SHARES in Altrincham traffic information company ITIS rose 14.5 per cent to 57.25p after the company said it was on track to beat City profit expectations.

In a brief update the AIM-listed company said: "All areas of the business in the UK traded strongly in the previous year and this has been maintained into the current year." ITIS said it was also experiencing "substantial interest from overseas markets".

THE Merseyside-born boss who turned French cosmetics company L'Oreal into a corporate giant stepped down as its chief executive after 18 years today.

Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones - the only British head of a company listed on Paris's CAC 40 stock market - joined L'Oreal in 1969 as a sales representative.

He rose up the ranks, and under his leadership, L'Oreal has been transformed from a French hair products maker into the world's largest cosmetics company with an unbroken record of double-digit earnings growth. Tweet