THE DAILY BRIEFING

ESSEX PARK

Nickelodeon has teamed up with an Essex shopping centre to open a theme park.

The US cartoon channel has agreed a deal with Lakeside owner Intu Properties to open an indoor park at the mall by 2018.

ENERGY JOBS

Eon will recruit 400 staff at its Bedford office.

However, the energy firm’s shares dropped 5pc this week after it warned it would need to raise an extra £1.6bn to cover a nuclear waste bill.

VIETNAM DEAL

Postal technology firm Escher yesterday announced a contract to provide its software, which helps process letters and packages at self-service tills and from hand-held devices, to Vietnam. Shares rose 4.8pc by 7.5p to 162.5p.

CYBER BLOW

Royal Mail’s shares dropped nearly 1pc, or 4.8p, to 494.3p after it fell short of targets.

The postal service narrowly missed its target to deliver 93pc of items by the next working day last year, managing 92.5pc.

TAXING TIMES

Betting firm Sportech’s victory against HMRC over a £97m VAT bill for Spot The Ball could be short-lived after the taxman appealed last week’s decision.

Sportech claims the game is one of chance and not skill, meaning it should be exempt from VAT.

CHINESE NEWS

US technology group PressReader has signed a deal to bring Chinese newspapers to the UK with a translation service.