THE DAILY BRIEFING

BOOKIE SHAKE-UP

The shakeup at William Hill has continued with the appointment of former Betfair chief operating officer Mark Brooker as a non-executive director. Last week Worldpay’s chief operating officer Ruth Prior was appointed finance director. Shares fell 1.8pc, or 5.2p, to 285.6p.

HOTELS BOUGHT

Elegant Hotels Group, which owns six hotels in Barbados, bought smaller rival Treasure Beach Limited and expects to spend £8.4m on the deal. Shares fell 0.6pc, or 0.5p, to 86.5p.

PROFITS UP

Publishing software provider Ingenta is back in the black after buying advertising firm 5 Fifteen. The company reported profits of £861,000 in 2016 after making a £1.9m loss the year before. Sales were up 9pc to £15.2m from 13.9m.

STUDENT BOOST

Strong demand for student accommodation helped shares in builder Watkin Jones climb. Trading in the first six months to March 31 had been ‘successful’. The stock rose 2.7pc, or 4p, to 154p.

NAVY TIE-UP

Babcock is likely to win a £360m seven-year contract with the Ministry of Defence. The engineer has been selected as the preferred bidder to provide technical and mechanical support for new Royal Navy aircraft carriers.

FORTIES SALE

Energy giant Ineos is buying BP’s historic Forties pipeline system, which links 85 North Sea oil and gas assets to the UK and Ineos’s refinery in Grangemouth, for £200m.

STAKE CUT

The taxpayer’s stake in Lloyds Banking Group has been cut to below 2pc. More than £20bn has been returned to Government coffers since the lender’s £20.3bn bailout during the financial crisis.

ROSSI RETURNS

Luxury online fashion giant Yoox Net-A-Porter has appointed Alessandra Rossi as president of its off- season division. It marks a return for Rossi who left the firm in 2015 for family reasons.

SECURITY DEAL

G4S has struck a £45.2m deal to offload its 31 youth detention centres across America to BHSB Holdings.

TOP TAN

Shares in Skinny Tanmaker InnovaDerma soared 22pc, or 29.5p, to 163p yesterday after it revealed it was Superdrug’s top selling brand in its category.

CHOCS AWAY

Card shop Clintons is launching its own premium chocolate, called Cocoa Paradise.