THE DAILY BRIEFING

AVON CONTRACT Parcel delivery firm DX Group has won a £10m contract with beauty retailer Avon.

The three-year deal was awarded after a tender process. DX said it underpinned existing expectations for financial performance.

Shares closed up 15.3pc, or 1.38p, at 10.38p.

JOHNSTON FALLS Shares in publishing group Johnston Press tumbled more than 11pc after a £300.3m loss. The media group, which owns the i newspaper, Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman, said revenue fell 6pc to £221.5m in the year to December 31.

It reported a £344m write-down in the value of its local and regional titles, excluding the i, reducing the value of its titles to £120m.

Shares closed down 9.1pc, or 2p, at 20p.

FLYBE PAIN Weak demand, a price war, strike action and bad weather are expected to push airline Flybe into a loss.

Load factors, which measure how full planes are, fell by 1.4 percentage points in the final quarter, and Flybe has slowed the number of extra seats it planned to make available.

Airlines have also been hit by competition from rail firms, which have cut fares.

Shares closed down 1.2pc, or 0.5p, at 42.5p.

DEBT REFINANCING Energy recovery company Cory Riverside Energy has refinanced £520m of debt over its incinerator in Belvedere, London.

Chief executive Nicholas Pollard said: ‘It marks the culmination of the plan agreed with our shareholders 15 months ago.’

SFO BACKED The High Court has backed the Serious Fraud Office in its probe of industrial firm Unaoil. The firm had challenged the legality of the SFO’s raid of its headquarters in Monaco, claiming investigators withheld information from police.

But judges rejected the claim and awarded costs to the SFO.

Unaoil is being investigated over suspected offences of bribery, corruption and money laundering. It denies the allegations.

PAY HIKE Petrofac chief executive Ayman Asfari had a bumper pay rise last year, from £935,000 to £1.4m, mostly due to a £670,315 bonus. His basic salary for 2017 will remain unchanged at £650,000.

This week the leading service provider to the oil and gas industry won a £1bn contract to build an oil and gas processing site in Kuwait.