Scottish Business Briefing - Monday 26 October 2009

Published on Monday 26 October 2009 08:20

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 & INSURANCE

Expected profits set to keep Canada offshoot in Standard Life portfolio

STANDARD Life is understood to have given a strong internal vote of confidence to its long-standing Canadian operation against the backcloth of reports that it was considering a sale (Scotsman). It is believed both the current chief executive of the Edinburgh-based life assurer, Sir Sandy Crombie, and newly announced successor David Nish are agreed that Canada remains a core part of the business.However, industry sources say Standard Life continues to keep an open mind about selling Standard Life Bank.

Rensburg: We didn't break rules in BoS appointments

RENSBURG Sheppards chief executive Stephen Elliot has denied the company breached confidentiality agreements when it poached a team of private client bankers from Bank of Scotland (Scotsman). Lloyds Banking Group is understood to have threatened the Leeds-based group with legal action over the defection of eight managers, claiming breaches of contracts signed when Rensburg was looking at buying portfolios managed by the bankers. However, Elliot said yesterday that the company had not acted illegally and was confident of its position.

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

ECONOMY

FTSE bosses 'get big salary rise'

The bosses of Britain's top firms have seen a sharp rise in salaries but bonuses have fallen, research suggests (BBC). FTSE 100 chief executives saw average salary rises of 7.4% over the past year - several times the rate of inflation, Incomes Data Services (IDS) found. The pay analysts also said bosses' average bonuses were more than 500,000, although the payouts had fallen by 29% in the past year. The net effect of this was a 1.5% drop in directors' overall remuneration. The fall in bosses' average bonus payments was the largest slump in their growth for a decade, IDS said.

Read all today's economics news from scotsman.com

PERSONAL FINANCE

Plan for larger state role in bankruptcy cases attacked

Plans to part-nationalise the management of personal bankruptcy have been attacked by insolvency practitioners and money advisers who say they could lead to job cuts and a poorer service (Herald).The Scottish Government is proposing to launch a subsidised trust deed service at a fee of less than 20% of the private sector cost. The proposal is part of a consultation on home repossessions, issued by SNP MSP Fergus Ewing in response to a report in June by a debt action forum he established at the start of the year, but it has not been announced and not discussed in the forum.

Read all today's personal finance news from scotsman.com

RETAIL

Matalan takeover may be in store

MATALAN, the privately owned budget fashion and homewares chain, is believed to have received a takeover approach from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

Industry sources said that the approach was "very tentative", although a spokesman for CVC declined to comment, and nobody from Matalan was available (Scotsman). It is believed no auction of the retailer has started yet, but it is widely thought one will begin

early next year. The move comes amid unconfirmed reports that Matalan has hired management consultancy giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers to advise it on a possible 1.5 billion sale.

Sportswear chain eyes Powerleague

JD SPORTS is said to be considering gatecrashing the 42.5 million takeover of Britain's biggest operator of five-a-side football centres, Powerleague (Scotsman). JD, a sports fashion firm, is thought to be advised by Investec. Powerleague has already agreed a takeover by Patron Capital, its biggest shareholder, with shareholders due to vote on the acquisition at an EGM next month. Sources said the plan, if an alternative deal does materialise, was for JD to put sports shops in the centres.

Read all today's retail news from scotsman.com

Scotsman Business Club

Get to the heart of the issues affecting Scottish business at www.scotsman.com/businessclub. Features include blogs from The Scotsman's formidable team of business writers - including Bill Jamieson, Martin Flanagan, Peter MacMahon and Scott Reid, a diary of forthcoming company announcements and networking events and video interviews with leading business experts covering a wide range of useful topics."