IP Group, the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, has established a 30m-pound venture capital fund, IP Venture Fund II, in partnership with the European Investment Fund (the EIF).

Full year profit before tax rose 13 per cent to 101.4m pounds at FTSE 250-listed food wholesaler Booker Group in the 52 weeks ended March 29th.

Lundin Petroleum, Tullow Oil's partner on the Carlsberg prospect in the Norwegian North Sea, said Thursday that it has plugged and abandoned the wildcat well 7/4-3 after no hydrocarbons were encountered.

Galliford Try, the FTSE 250-listed housebuilding and construction group, has reported that its Partnerships business has been selected for contracts worth 56.3m pounds in total.

Cathedral City cheese maker Dairy Crest revealed improved full year adjusted pre-tax profit and said trading in the current year is in line with expectations.

Pennon Group's annual pre-tax profits fell 1.1 per cent to 198.2m pounds reflecting the weak performance of its recycling business.

BTG, the specialist healthcare company, has entered into an agreement to buy EKOS Corporation (EKOS), an interventional vascular business, and separately to buy the Targeted Therapies division of Nordion.

Vedanta Resources said it has launched a 1.7bn-dollar two-part bond deal in a "landmark transaction" for the mining company.

United Utilities has delivered a rise in full year profit on the back of a strong operational performance, which fed through to the quality of service received by its customers.

Legal & General Group has completed the acquisition of Cofunds by purchasing the remaining 75 per cent of its share capital, according to an update issued by the group on Thursday.

Cobham has been awarded a five-year base contract extension worth 165m pounds by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for essential operational readiness training.

easyJet has bought all of Flybe's take-off and landing slots at London Gatwick airport as part of the latter's turnaround plan to return to profitability.

Beverage giant SABMiller ramped up annual revenue after strong growth in developing markets with lager volumes increasing in all divisions except North America.

FTSE 100 listed advertising multinational WPP has reported that Y&R Advertising has opened Y&R Yangon, making it one of the first international networks to open a majority-owned advertising agency in Myanmar.

Pearson, the FTSE 100-listed publishing and education firm, on Thursday announced plans to shake up its organisational structure in an effort to tap into new growth opportunities.

Wood Group, the FTSE 100 energy services giant, has announced its PSN business has scored a contract to deliver operations and maintenance services to Hess Corporation's Baldpate production platform in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, under a new five-year agreement.

Lloyds Banking Group said it planned to sell a further 15 per cent of its stake in wealth manager St James's Place to swell its equity capital 500m pounds.