Scottish Financial Review

Edinburgh investment giant Abrdn has announced it will sell 40 million of its 144 million shares in life and pensions consolidator Phoenix Group Holdings plc to institutional…

Standard Life Private Equity Trust plc — soon to be renamed Abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust plc — has reported a record annual share price…

Forth Ports, which owns and operates eight commercial ports across the UK, has announced three new leadership roles as it restructures its senior team “to…

John Menzies plc, the Edinburgh-based global aviation logistics specialist, said on Thursday it has decided to change its presentational currency to US dollars “better reflecting…

TSB Bank plc said on Thursday it made a statutory profit before tax for 2021 of £157.5 million compared to a pre-tax statutory loss of…

Abrdn has announced the appointment of former Virgin Money and Barclays executive Paul Titterton as head of digital solutions for its personal wealth business. Titterton…

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it is investigating the anticipated merger between National Express Group plc and Stagecoach Group plc. National Express…

Scotland’s onshore economic output is now estimated to be back above pre-pandemic levels, according to new figures published by the Chief Statistician. The figures show…

Shares of Edinburgh-based Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising university intellectual property, rose about 6% after it said it sold 183,901 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of…

By Mark McSherry Shares of the tech-focused £1.1 billion Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust plc rose as much as 5% after the closed-end fund company…

Heart of Midlothian Football Club chair Ann Budge has sold 654,621 of her shares Linlithgow-based telecoms testing and measurement firm Calnex Solutions plc at £1.25 per share…

Edinburgh-based specialist consumer brand investor Inverleith LLP has acquired a majority stake in craft gin and Scotch whisky company Eden Mill St Andrews. The gin and…

Toronto-based renewable energy developer Amp Energy announced it will create Europe’s two biggest battery storage facilities with a 800 MW battery portfolio in central Scotland called the Scottish Green Battery…

Scottish Water CEO Douglas Millican is to step down next year after 10 years in the role and 20 years on the publicly owned organisation’s…

Shares of Edinburgh-based Capricorn Energy — formerly Cairn Energy — rose about 7% on Tuesday after it published an update on its trading performance together with…

Martin Gilbert’s investment firm AssetCo plc said on Tuesday it agreed an all-share deal worth £99.8 million to buy fund manager River & Mercantile Group (RMG)….

Edinburgh asset management giant Abrdn has confirmed reports that it is exploring how it can enable individual and institutional investors to buy “tokens” in buildings,…

Interest payments on UK central government debt were £8.1 billion in December 2021, a December record and £5.4 billion more than in December 2020, according…

Salmon Scotland — formerly the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) — has protested strongly against huge rent increases for salmon farmers announced on Tuesday by…

UK company share dividends soared 46.1% in 2021 to £94.1 billion on a headline basis, according to the latest Dividend Monitor report from Link Group….

Edinburgh-based accessories brand Strathberry has announced a partnership with growth capital investor BGF after securing an £8 million investment to support its future growth plans. Founded…

The board of family-run Walker’s Shortbread Ltd announced that Nicky Walker has been appointed managing director with immediate effect and that Bryony Walker has been…

Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) chairman Bob Downes confirmed on Friday that chief executive Terry A’Hearn has stepped down and left his position “following conduct…

Virgin Money announced the appointment of Susan Poot as Group Chief Risk Officer with effect from January 24, 2022. Poot will succeed current Group Chief…

Edinburgh-based investment group Abrdn and its 60%-owned property and logistics investment fund Tritax announced they will provide up to £2 billion of private funding for…

Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, said it has concluded a £1.7 billion bulk purchase annuity (BPA) transaction covering all members of the Gallaher Pension…

The Auditor General for Scotland Stephen Boyle has said the Scottish Government needs to take “urgent action” to ensure essential progress in improving how workforce…

St Andrews University spinout firm Pneumagen, a clinical stage biotech company, announced it has raised a further £3.8 million to advance clinical development and manufacturing of…

Edinburgh-based Artisanal Spirits Company plc (ASC), owner of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), said on Thursday it expects to report that 2021 revenue grew…

International real estate consultancy Avison Young has predicted that economic growth in Edinburgh and Glasgow will more than double in 2022 and that Scotland’s largest…

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust plc, Baillie Gifford’s flagship fund, announced on Thursday it has raised a further $400 million of long-term borrowings. In a new private…

Scotland’s GDP is expected to grow by 4.8% this year, according to new analysis by KPMG UK. With Omicron posing a milder setback than earlier…

Alva-based Omega Diagnostics Group said on Wednesday that CEO Colin King notified the board that he will step down from his position with immediate effect. Omega…

Asset custody and investment tech firm Seccl has announced that former Nucleus Financial Group chief executive David Ferguson will join Seccl as its new CEO,…

New research from Savills shows that the Scottish hotel market saw investment volumes reach £185 million in 2021 — a 166% increase on the £70…

Martin Gilbert’s investment firm AssetCo plc has been given another extension to the deadline by which it must make an offer for fund manager River and…

Crown Estate Scotland on Monday announced the outcome of its application process for ScotWind Leasing — the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade. It said a total of just…

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Financial Enterprise chair Philip Grant are to co-chair a “refocussed” national board to “ensure the crucial role of financial…

Shares of Glasgow-based fashion firm Quiz rose about 11% on Friday as it published an update for the month of December 2021 and its current…

Shares of Scotgold Resources Limited, the Australia-based gold exploration firm focused on Scotland, rose as much as 15% on Friday after the firm published a production…

ScottishPower — owned by Bilbao-based green energy giant Iberdrola — said it has signed two deals to acquire 17 solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in the…

SSE Renewables has announced plans to enter bids into the upcoming tenders for the 1.4GW Hollandse Kust (west) Wind Farm Zone in the Netherlands which…

The latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs from IHS Market shows that permanent staff appointments in Scotland rose in December at the steepest…

Swiss private markets firm Partners Group has agreed to acquire Aberdeen-based North Star, the operator of specialized vessels for emergency response and essential offshore wind…

Premier Miton Group announced it has withdrawn from acquisition discussions with the board of fund manager River and Mercantile Group (RMG). This leaves Martin Gilbert’s investment firm AssetCo…

Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, said it has completed a £1.8 billion Bulk Purchase Annuity (BPA) transaction covering 6,600 pensioner members of the Imperial…

Shares of Aberdeen-based global engineering and consulting giant Wood plc rose more than 20% on Thursday after it announced it has started a “full sale…

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re has sold its remaining 6.6% shareholding in closed life and pension fund consolidator Phoenix Group Holdings by selling 66,199,917 ordinary shares…

The membership of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has elected former Standard Life Investments head of investment companies Gordon Humphries and Fidelity International’s head of…

Shares of Edinburgh-based Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising university intellectual property, rose about 4% on Wednesday after the firm said it enjoyed a strong…

Scientists at the MRC Human Genetics Unit of Edinburgh University and the Roslin Institute have launched a spinout company that aims to democratise genetic data…

Aberdeen-based global engineering and consulting group Wood plc announced it secured $580 million of contracts in the Middle East and won another deal in Chile to support…

Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, announced it will move £15 billion of assets and 1.5 million pension customers to a “sustainable default strategy.” Standard Life…

Merrill Lynch International (BofA Securities) said on Tuesday it has been appointed by Swiss Re as sole bookrunner for a proposed secondary sale of approximately…

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority announced it will launch two market studies “and gather further information” to investigate access to wholesale data in financial markets…

Closed life and pension fund consolidator Phoenix Group Holdings plc, owner of the “old” Standard Life Assurance, announced that it completed four Bulk Purchase Annuity (BPA)…

Linlithgow-based telecoms testing and measurement firm Calnex Solutions plc on Tuesday announced the appointments of corporate veterans Margaret Rice-Jones and Stephen Davidson as non-executive directors of the…

Edinburgh-based investment giant Baillie Gifford has appointed Ross Mathison as a portfolio manager of its Global Income Growth Fund and Responsible Global Equity Income Fund,…

Edinburgh-based upmarket home builder Cala Group, currently owned by Legal & General, announced it has rebounded strongly to exceed pre-pandemic housing delivery volumes with an expected record…

Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two Interactive has agreed to buy Farmville creator Zynga in a shares and cash deal worth about $11 billion. The deal is one of…

The Scottish private sector recorded yet another upturn in activity in December 2021, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)…

NatWest Group, the bank formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland, has appointed ex-Linklaters boss Gideon Moore as chief legal officer and general counsel. Moore…

Baillie Gifford’s £1 billion Schiehallion Fund was the best performing investment trust of 2021 with a price total return of 103.3% as private equity trusts dominated…

Aberdeen-based mechanical engineering group EnerMech said on Thursday it was awarded over £500 million of business in 2021 with new and existing clients and has increased its…

Edinburgh-based Capricorn Energy — formerly Cairn Energy — announced on Thursday it has withdrawn all global legal proceedings against the government of India, a move…

The latest data from Mercer’s Pensions Risk Survey shows that the accounting deficit of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes for the UK’s 350 largest listed…

By Mark McSherry Scottish businessman and investor Jim Rowan is to join Volvo Cars on March 21, 2022, as CEO & President, the company said. Rowan,…

The £800 million Abrdn UK Smaller Companies Growth Trust plc and Baillie Gifford’s £1 billion Scottish American Investment Company plc were among the best performing investment trusts of…

Glasgow-based packaging firm Macfarlane Group has announced the sale of its Macfarlane Labels Limited division to The Reflex Group Limited for £6.4 million. Macfarlane said…

Glasgow-based global engineering and mining giant Weir Group announced on Friday a major commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in which the group will…