THE DAILY BRIEFING

AIRLINE SOARS

Budget airline Wizz Air carried more than 28m passengers in 2017, 24pc up on a year earlier. in the UK it carried more than 7m passengers, up 11pc.

DISTRIBUTION DEAL

international sales and marketing firm DCC is buying countrywide Farmers’ liquefied petroleum gas distribution business for £28.75m.

GOLD BOSS

Egypt-focused gold producer Centamin’s chairman Josef El-Raghy is to retire by the end of 2018, it was announced.

FASHION BACKING

Analysts at cantor Fitzgerald have upgraded their price recommendation for fashion firm Superdry following a strong set of sales results.

DIVIDEND BONANZA

European stocks will pay out a record £286bn in dividends this year as the world economy takes off, says Allianz Global Investors.

JEWELLER HIT

Shares in Danish jeweller Pandora lost their sparkle, falling 10pc, after it said 2017 sales could well be lower than predicted.

PAYMENTS BOOM

A record 6.3bn payments worth £4.9trillion were handled by direct debit and credit service Bacs last year.

SALES SLUMP

car finance sales fell 8pc in november compared to a year earlier as the auto industry slowdown continues to bite.

RIVAL BOUGHT

Pension administrator Xafinity has bought the consulting arm of rival Punter Southall Group in a £153m deal.

TURKEY LAUNCH

Payments firm Worldpay is launching a service in Turkey through a partnership with istanbul-based business iyzico.

FUND RECORD

investors pumped a record £589bn into funds across Europe last year, according to research firm Morningstar.

DEAL COMPLETED

online-only lender Tandem has completed its purchase of Harrods Bank – giving it a £375m mortgage book and more than £400m of deposits.

TECH SWOOP

Google has bought 87pc of UK-based Redux, which is working on technology to turn smartphone screens into speakers.

DRAMA SOLD

TV series See, written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and directed by Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, has been bought by Apple.