The Lionesses win claws a hole in bookies’ profits

HARLAND & Wolff has secured an experienced finance bod, Katya Zotova, as a board director in a move the Belfast shipyard says will help it grow into a large firm.

The banker has been a managing director at Mizuho Bank, a principal at the sanctioned oligarch Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne IT, retail, and energy investment business, and a director at Indian miner Vedanta Resources.

She is entering at a good time. The word on the street is that Britain’s shipyards could be brimming with work, which military folk say will only increase following the invasion of Ukraine.

Investors will want to see the annual report, however, which was delayed because Harland & Wolff’s auditors were brimming with their own work.

BOOKIES will this week reveal how much England’s triumph in the Women’s Euros dented takings.

England was heavilybacked from the outset, with a surge in bets as the Lionesses advanced and women’s football fever gripped the nation. William

Hill, owner of 888, said the number of bets on the final was twice as big as the previous Women’s Euros – making the game its biggest ever female-only sporting event.

Rival Entain, which owns Ladbrokes and Coral, said a record 1.5million bets had been placed. Flutter, owner of Paddy Power and Betfair, told Stocks to Watch it paid out £580,000 on bets for England to ‘win the trophy’.

It could have been worse though, as most wagers would have been on England to win the final inside the standard 90 minutes – and the game with Germany went to extra time.

On top of the trio’s results, to be published this week, investors are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Government’s gambling review.

HYDROGEN specialist ITM Power, valued at £1.3billion, has been working on plans to build a second factory in Sheffield since last year.

The AIM-listed group struck a deal for the site in November and is seeking planning permission. But, we hear, its plan to hand over documents to Sheffield City Council’s planning committee this week has been delayed, as it is still tweaking details.

The company declined to comment.

BlackRock Investment Management and JP Morgan Asset Management might be watching closely – the pair have built up a record short position of 2.42 per cent in the firm.