Scottish Business Briefing – Thursday October 4th 2012

Published on 04/10/2012 08:39

WELCOME to scotsman.com’s Scottish Business Briefing. Every morning we bring you a comprehensive round-up of all news affecting business in Scotland today.

BANKING

RBS has a direct line to buyers for full tranche of shares for sale

ROYAL Bank of Scotland is said to have found buyers for the full 33 per cent stake of Direct Line it is selling to stock market investors, just three days into a nine-day marketing drive.

(Scotsman)

Read all today’s banking news from scotsman.com

ENERGY & UTILITIES

ITS Group hails rise in turnover

International oil services firm ITS Group announced yesterday big increases in turnover and profits following an improvement in market conditions. Aberdeen-based ITS provides drilling equipment and services through a network of 29 facilities in 18 countries

(P&J)

{http://www.scotsman.com/business/energy-and-utilitiesRead all today’s energy and utilities news from scotsman.com|Link to energy news}

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Food and drink could rival oil and gas as Scotland’s biggest export

FOOD and drink could be set to “rival” oil and gas as Scotland’s biggest export, with nearly half of the country’s producers eyeing up new overseas markets for everything from whisky and water to salmon, crabs and beef.

(Scotsman)

Irn-Bru maker gets extension for takeover talks

IRN-Bru maker AG Barr and Pepsi bottler Britvic were yesterday granted extra time to continue their merger talks amid reports that the pair cannot agree whether to call the new entity “Barr Britvic” or “Britvic Barr”.

(Scotsman)

Read all today’s food, drink and agriculture news from scotsman.com

RETAIL

Olympics and Tour de France boost Halfords bike sales

Halfords has said that its sales of bicycles and accessories were boosted by British successes in the Tour de France and Olympic cycling. Overall like-for-like sales were up 5.6% in the quarter, following a 5.6% fall in sales the previous quarter.

(BBC)

Read all today’s retail news from scotsman.com

TRANSPORT

Franchise fiasco wipes more than £200m off FirstGroup’s value

ALMOST £250 million was wiped off FirstGroup’s market value yesterday as analysts warned that the west coast rail line franchise fiasco could weaken the Aberdeen-based transport group’s balance sheet and may trigger further asset sales or even a rights issue.

(Scotsman)

Read all today’s transport news from scotsman.com