Scots exports to UK and world up 5% to £81bn
Scotland’s international and rest of UK exports in 2017 (excluding oil and gas) rose 5.2% to £81.4 billion from the previous year. Exports to the…
2019
New North Sea gas discovery ‘biggest in decade’
Total and partners including China’s CNOOC have made a significant new gas discovery off the coast of Scotland at the North Sea Glengorm prospect about…
ScottishPower ‘in for £2bn Electricity North West’
ScottishPower — a subsidiary of Basque energy giant Iberdrola — may compete against foreign infrastructure investment funds in the race to buy £2 billion Warrington-based electricity…
Wood makes progress with $200m assets sale
Aberdeen-based engineering and oil services giant Wood plc on Monday announced further progress with its $200m non-core asset disposal programme. In December, Wood agreed the…
Nucleus assets hits £14bn despite Q4 market woes
Edinburgh-based funds platform Nucleus Financial Group Limited on Monday published an update on its assets under administration (AUA) in respect of the 12-month period to…
Irn-Bru maker Barr expects £277m revenue
Cumbernauld-based Irn-Bru maker A.G. Barr said on Friday it expects its full-year revenue to rise about 5% to around £277 million. Barr, which also produces…
PwC Scotland to hire 100 in digital tech expansion
PwC said on Thursday it is embarking on a “significant” expansion of its Scottish operations with more than 100 staff expected to be recruited over…
Scottish Water’s Business Stream in Yorkshire deal
Edinburgh-based water retailer Business Stream, a subsidiary of state-owned Scottish Water, said on Thursday it bought the customer base of its competitors Yorkshire Water Business…
Private schools ‘save Edinburgh Council £46m’
A report launched on Thursday says Edinburgh’s 10 independent schools made an economic contribution of £125 million gross value added (GVA) in 2017-18, supporting 3,000 jobs. The…
Aberdeen Standard takes on Mitchells & Butlers board
Edinburgh-based investment giant Aberdeen Standard Investments said it voted against the re-election of the chair of the board at the annual general meeting of pubs group…
Glasgow Housing Association boosts GDP by £2bn
Glasgow Housing Association’s investment programme for the past 15 years – the biggest of its kind in Europe – has boosted Scotland’s gross domestic product…
Late-year rush to sell Edinburgh area homes
The average selling price of homes in east central Scotland — Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife — rose 4.9% to £241,827 in 2018, according to the…
RBS moves to buy back shares from Government
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said on Thursday afternoon it will seek authority from shareholders to buy back RBS shares owned by the UK Government…
Baillie Gifford appoints new partners as three retire
Edinburgh-based fund management giant Baillie Gifford on Thursday announced the appointment of two new partners, effective May 1, 2019, and the retirement of three partners….
Overseas tourist spend in Scotland rises to £2.25bn
There was a 14.3% increase in overseas overnight visits to Scotland — from 3.1 million to 3.5 million — in the 12 months to the…
Hunter, Cala, in 3,450-home, £1bn Winchburgh plan
Tom Hunter’s West Coast Capital (WCC) has agreed a joint venture with Cala Homes to help create a £1 billion housing and schools development —…
Menzies takeover gets OK as pension deficit cut
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared Edinburgh-based Menzies Aviation’s takeover of part of Airline Services’ business after an in-depth investigation allayed competition…
Grangemouth operator Ineos in €3bn Belgium move
Grangemouth refinery operator Ineos announced that Antwerp, Belgium, will be the location for its €3 billion project for an ethane gas cracker and world-scale PDH…
Aberdeen Standard in Singapore Life investment
Edinburgh-based investment giant Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has made a $13 million minority equity investment in Singapore Life Pte. Ltd., a digitally-focused life insurance company…
Edinburgh Airport passengers top record 14m
Edinburgh Airport has recorded the busiest ever year for a Scottish airport with more than 14 million people passing through its doors in 2018. A…
Extra £100m for smaller Scots businesses
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across Scotland will be able to access more than £100 million to help them expand and access investment through the…
Goals Soccer shares fall after profit warning
Shares of East Kilbride-based Goals Soccer Centres plc fell about 15% on Monday after it said “outturn for 2018 is disappointing” and it now expects…
SSE completes £1bn Caithness-Moray link
Perth-based energy giant SSE said on Friday its subsidiary Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Transmission (SSEN Transmission) has completed the new £1 billion Caithness-Moray electricity transmission…
Quiz shares fall another 30% on revenue warning
Shares of Glasgow-based fashion firm Quiz fell as much as 30% on Friday after it said overall sales for the Christmas trading period were “below expectations”…
Baillie Gifford to open Shanghai office – reports
Edinburgh-based fund management giant Baillie Gifford is set to open an office in Shanghai in the coming months as it moves to beef up its…
Aberdeen Standard invests £40m in Welsh rail
Aberdeen Standard Investments said its infrastructure debt team has lent £40 million to the Wales and Borders rail franchise for essential upgrades to its rolling…
Aberdeen Standard, Virgin seal investment JV
Aberdeen Standard Investments and CYBG’s Virgin Money announced on Wednesday they have sealed a new investments and pensions joint venture. The venture will build on Virgin…
Scots job market stronger than UK
The latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs said permanent staff appointments in Scotland increased at a “marked rate” at the end of 2018…
Faroe tells shareholders to accept £642m DNO bid
UPDATE 3 — Norwegian oil and gas company DNO on Wednesday looked set to win control of Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum a day after raising its…
Wood Mackenzie expects North Sea ‘bumper year’
Consultancy Wood Mackenzie has said the North Sea oil industry will stage a recovery in exploration drilling and healthy levels of mergers and acquisitions this…
Profit at rented housing firm Sigma to rise 205%
Shares of Edinburgh-based rented housing developer Sigma Capital Group rose about 4% on Tuesday after it published a trading update for the financial year ended December 31,…
BP ‘mulls sale of North Sea Shearwater stake’
BP is considering selling its stake in the large Shearwater project in the North Sea as it focuses on new investments in the area and…
Scottish Water’s Business Stream in Lloyds deal
Edinburgh-based water retailer Business Stream, a subsidiary of state-owned Scottish Water, said on Monday it secured a new three-year water supply contract with Lloyds Banking…
Tay Deal’s extra £50m for new Perth road, bridge
The Scottish Government has announced an additional £50 million investment in the Tay cities region that will support manufacturing businesses and the delivery of the…
Edinburgh Tram passengers up 10% to 7.3 million
Figures released on Monday show more than 7.3 million customer journeys were recorded on Edinburgh Trams in 2018 — an increase of 10% on 2017….
UK central bank appoints Bowe, Gadhia
The Bank of England, the UK’s central bank, said Colette Bowe and Jayne-Anne Gadhia have been appointed as external members of its Financial Policy Committee…
DNO ups Faroe stake to 30%, extends bid deadline
Norwegian oil and gas company DNO said on Thursday it has increased its shareholding in Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum to 30% and that its hostile £610 million cash takeover…
DNO bid ‘substantially undervalues’ Faroe – report
Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum — which has rejected a hostile £610 million cash takeover bid from Norwegian oil and gas company DNO — on Wednesday published “an independent current valuation…
Drax completes £702m ScottishPower acquisition
Selby, North Yorkshire-based power company Drax Group plc said on Wednesday it completed the acquisition of ScottishPower’s portfolio of pumped storage, hydro and gas-fired generation….