Business Diary: Just like the old days in Throgmorton Street

Trading may have ceased at the old London Stock Exchange on Throgmorton Street when the bourse moved to Paternoster Square in 2004, but it still hosts the occasional crash. Several streets around the building in the heart of the City had to be closed yesterday after an enormous window fell from an upper floor, shattering below. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Porcine heaven for private equity

Apologies in advance, but this one is too difficult to resist. After a couple of years in the doldrums, it looks like those private-equity piggies have their snouts back in the trough. In one of the biggest deals of the year so far, Silverfleet Capital has spent more than €200m on Kalle of Germany – it makes, wait for it, sausage casings.

A charitable appeal from Ryanair

Calling all charities. In need of funds and don't care how you get the cash? Ryanair has the answer. The budget airline is today launching its search for a partner for its 2010 cabin crew calendar, which raises money for good causes. The 2009 version featured Ryanair staff draped across a plane wearing, how shall we put it, slightly less uniform than usual.

Fiat supersizes its marketing campaign

Oxford Street makes much of its occasional traffic-free shopping days, but that doesn't seem to have deterred Fiat from choosing it as the site for a giant new promotional campaign. It's installing a scale model of its Fiat 500C – five times the size of the real car – on the street, along with a specially themed "park life" area.

HSBC wants to give you a bunch of fives

Ever wondered why £5 notes are so hard to come by? Apparently, it's because they're the most utilised of all banknotes and therefore have a lifespan of just one year – compared with five years or more for a £50 note at the other extreme. Now the good folks at HSBC are trying to help, promising to fill cash machines at 100 of its branches with fivers – they usually use tens and twenties – to get more into circulation. Thanks, chaps.

Number of the day: £6.6bn

Value of the kit, from machine-guns to nuts and bolts, that auditors say the Ministry of Defence can't account for.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk