Aviva Plc (LON: AV) have announced the appointment of Amanda Blanc as an independent non executive director, in an update to shareholders on Tuesday afternoon.

Shares of Aviva trade at 398p. 3/12/19 12:42BST.

Aviva, have seen a tough time in financial 2019, and turbulence has been experienced by shareholders. In June, the firm announced that it would cut 1,800 jobs in an attempt to reduce costs.

The insurance company said that it intends to reduce expenses by £300 million per annum by 2022. Cost savings will be achieved through lower central costs, savings in contractor and consultant spend, reduction in project expenditure and other efficiencies, Aviva announced in a statement.

The job cuts have been mirrored by firms across the banking and insurance industry, as it was announced that global bank BNP Paribas was set to cut its Swiss workforce.

Blanc will take the position, following her appointment as the first women chair of the Association of British Insurers in 2018.

The move will take place from January 2nd, and shows a constructive move by Aviva to stimulate business.

On 20th November, the FTSE100 listed firm saw its shares crash after an update about the potential takeover of its Hong Kong business.

Rivals such as MS&AD Insurance Group (TYO: 8725) and Manulife Financial Corp (TSE: MFC) had submitted bids, however Aviva seemed determined to turn operations around, and the appointment comes as no surprise.

Blanc has vast experience in the industry, having been the former boss of AXA in their UK and Irish division, additionally she has worked at Zurich Insurance Group, and held senior management positions at Towergate Insurance Brokers, Groupama Insurance Company and Commercial Union.

Blanc will succeed Claudia Arney as chair of the governance committee and become a member of the nomination and risk committees, Aviva said.

Amanda’s breadth and depth of experience of the UK and European insurance industry, and her detailed understanding of business and customers, make her an excellent addition to our board,” said Aviva Chairman Adrian Montague.

Takeaway.com NV (AMS: TKWY) have accused Prosus (JSE: PRX) of scaremongering on Tuesday as the battle for the acquisition of Just Eat (LON: JE) continues to heat up.

The story of Just Eat has been spiraling news headlines for a while now, and in the most recent saga at the end of November, it appeared that both parties from takeaway.com and Just Eat looked to push a deal amid market pressures.

However, the persistence of Prosus (JSE: PRX) has stopped the two firms agreeing a deal, as Prosus have expressed strong interest in the FTSE100 listed Just Eat.

In the initial deal proposed at the end of July, Just Eat shareholders would get 0.09744 Takeaway.com shares for each Just Eat share held, which valued Just Eat at 731 pence per share based on Takeaway.com’s closing share price on July 26 of €83.55.

The bid submitted by Prosus showed a 20% appreciation to Takeaway.com’s offer.

On 25th November, Just Eat told shareholders to back the deal submitted by Takeaway.com and neglect the substantial £4.9 million bid that was proposed by Prosus.

Today, it seems that Prosus have used anticompetitive practice in an attempt to scare of competition.

Takeaway.com on Tuesday said it “believes Prosus has made a number of statements which should be seen as scaremongering in an attempt to persuade shareholders to sell out and accept Prosus’s low-ball cash offer.”

Jitse Groen, Takeaway.com’s chief executive, said: “Prosus has made a number of claims over the last few weeks in an attempt to make its highly opportunistic cash offer for Just Eat appear more attractive. It persistently makes contradictory assertions about large future investment requirements and significant risks for shareholders in remaining invested in Just Eat, while itself wanting to assume those apparent costs and risks.

“Our strategy, management team, operational capability and perfect geographic fit make us the ideal partner for Just Eat. The all-share merger with Takeaway.com gives Just Eat shareholders the ability to participate fully in the value creation opportunity. Takeaway.com’s management team has a proven track record and decades of experience within the online food delivery sector, which contrasts with Prosus who have never operated a business within it.”

The comments come as familiar reading following statements from Cat Rock Capital Management LP, who said on Monday that Just Eat shareholders would be better accepting the deal proposed by takeaway.com rather than from Prosus, who recently spun off from Naspers (JSE: NPN).

Cat Rock holds 17.7 million shares in online takeaway platform Just Eat, equivalent to a stake of around 3%. On Monday it sent an open letter to Just Eat’s shareholders, urging them to accept the Takeaway.com merger, and had every right to voice their interests seeing the size of their contributions in Just Eat.

Alex Captain, founder & managing partner at Cat Rock, said: “The Prosus offer of 710p per share is not remotely close to our assessment of fair value for Just Eat. We think a Prosus bid needs to be at least 5.0 times 2020 consensus revenue, or 925p per share, in order to compete with a Takeaway.com merger that we believe could comfortably be worth 1,200p per share by the end of 2020.

Captain also said that while Cat Rock is pleased Just Eat received a bid from Prosus, the level of the offer has left it “deeply disappointed”. He also lashed out at “a number of claims about Just Eat and Takeaway.com” which Captain said were “aimed at convincing shareholders not to support their merger”.

“If this occurs,” said Capitain, “Just Eat shareholders who choose not to accept the Prosus offer will be faced with the prospect of becoming minority shareholders in a publicly-traded entity with majority Prosus ownership. Therefore with a 50% threshold, Just Eat shareholders could feel compelled to accept a Prosus bid that is substantially below fair value, particularly if merger arbitrage funds continue to increase their ownership of Just Eat stock.

“We urge other Just Eat shareholders to join us in accepting the Takeaway.com offer that the Just Eat Board has unanimously recommended.”

Coro Energy PLC (LON: CORO) have announced that they will sell their entire Italian gas portfolio to Zenith Energy Ltd (LON: ZEN) in an announcement made on Tuesday morning.

Shares in Coro Energy fell 4.58% after the announcement to 1.98p, whilst Zenith shares received a 3.11% boost to trade at 2.32p. 3/12/19 11:54BST.

The deal which has been formalized on Tuesday will value at £3.9 million, which led to the reflections in share price movements for both firms.

The initial consideration for the Italian natural gas production and exploration portfolio is £400,000, payable by Zenith to Coro in the form of 6.7 million new Zenith shares priced at 6.0 pence each.

Then, provided the portfolio achieves average daily production of 100,000 standard cubic metres per day on average for four successive months, a up to £3.5 million in Zenith shares will be due to Coro. This production figure represents approximately 590 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Coro Chief Executive James Menzies said: “As the company continues to focus on the investment opportunities in south east Asia, the disposal of our Italian portfolio removes non-core assets and streamlines our geographic focus. The Italian portfolio requires significant management time and capital expenditure to sustain its production and in-line with our stated strategy, we believe that focusing our resources on the rapidly growing south east Asian market will provide greater opportunity to maximise shareholder value.”

Coro’s Italian operations consist of 100% working interests in four natural gas producing concessions, which are Sillaro, Rapagnano, Casa Tiberi and Bezzecca – as well as one which is development ready and two exploration concessions.

Following “a series of targeted interventions” over the next six to nine months, Zenith expects production from the portfolio to reach 113,000 standard cubic metres per day.

The deal will make Zenith one of Italy’s largest natural gas production operations with total production at 55,000 cubic meters per day.

Zenith CEO Andrea Cattaneo said: “There are a number of opportunities to increase production from current levels in the acquired assets through targeted relatively low-risk well interventions, also present in our existing Italian portfolio. Our newly enhanced technical team and financial resources will enable Zenith to apply renewed focus on its Italian portfolio.”

Separately, Coro announced it is seeking another six-month extension to the long-stop date on its attempted acquisition of a 43% interest in the Bulu production sharing contract offshore East Java.

Boohoo Group PLC (LON: BOO) have seen their shares jump on Tuesday morning after the firm reported a record number of sales across Black Friday weekend.

Boohoo.com is a UK-based online fashion retailer, aimed at 16–30 year olds. The business was founded in 2006, and had sales in FY2018 of almost £580m. It specializes in own brand fashion clothing, with over 36,000 products

Boohoo have had a very strong financial year, as the firm has seen its profits soar 83% as reported in September.

Once again, Boohoo have pulled it out of the bag in a time where competitors such as Koovs (LON: KOOV) have struggled, where Koovs saw its shares in red last week.

Boohoo said that it saw a record performance over the Black Friday weekend, as trading since the half year period had remained strong.

“Both warehouses have had a strong operational performance,” the online fashion retailer added.

Boohoo said: “Our new brands, Karen Millen, Coast, and MissPap, have been successfully integrated onto our platform. Initial ranges have been very well received, and we continue to broaden our product ranges as we progress our multi-brand strategy.”

In the year to the end of February, boohoo reported 38% growth in pretax profit to £59.9 million, as revenue rose 48% to GBP856.9 million.

Revenue growth across all territories and brands was strong, the company noted, with UK revenue up 37% and international revenue up 64%.

In the industry, competitors have slumped in a time where Boohoo continue to dominate the market.

FTSE100 listed Marks and Spencer (LON: MKS) saw a massive slump in their clothing division in November, which led to a very poor update.

Shareholders of Boohoo will remain confident in the firms ability to constantly produce impressive results in a time of tough trading, certainly shareholders will now look forward to the Christmas and Boxing Day trading periods where it will be likely that once again Boohoo will pull it out of the bag.

Shareholders of Ryanair Holdings plc (LON: RYA) and Wizz Air Holdings PLC (LON: WIZZ) have seen their shares in green on Tuesday after the firms reported their monthly passenger figures.

Shares of Ryanair currently trade at €13 (+0.35%), whilst Wizz Air shares have seen a 0.025% boost to 3,950p. 3/12/19 11:17BST.

Both firms have seen mixed results, in a time where the airline industry has appeared to be in decline. After the collapse of Thomas Cook in September, firms have been cautious.

At the start of November, Ryanair saw its shares rise despite lower profit expectations narrowing from €800 million to €900 million to €750 million to €950 million.

FTSE250 listed Wizz Air, raised their profit and capacity forecasts, but did not quite spark shareholder optimism as shares stayed in red.

The Irish carrier said group traffic rose by 5.8% to 11.0 million from 10.4 million in November 2018. The figure includes its eponymous Ryanair brand and Austrian airline Lauda.

In the Ryanair division, November traffic rose by 4.0% year-on-year to 10.5 million from 10.1 million and in Lauda, by 67% to 500,000 from 300,000 last year.

Wizz Air reportrefd a November capacity increase of 27% to 3.2 million from 2.6 million, while load factor rose 92.8% to 91.2%.

Available seat kilometres was up by 21% to 5.2 million from 4.3 million and revenue passenger kilometres grew by 4.9 million from 3.9 million in November 2018.

On a rolling annual basis, capacity is up 15% to 41.8 million, total passengers up by 17% to 39.1 million with load factor up 1.3 percentage points to 93.6%.

During November, the Hungarian carrier added 11 new routes, which included 4 in Poland, 2 in Ukraine and 1 in the UK.

While the airline industry gets ever more competitive, it seems that Fastjet (LON: FJET) are struggling to stay afloat. The firm saw its shares crash last week as it considered to sell its Zimbabwe operations.