City news from loss making Co-Operative Group, up for sale Burton’s Biscuit Company and bumper results WPP

Burton’s Biscuit Company, the maker of Jammie Dodgers, is officially up for sale with a price tag of around £350m.

There’s a bumper set of results at WPP, the advertising group headed by Sir Martin Sorrell. Revenues are up 7.1pc to £5.3bn, like-for-like revenues are 2.4pc up, and pre-tax profits have jumped 19pc to £427m. The results are good news for all of us since WPP, with clients including Shell, HSBC and Ford, is seen as a bellwether for the economy. They will also answer those who fear WPP would suffer following the surprise merger of its two biggest rivals, Omnicom and Publicis.

More horrors for the Co-Operative Group caused by its troubled banking arm. Further write-downs, totally almost £750m, have dragged the UK’s biggest mutual into the red for first six months of the year. Group revenues are down 1pc to £5.8bn but last year’s pre-tax profit of £18m is now a pre-tax loss of £559m. The bank, which is already battling to fill a £1.5bn capital hole, has announced a further £496m of impairments on loans, plus a £148.4m write-down on IT assets; £61m of PPI provisions, and charges of £34.6m. “We recognise the disappointment all stakeholders must feel,” Niall Booker, boss of the bank, has said. Part of the solution is to float the bank  on the London Stock Exchange as part of a debt restructuring to be unveiled “in the fourth quarter.” We’ll have all the analysis and reactions on our live blog here.