* DRAX: British power producer Drax said current finance chief Will Gardiner will be the next chief executive with effect from Jan. 1.

* COMPASS GROUP: Compass Group Plc, the world's biggest catering firm, said Richard Cousins would step down as chief executive effective March 31 and would be succeeded by Dominic Blakemore, currently chief operating officer for Europe.

* ANGLO AMERICAN: Volcan Investments, the family trust of the chairman of diversified miner Vedanta, on Wednesday said it was increasing its stake in Anglo American but did not intend to make a bid for the entire company.

* HOCHSCHILD MINING: Precious metals miner Hochschild Mining Plc is doubling down on efforts to find early-stage mining projects to acquire and is open to deposits that depart from its focus on silver and gold, the chief executive said on Wednesday.

* CRH PLC: Irish building materials firm CRH Plc said it would buy U.S. cement maker Ash Grove Cement Co in a $3.5 billion deal to expand in North America.

* RYANAIR: A significant number of Ryanair pilots have rejected a request to work additional days to alleviate a pilot shortage that has caused the cancellation of over 2,000 flights in the coming weeks, a source close to the pilots said on Wednesday.

* BRITAIN BANKS: Britain is in danger of losing its place in the financial world much in the same way Florence did after its Renaissance heyday, an industry group warned on Thursday.

* OIL: Oil markets dipped on Thursday, weighed down by rising crude inventories and production in the United States as well as a stronger dollar, which potentially hampers fuel consumption in countries that use other currencies at home.

* EX-DIVS: Old Mutual and Taylor Wimpey will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 0.94 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations.

* The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index ended the day down 0.1 percent at 7,271.95 points on Wednesday, as a jump in sterling weighed on the index, after unexpectedly buoyant retail data for August prompted investors to prepare for an interest rate hike by the bank of England as early as November.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

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> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : http://topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Siju Varghese)