The barometer may be set fair for its most venerable prize, given a spectacular vote of confidence from the sponsors of the Derby yesterday, but otherwise the Turf seemed to lie in a soggy, midwinter time-warp. The steeplechases scheduled at Punchestown were abandoned, and the remaining hurdle and bumper races run in conditions bordering on the farcical. An inspection will be required this morning to pass the course for a card that features the outstanding mare, Quevega.

GDF Suez has finally agreed on a deal to scoop up the 30 per cent of the UK energy provider International Power (IPR) that it doesn't already own – but only after raising its offer by 7 per cent to £6.4bn. In a clear victory for International Power's independent board committee, the French company increased its bid from 390p a share to 418p, two weeks after the board's six directors unanimously rejected its previous offer for being too low.

GDF Suez has finally agreed on a deal to scoop up the 30 per cent of the UK energy provider International Power that it does not already own – but only after the French utility raised its offer by 7 per cent to £6.4bn.

Top executives in the engineering turnaround group Melrose have placed some £68m worth of shares to pay their tax bills on the £126m of free stock they received under a five-year incentive plan.

Seventeen years is rather a long time. 1995 saw the release of Braveheart, the collapse of Barings Bank and the departure of Robbie Williams from Take That. Perhaps less notably, it was also the last time Investec did not believe Unilever shares were worth snapping up – until now.

The uproar over his wife's currency dealings may have cost Swiss National Bank governor Philipp Hildebrand his job, but the auditors have at least given his likely successor Thomas Jordan a clean bill of health.

Clinton Cards, the greetings card retailer, has put its ailing Birthdays chain up for sale, as the group's new chief executive seeks to turn around its performance.

Shares in BP yesterday rose by nearly 2 per cent as the City digested the oil major's £4.9bn settlement with restaurants, fishermen, hotel owners and other businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

The view from here

The Government was already in trouble with Britain's women – what with the Prime Minister's series of rather patronising remarks and the protests from feminist groups that the Chancellor's budget cuts fall harder on one gender than the other.

Tens of thousands of consumers have been forced to take their PPI claim to the ombudsman

Robertson tells Games organisers Locog they must offer better service to the public in April

Can Thomas Cook survive? There are some in the Square Mile who believe so, despite the troubled tour operator having suffered a terrible 2011. The group endured three profit warnings, two refinancings and one chief executive jumping ship last year, prompting its shares to lose more than nine-tenths of their value.

The first indications that George Osborne's deficit reduction timetable is slipping could come this week with the release of the official public borrowing figures for January.