The property giant British Land has revealed that a number of independent retailers will trade alongside the high street’s biggest names at its shopping centre in Fareham, Hampshire, which opens on Thursday.

Mitie, the outsourcer that is catering at the Chelsea Flower Show, said yesterday that switching to longer and more lucrative contracts had triggered a 5.4 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £111.1m in the year to April.

Food scares and stricter pig production rules across Europe will all be good for the bacon, sausage and cooked meats group Cranswick, its chairman said yesterday.

John Thornton, the former Goldman Sachs president who specialises in Chinese affairs, is stepping down from the board of HSBC to spend more time on his other business interests.

An influential think-tank has become the latest organisation to call on the Government to alleviate the punishing impact of business rates in an effort to curb the spiralling number of store closures on the  high street.

The developers of Battersea Power Station broke through the $1bn (£660m) sales barrier yesterday amid “phenomenal” interest in new flats and townhouses at the London landmark.

Japan’s “Abenomics” strategy of pumping trillions into its stagnant economy and ramping up public spending is paying off as the growth picture improves.

Shares in the controversial FTSE 100 miner Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) dropped yesterday after it confirmed details of an unwanted attempted takeover bid by its oligarch founders and the Kazakhstan government.

First Group’s chairman Martin Gilbert bowed out on a low yesterday as the struggling transport group tapped investors for £615m to cut debts and axed the dividend as profits slumped.

The European Commission stepped up its investigation into oil price fixing as it sought information from trading houses such as the FTSE 100 giant Glencore.

Stimulus measures pushing down bond yields keep equities in demand

Ryanair wants to more than double its share of the European short-haul market to 20 per cent in the next five years

Chairman steps down after 27 years in the driving seat

Libya and Iraq could be set to join China and Brazil as global hot spots for the luxury goods industry.

Marks and Spencer was dragged into the intensifying corporate tax avoidance row on Sunday night with allegations that its online sales operation was operated in a similar way to that of Amazon to minimise payments to the UK Treasury.