Owner of Aberdeen, Southampton and Glasgow airports sold in £1.53bn deal

The owner of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports is being sold in a deal worth more than £1.5bn.The Spanish construction company Ferrovial and its partner Macquarie have agreed to offload the AGS Airports joint venture to AviAlliance, a German-headquartered airport operator.As part of the deal, which is expected to complete early next year, AviAlliance will pay £900m for the business and take on £653m in debt.Ferrovial and Macquarie’s 50/50 AGS joint venture was established in 2014 after their £1

Homebase collapses into administration with thousands of jobs at risk

The struggling DIY chain Homebase has collapsed into administration, leaving thousands of workers facing an uncertain future, despite the purchase of the bulk of its stores by the owner of The Range homeware retailer.Gavin Park, Gavin Maher and Adele Macleod from the financial advisory firm Teneo were appointed as joint administrators of Homebase’s owners, HHGL Limited and Hampden Group Limited.The owner of The Range and Wilko, CDS Superstores, has bought 70 of Homebase’s stores, saving up to 1,600 jobs, as well as the brand and intellectual property.The Homebase brand will continue to trade online, while the stores bought by CDS will continue to trade until they are handed over, at which point they will be rebranded as The Range superstores.Homebase had recently completed a sale of 11 of its UK stores to Sainsbury’s, and has exchanged on a further three locations

Cryptocurrency traders: share what got you into crypto, and how you feel about recent developments

It’s been an eventful few days for the cryptocurrency market, with the price of bitcoin having risen above $87,000 for the first time amid traders’ hopes that cryptocurrencies will boom in a favourable regulatory environment when Donald Trump returns to the White House.Bitcoin reached a record high of $87,198, before slipping back slightly on Monday. The price more than doubled from about $37,000 12 months ago.Other cryptos such as Dogecoin also experienced a “Trump pump” surge.We’d like to hear from retail investors who have bought crypto and how they have fared since they entered the market

Genetic testing firm 23andMe cuts 40% of its workforce amid financial struggles

The genetic testing firm 23andMe said on Monday it would cut about 40%, or 200 employees, from its workforce and discontinue further development of all its therapies as part of a restructuring program.“We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” said the company’s CEO, Anne Wojcicki.The company said it was evaluating strategic alternatives, including licensing agreements and asset sales, for its therapies in development.The company has been left with few options as its value has plummeted in the aftermath of a massive data breach. The DNA testing company is being investigated by British and Canadian authorities over the 2023 breach that exposed 6

Sebastian Coe pledges ‘clearcut policy’ on women’s sport in IOC pitch

Sebastian Coe has promised to introduce an “uncompromising and clearcut” policy to protect women’s sport and to look into awarding prize money to all Olympic medallists if he is elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) president.In a clear sign that Coe intends to be the change candidate in next March’s election, the World Athletics president also promised to make the IOC more open and democratic, and to do more to harness the talents of the organisation’s membership.Coe, who ran the London 2012 Games and is a double gold medallist, has the deepest CV of the seven candidates for the biggest job in global sports politics. However no Briton has held the presidency since the IOC was formed in 1894 and his candidacy is opposed by the current leader, Thomas Bach, who he fell out with after World Athletics banned Russian athletes.But in his first major interview since declaring his candidacy, Coe said he would not be a “vanilla” ­candidate and protecting the ­integrity of sport would be a key plank of his manifesto

England will not ‘shut up shop’ against South Africa, insists Henry Slade

England are looking to banish their autumn frustrations at South Africa’s expense this Saturday and have vowed “not to shut up shop” against the reigning world champions. Successive defeats by New Zealand and Australia have dropped Steve Borthwick’s side to seventh in the world rankings but the players insist they can confound expectations and turn their month around.Rather than ditching the high-risk defensive system that has so far conceded eight tries in two games this month, England intend to double down and be even more aggressive with and without the ball in their first rematch against the Springboks since last year’s agonising World Cup semi-final defeat.In Paris just over a year ago England adhered to a strictly limited kicking-based gameplan against the Boks which came close to paying spectacular dividends. This time, however, they intend to stick to their recently embraced blitz defensive system and take South Africa on in attack as well