Richard Branson has injected £11m into Virgin Orbit after it failed to secure additional funding and announced it is laying off 675 staff.
The satellite-launch company will cut about 85pc of its workforce.
However, chief executive Dan Hart is racing to secure last-minute investment into the business to keep it afloat, according to the Financial Times.
5 things to start your day
1) State pension age ‘should rise to 69’ to stop Treasury overspending | Independent report recommends a cap on state pension spending
2) Morrisons starts £700m cost cutting drive as it struggles to grow sales | Additional price cuts come as German discounters continue to take market share
3) BBC to cut original programming by 1,000 hours as funding black hole expands | Deepest cuts to hit BBC Four’s arts and culture shows
4) Treasury criticised for advertising head of cyber security job with ‘peanuts’ salary | Government needs to have ‘grown up conversation’ on pay, ex-GCHQ chief says
5) Gas boiler manufacturers face £5,000 fines for missing heat pump targets |‘Soviet-style’ quotas come as ministers plan to overhaul subsidy rules
What happened overnight
Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher Friday ahead of a United States inflation update traders hope might prompt the Federal Reserve to ease plans for more interest rate hikes.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices declined.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3pc to 3,269.83 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.1pc to 20,532.33.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advanced 1pc to 28,046.75 after government data showed factory output rebounded and retail sales rose in February.
The Kospi in Seoul added 0.9pc to 2,475.69 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 was 0.8pc higher at 7,176.00.
New Zealand declined while Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia advanced.
Wall Street’s main equity indexes were lifted by gains in technology stocks, which offset falls in regional bank shares after President Joe Biden proposed tighter rules for mid-sized lenders to avoid a repeat of Silicon Valley Bank.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.4pc at 32,859.03, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.6pc to 4,050.83. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite closed 0.7pc higher at 12,013.47.
The benchmark 10-year yield dipped by two basis points to 3.55pc from 3.57pc late on Wednesday. The policy sensitive two-year yield climbed three basis points to yield 4.11pc.
