Sky News has learnt that Nicandro Durante, who has run the world's biggest cigarette manufacturer by number of countries since 2011, is expected to leave the company at some point in the next year.

The labelling is different, the layout, the checkouts, the uniforms (they don't have them - just aprons).

The sale by the confectioner, whose brands also include Maryland Cookies and Jammie Dodgers, is part of a wider, long-term supply deal with the Swiss chocolate company, which will continue to supply more than 12,000 tonnes of chocolate a year to Burton's.

The clothing, accessories and homeware retailer announced that it is closing its stores and website, after parent company Kiely Rowan went into administration.

Peter Long's departure comes just weeks after a bruising encounter with shareholders in which just over 34% of them voted against his reappointment at the company's annual meeting.

However, a continuing legal row may mean Irish coffers never see a cent of the windfall.

Marsh & McLennan, one of the sector's biggest players, today agreed to buy Britain's Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) for £4.9bn.

Experts from 11 think tanks in both countries contributed to a draft text for an "ideal" free-trade agreement, which they said could reduce barriers and eliminate tariffs for nearly all goods.

Sky News understands that Geeta Gopalan, a former chair of the European arm of Monitise, the mobile payments group, has agreed to join Funding Circle as a non-executive director.