More bus passengers paid with contactless and mobile apps rather than cash on FirstGroup's local bus routes for the first time in its history, the company has revealed.

According to bosses, 43% of payments were made by cash, with 45% made through non-cash methods.

The remainder came from ticket sales via third parties.
The detail came as FirstGroup said it sank to a £187.1 million pretax loss in the six months to September 30 due to ongoing problems in its US Greyhound coach business.

On the company's preferred underlying basis, which excludes one-off costs, it recorded a pretax profit of £28.7 million.

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The company is in the process of selling the Greyhound division and chief executive Matthew Gregory said several interested parties have come forward, with management talking in detail with a handful of suitors.

He added: "We've had huge amounts of interest in the process. Everyone knows the business very well, so this is not an unknown technology or small technology that people understand.

"We expected a lot of people to have a look at it and the best people get to the front. As always, these things are never done until they're done."

UP to £50 million is reportedly set to be wiped off Rangers' tax bill after HM Revenue & Customs admitted it had claimed for too much.

According to a report in the Times newspaper, a mistake by the taxman is now being blamed for the Ibrox club's financial meltdown.

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The newspaper says it is now believed that the outstanding bill for using an offshore trust to pay Rangers players and staff is likely to be £20m.

Former Rangers chairman John McClelland said confusion over the club's tax burden had deterred potential investors when the club was put up for sale in 2011, and ultimately culminated in the operating company's collapse under controversial businessman Craig Whyte, who had bought it for £1.

Burberry said it is renegotiating leases with landlords in Hong Kong after ongoing protests led to a massive drop in sales in the city.

The British fashion house said sales in the region declined by double digits in the first six months of the year, and warned that more was yet to come.

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"We ... expect sales in Hong Kong to remain under pressure," the company said in a statement to the market on Thursday.

Hong Kong sales accounted for 8% of global sales before the protests.

The figure dropped to 5% in the most recent quarter, chief financial officer Julie Brown said on a call with reporters.

She said the group had been forced to close some stores to keep staff safe but none had been damaged.

She did not reveal any plans to close stores permanently; however, she said the group is trying to renegotiate leases with landlords.

Despite these pressures, and against what some analysts were expecting, the company still managed to increase adjusted operating profit by 14% over the period to £203 million.

Revenue grew 5% to £1.3 billion.