UK set to approve Leonardo military helicopter contract

Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reevesis set to award a contract to Italian defence company Leonardo LDOF.MI to build a new fleet of military helicopters, a Treasury source said on Friday.

Without a new contract, Leonardo had said it could shut Britain’s last military helicopter manufacturing site, in Yeovil, southwest England, threatening the jobs of the 3,000 people who work there.

The deal, worth as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.35 billion), had appeared to be up in the...