quit.

■ BANK SUED Australian lender ANZ Bank is being sued by the country’s watchdog for allegedly failing to follow the rules during a £1.9bn fundraising round in 2015. ■ BALTIC BUY Private equity group Blackstone has bought a 60pc stake in Baltic lender Luminor for £900m. ■ BIO STAKE Photo booth operator Photo-Me has sold its 50pc stake in Paris biotechnology firm Stilla Technologies for £4.5m, having paid £1.3m for it in April 2015 and October 2016. ■ OIL TRANSFER The first ship-toship transfer of crude oil in three years in Shetland has been carried out as around 500,000 barrels of oil from Enquest’s Kraken field was transferred from the Heather Knutsen to the Speedway on September 13.