Scottish Financial Review

Edinburgh-based Artisanal Spirits Company plc (ASC), owner of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), said its revenue increased 25% to £9.9 million in the six months…

Scotland’s unemployment rate fell to a record low of 3.1% between May and July, according to the latest report from the Office for National Statistics…

Edinburgh-based ready meals firm Parsley Box Group plc — which serves the over 65 demographic — said its pretax loss narrowed to £2.7 million in the six months…

Glasgow-based Smart Metering Systems plc (SMS) announced its revenue rose 21% to £62.7 million in the six months ended June 30, 2022, and profit before…

Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn announced it sold another chunk of its shareholding in HDFC Life Insurance Company in India. It said its Abrdn (Mauritius Holdings) 2006 Limited…

Shares of Beeks Financial Cloud Group plc, the Glasgow-based connectivity provider for financial markets, rose about 6% after it confirmed that the first customer for…

Purchases of investment trusts on adviser platforms for first half of 2022 hit £700 million, the highest ever for a six-month period, according to data…

New UK prime minister Liz Truss has announced an estimated £150 billion plan to protect the British public from soaring energy prices for two years. However,…

Data for August has revealed a renewed fall in permanent staff hires across Scotland, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs…

FirstGroup announced that First Bus has agreed to sell its First Scotland East business and all its routes in the area to McGill’s Group. The…

Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) has called for a “rapid acceleration of investment” into North Sea oil, gas and offshore wind — and a prompt announcement…

The Scottish Government has announced a combined rent freeze and moratorium on evictions to help people through the cost of living as the centrepiece of its…

Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, said it made two key appointments to its executive committee. The brands of Phoenix include…

Shares of Glasgow-based media firm STV Group plc rose about 5% on Tuesday after it said its first-half revenue rose 3% to £62.1 million, profit before…

Edinburgh-based Capricorn Energy said on Tuesday it is “exploring a number of expressions of interest relating to alternative transactions” to the all-share merger with London-based Tullow…

Thurso-based battery cell developer AMTE Power plc said on Tuesday that Alan Hollis has been appointed to its board and will become CEO “on or around”…

Incoming UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has agreed to plans to fix annual electricity and gas bills for a typical UK household at or below…

Abrdn UK Smaller Companies Growth Trust plc said that after 37 years with Standard Life and Abrdn, Harry Nimmo will retire from Abrdn at the…

Liz Truss will become the next prime minister of the UK after winning a leadership race for the UK’s Conservative party on Monday. Truss vowed…

Franklin Templeton’s Edinburgh-based active equity asset management specialist Martin Currie announced that Ben Russon and Richard Bullas will co-head Martin Currie’s UK Equity team effective October 1, 2022. Both will…

Thurso-based battery cell developer AMTE Power plc announced that its chief financial officer (CFO) James Hobson intends to leave the firm to take up the role…

Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard, announced a “robust” performance for the year to June 30 that it said reflected “the significant…

Institute of Directors (IoD) Scotland has announced Catherine McWilliam as its new Director of Nations – Scotland. McWilliam succeeds previous national director, Louise Macdonald OBE, who…

Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) has announced a new chair along with other appointments to a new-look board. SFE said current deputy chair John McGuigan will…

Index compiler FTSE Russell confirmed on Wednesday that Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn will drop out of the FTSE 100 index as a result of its…

Former whisky executive Iain Baxter has been announced as the new chief executive of industry leadership body Scotland Food & Drink. With a membership of…

The Scottish Land Commission has made key hires to add to its team of 19 staff working on policy and practice in shaping how Scotland’s…

This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe saw an estimated 2.2 million tickets sold for 3,334 shows which were performed by artists from 63 countries. That’s down…

The UK’s two banking regulators said on Friday they would take no enforcement action against certain former senior managers at HBOS, which collapsed in 2008….

New figures from Scottish Development International (SDI) show that support it provided to companies across Scotland in the past financial year will result in £1.44 billion…

British energy bills will soar 80% to an average of £3,549 a year from October, UK regulator Ofgem said on Friday. Ofgem called the situation…

Glasgow-based cloud computing firm Iomart Group announced the appointment of Lucy Dimes as non-executive chair of the company, with effect from its AGM on August…

Shares of Macfarlane Group, the Glasgow-based packaging, design and distribution firm, fell about 4% on Thursday after it published half-year results warning that it expects…

Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn may be demoted from the FTSE 100 index at the next quarterly review, according to indicative results announced by index compiler…

Scotland’s public sector revenue has been estimated at £73.8 billion for 2021-22 — up a record £11.1 billion from the previous year. Scottish public spending…

SSE Renewables and its partner TotalEnergies announced first power generation from the Seagreen offshore wind farm 27km off the coast of Angus in Scotland. The…

Scottish law firm Burness Paull said it reported “strong” results for the year ended July 31, the second of the firm’s three-year strategy that is…

Aberdeen-based global engineering and consulting giant John Wood Group said on Tuesday its order book rose 5% to $6.42 billion but revenue was flat at…

Consumer price inflation in the UK is set to peak at 18.6% — which is nine times the target of the UK’s central bank —…

Edinburgh and London-based private bank Hampden & Co said its deposits rose 21% to £731 million as it reported record results for the first half of the…

The chief executive of SSE plc, the Perth-based renewable energy and power networks giant, has said the UK government “can smooth energy costs for households beyond what industry…

The debt of the UK government was £2.388 trillion at the end of July 2022 — an increase of £188.4 billion compared with July 2021…

The Scottish Government announced that more rural homes and businesses will gain access to faster broadband following a further £36 million expansion of the Reaching…

Scottish Enterprise announced it invested £50.71 million into 102 early-stage high growth investment opportunities in 2021-22. The enterprise agency said its investments helped leverage a…

By Mark McSherry The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that high inflation will cause interest payments on the UK government’s debt in 2023-24…

Linlithgow-based telecoms testing and measurement firm Calnex Solutions plc said on Wednesday it has made “solid progress against its strategy” in the first few months of the…

Shares of Aberdeen-based bus and rail giant FirstGroup plc fell about 11% to around £1.15 on Tuesday after infrastructure private equity group I Squared Capital Advisors…

Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn announced it sold another 6% of HDFC Asset Management Company Limited (HDFC AMC) in India to raise £225 million. The Edinburgh firm…

The five Scottish Premiership clubs that commissioned Deloitte’s Sports Business Group to conduct an independent review into the SPFL have welcomed the review’s action plan…

International sales of Scottish salmon were valued at £280 million in the first half of 2022, with France accounting for more than half of the…

Closed life and pension fund consolidator Phoenix Group Holdings plc, owner of the “old” Standard Life Assurance, announced it posted record cash generation of £950 million…

Latest analysis by KPMG UK shows that private equity investment in Scotland’s mid-market businesses has surpassed pre-pandemic levels after more than £2 billion was spent…

“Delusional” central banks have been blamed by Bruce Stout, manager of Abrdn’s £1.77 billion Murray International Trust, for stoking global inflation with a “toxic cocktail…

Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn confirmed it has concluded a deal to become the largest external shareholder in Archax, the UK’s first regulated digital securities exchange. Abrdn…

Shell has launched a sale process for its 30% stake in the Cambo oil prospect west of Shetland in the UK North Sea, potentially paving the…

Glasgow investment firm N4 Partners has announced the appointment of Gordon Merrylees, the former Managing Director of Entrepreneurship for NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Ulster…

Finance Isle of Man announced it has signed a partnership agreement with FinTech Scotland “to promote and develop Insurtech and Fintech capabilities across the two…

By Mark McSherry The £600 million Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust plc announced its share price and net asset value (NAV) returned -45.5% and -35.3%…

Baillie Gifford’s £2.5 billion Monks Investment Trust plc announced it has agreed a proposed combination of the company with the assets of the much smaller Independent Investment…

ScottishPower and Hutchison Ports are exploring the opportunity to develop, build and operate a multi-hundred MW green hydrogen production facility at the Port of Felixstowe…

Shares of Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn fell about 7% on Tuesday after it published first-half results showing its assets under management and administration (AUMA) fell £34…

Business activity across the Scottish private sector increased at only a fractional pace during July, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland Purchasing Managers…

The UK needs to keep developing new oil and gas fields in the North Sea even as it develops major offshore wind and carbon capture and…

Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, said it has concluded a £1 billion Bulk Purchase Annuity (BPA) transaction covering 13,000 members of the WH Smith…

Edinburgh-based asset management giant Baillie Gifford announced it has placed 12 of its “UK authorised” funds on a watchlist for performance and will “monitor progress…

Royal London said it made a loss before tax of £228 million in the first half of 2022 compared to a £228 million profit for the…

Norway’s Equinor has submitted plans to UK regulators for the development of Rosebank, a major oilfield west of Shetland which would start production in late…

Shares of Thurso-based battery cell developer AMTE Power rose almost 20% on Friday after it announced it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with automotive engineering…

By Mark McSherry The £571 million cash takeover of Edinburgh-based airport logistics giant John Menzies plc by Kuwait-based National Aviation Services (NAS), a subsidiary of Agility Public Warehousing…

The UK’s central bank on Thursday announced its biggest interest rate hike in 27 years and warned the UK is heading for more than a year…