Source: Sharecast
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Residential property developer Barratt Redrow announced on Friday that Dean Banks will take over as chief executive officer with effect from 21 September. Banks will succeed David Thomas, who will retire after 11 years as group CEO and 17 years with the firm.
Pensions and insurance consulting & administration business XPS Group said it had bought the trade and assets of Austin Professional Resourcing, a UK-based specialist actuarial consultancy, for £3.3m in cash on completion with a further £10m payable in years two and three, contingent on achieving certain stretching business performance criteria.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
King Charles's property management company has made more than £1bn for the third consecutive year thanks to the boom in offshore windfarms paid for through energy bills. The crown estate, the royals' portfolio of land and property, reported £1.2bn in profit for the last financial year, almost three times the amount it made three years ago. Two-thirds came from the offshore wind industry. – Guardian
The developer behind a blocked housing project opposed by one of Andy Burnham's key economic advisers is to take its battle to the High Court. Berkeley Homes has launched a judicial review of the decision in May by the local Labour council to prevent the construction of 867 homes on the site of a run-down shopping centre in Peckham, south London. – Telegraph
Americans are turning their backs on Scotch whisky and Scottish salmon after Donald Trump's tariffs pushed up prices. Exports of Scottish salmon to the US almost halved in the three months to March while whisky shipments tumbled by a quarter, according to new figures from the Food and Drink Federation. Sales of all British food and drink to the US plunged by more than a quarter, pushing global exports to their lowest level in a decade excluding the pandemic. – Telegraph
The tax system should be used to incentivise investment in British companies and stop the "overseas stripping" of innovative businesses, an economic adviser to Andy Burnham has said. Andy Haldane, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, told its annual conference in London that the billions of pounds of pension tax relief was a "ready made" and "largely fiscal-free way" of giving growth "a genuine giddy-up". – The Times
Tim Steiner's dream of creating the "Tesla of grocery" could be about to meet an abrupt end. After more than a quarter of a century with Steiner, the figurehead for Ocado Group, the online grocery giant he co-founded in 2000, investors appear to have lost patience in his leadership and long-promised path to profitability. – The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices delivered a mixed performance on Thursday as market participants digested a key inflation reading and better-than-expected quarterly earnings from Micron Technology failed to lift the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.14% at 51,920.62, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.01% to 7,357.49 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.46% weaker at 25,358.60.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com