Barclays, Centrica, Alibaba: Business news in brief on Thursday May 5

Barclays said it sold about one-fifth of its stake in Barclays Africa Group PA

Trinity Mirror’s New Day newspaper shuts after 9 weeks

The New Day, a daily newspaper launched by Trinity Mirror in February, will publish its last issue due to poor sales on Friday, after about nine weeks of existence. Trinity Mirror aimed to sell 200,000 copies a day but sales are reported to have fallen to 40,000. Shares in Trinity Mirror bounced 7 per cent today on relief it closed its unsuccessful venture.

Barclays makes £600m from stake sale in African subsidiary

Barclays said it sold about one-fifth of its stake in Barclays Africa Group for about R13.1 billion (£600 million) as part of chief executive officer Jes Staley’s plan to overhaul the British lender. The bank said that South Africa’s state pension fund, the Public Investment Corporation, has agreed to buy up to 1.2 per cent of Barclays Africa Group shares. The rest of the 103.6 million shares will be sold to investors preapproved by the South African regulator. Barclays previously said that it intends to cut its 62 per cent stake in Barclays Africa over the next two or three years.

Centrica plunges 10% on share sale 

Shares in Centrica, the owner of British Gas, sank nearly 11 per cent after it announced plans to raise more capital through a share sale. The energy giant said it intended to sell 350 million shares, worth about £770 million, through a placing with institutional investors on Thursday.  Shares fell 25.30 p to 205.80p.

Alibaba profits triple as mobile sales soar

Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, has said fourth quarter revenue rose 39 per cent boosted by growth in merchandise volumes. Revenue rose to 24.2 billion yuan ($3.7 billion; £2.6 bilion) in the quarter ending on March 31 from 17.4 billion yuan a year earlier. Shares of Alibaba rose more than 4 per cent in pre-market trading.