Monday business round-up: Six key stories of the day

MB Aerospace chief executive Craig Gallagher

Private equity firm Blackstone struck a deal to buy Motherwell-based MB Aerospace from Arlington Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. The engineer, which makes and repairs aero-engine components, was spun out of Motherwell Bridge in 2007 via a management buy-out led by chief executive Craig Gallagher, who is to remain in charge.

Royal Bank of Scotland became the first bank in the world to adopt the Facebook At Work social networking service for its employees. The Edinburgh-based lender said the business-focused version of the social network will be available to its 100,000 staff to help them work together “faster and more efficiently”.

Travel search engine Skyscanner said it had opened three new offices and appointed Bryan Dove – formerly director of engineering at Amazon’s S3 online file storage service – as senior vice-president of engineering. The Edinburgh-based firm, founded in 2003, now has ten offices and more than 700 staff around the world.

Ayr-based AvantiCell Science won “game changing” European funding of almost €2.1 million (£1.5m) to develop three-dimensional printed cell models. The company secured the cash injection after fighting off competition from all over Europe to be chosen for the second phase of the Horizon 2020 SME instrument project.

Life sciences firm Omega Diagnostics said it was on track to grow turnover by 11 per cent to £6.15m in the first half of the year as it works to resolve an issue with its kit that checks the immune systems of HIV patients.

Football pools operator Sportech, which has its roots in Edinburgh, started the search for a new finance chief after Cliff Baty, who joined the board in 2013 from bookmaker Ladbrokes, said he would be leaving to become chief financial officer at Manchester United.