Scottish Business Briefing - Thursday 29 July, 2010

Published on Thursday 29 July 2010 09:48

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

SLI forges a 'strategic alliance' with Japanese

STANDARD Life Investments (SLI) is teaming up with one of the largest trust banks in Japan in a partnership that will give the Edinburgh-based fund manager a major foothold in the country's huge retail and household savings market (Scotsman). The strategic alliance brings together SLI's 146 billion of funds under management, and Chuo Mitsui Asset Trust and Banking's reciprocal asset management services.

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

ECONOMY

House price inflation eases again, says Nationwide

House price inflation in the UK continued to ease off in July, the Nationwide building society has said (BBC). Its latest monthly survey shows that prices fell by 0.5% this month, taking the annual rate of house price inflation down from 8.7% to 6.6%. The price of the average home is now 169,347, almost the same as it was in July 2008.

Read all today's economics news from scotsman.com

ENERGY & UTILITIES

Bullish Centrica eyes fresh move on US markets

SCOTTISH Gas-owning Centrica will hit the acquisition trail in America over the next few years, the energy group revealed yesterday as it booked a two-thirds surge in first-half profits to 1.6 billion (Scotsman). The much better trading performance included a near-doubling of profits at Scottish/British Gas's household energy business as a result of the exceptionally harsh winter, and the acquisition last year of Aberdeen-based energy explorer Venture Production as well as a 20 per cent stake in French-owned nuclear group British Energy.

Royal Dutch Shell profits almost double

Second-quarter profits at oil giant Royal Dutch Shell have almost doubled after the firm completed a year-long corporate restructuring programme (BBC). The firm reported profits of $4.5bn (2.9bn) on a current cost of supplies basis, up from $2.3bn a year ago.

Read all today's energy and utilities news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Whisky giant sees profits slide

PROFITS at Glenmorangie plummeted by 68 per cent in 2009 after the distiller continued to restructure its business following the disposal of its blended whisky arm (Scotsman). Accounts filed at Companies House showed that turnover at the firm - which is owned by French luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton Mot Hennessy - fell from 112.6 million in 2008 to 64.9m following the sale of the Glen Moray distillery and head office at Broxburn, West Lothian.

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

MEDIA & LEISURE

BSkyB profits from high definition services

Satellite TV group BSkyB has reported a sharp jump in annual profits, driven by new subscriptions, particularly for high definition (HD) services (BBC). Profit for the year to the end of June came in at 878m, up more than threefold on the 259m the broadcaster made in the previous 12 months.

Read all today's media and leisure news from scotsman.com

Entrepreneur

Be inspired and communicate with other Scottish entrepreneursat http://entrepreneur.scotsman.com. Features includeupdates from The Scotsman's Executive Editor Bill Jamieson, a diary of forthcoming company announcements and networking events and videoadvice on how to succeed with your new business start-up.