BUSINESS LIVE: 888 profits slump; Inland Homes in administration; Deliveroo £250m buyback

Ryanair has cut its winter flight schedule due to delays in the delivery of new Boeing 737 planes.

The budget airline will reduce the number of aircraft it planned to base at several airports across Europe, including East Midlands Airport and Dublin Airport.

The value of mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals made with UK involvement has fallen to a 14-year low in 2023, new findings show.

M&A deals with any UK involvement have a total value of £144.7billion in the year to date, down 45 per cent on levels seen last year, according to LSEG Deals Intelligence.

Phoenix Group profits rose in the first half, driven by demand for corporate pension scheme insurance products.

The insurance company, which has historically specialised in managing books of life insurance businesses that are closed to new customers, posted an operating profit growth of 5 per cent year-on-year to £266million in the six months to 30 June.

Mitchells & Butlers sales have improved after more customers stepped out to grab drinks and food at its pubs despite a high inflationary environment.

Cost headwinds, which pose a major challenge for the UK’s hospitality industry, have also started to abate, while high inflation has not deterred demand, the group told shareholders on Thursday.

William Hill owner 888 Holdings has issued a profit warning after the gambling group was hit by new regulatory changes and ‘consumer-friendly’ sports results.

888 Holdings shares slumped 17.4 per cent to 91.25p in early trading as the betting group told investorsearnings before nasties for 2023 would miss forecasts amid more challenging trading conditions.

Lloyds Bank is attempting to lure customers to the DIY investment space with the launch of its ETF Quicklist.

The bank has partnered with BlackRock to put together a list of 16 iShares ETFs for investors.

London’s office market is in a ‘rental recession’ with empty space across the capital’s traditional business districts at a 30-year-high, according to a report.

Analysts at Jefferies estimated that office space in use across the City, West End and Canary Wharf has shrunk as much as 20pc.

Deliveroo plans to return up to £250million to its shareholders via a premium tender offer launching on Friday.

The food delivery group, which first outlined the plan to return the surplus capital to shareholders in August, said it plans to buy up to 217.4million existing ordinary shares for between 115p and 135p per share.

Gambling giant 888 Holdings has lowered its annual profit expectation after sales slumped by 10 per cent in the third quarter, which the firm partially blamed in tighter regulation of the sector in the UK.

Lord Mendelsohn, executive chair, said:

‘This has been an important quarter for the business with the announcements of Per Widerström as our new CEO and Sean Wilkins as our new CFO, who I am very confident will lead the business through its next phases of growth and I look forward to Per starting as CEO in mid-October.

‘We are making significant strides to improve the quality and long-term sustainability of our revenues, but performance in Q3 has been below our expectations, and this means we now expect to end the year with EBITDA below our prior expectation.’