FirstGroup completes placing

FirstGroup, Britain’s leading bus and rail operator, completed a £236m share placement as it positioned itself for further US expansion

• FirstGroup moves to raise £200m
• Train operator is given formal warning

Fresh model for Royal Mail funding

The service should be allowed to raise capital from the private sector to gain access to the finance and expertise it needs to survive, says the UK postal regulator

Enterprise Inns hit by smoking ban

Pressure on consumer spending also weighs as pre-tax profit falls by a third

Demand proves resilient for Tui

Summer holidays appear to be one luxury Britons are unwilling to forgo

BAA replaces Heathrow chief

Mark Bullock, managing director of Heathrow airport since November 2006, has become the first senior executive to leave BAA since the appointment of a new group chief executive

Open skies negotiators check in for round two

The European Union and the US will lock horns in Slovenia in a renewed attempt to break down long-standing barriers to a full liberalisation of transatlantic aviation

FirstGroup moves to raise £200m

Bus and rail group in equity placing aimed at bolstering its balance sheet after £1.9bn acquisition of Greyhound operator Laidlaw last year

Fuel system is focus of 777 crash inquiry

Investigators probing the BA jet crash in January are looking at problems in fuel systems both within the aircraft and inside the engines themselves as the possible cause