Scottish Business Briefing - Thursday 2 July, 2009

Published on Thursday 2 July 2009 09:22

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.

ECONOMY

Scottish companies facing a continued slump in exports

SCOTLAND'S embattled manufacturing sector was dealt a further blow yesterday as official economic data revealed that Scottish export sales had fallen for the third successive quarter (Scotsman). But the gloomy Scottish Government data was counteracted by a more upbeat report in the latest UK PMI survey from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (Cips). It revealed the slowest fall in activity in more than a year. However, the picture north of the Border was less positive, with manufactured export sales falling 3.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the final three months of last year.

Read all today's economics news from scotsman.com

BANKING & INSURANCE

Credit card cheques to be banned

Credit card cheques are set to be banned as part of plans for consumer protection due to be unveiled later (BBC). Measures to assist people facing difficulties with debt and at risk from rogue traders during the recession are also expected to be announced. Figures from the Bank of England show that UK residents owe 233bn on credit cards, overdrafts and other loans. The government will unveil its plans - to be laid out in a White Paper - at 0930 BST.

Standard Chartered in talks with RBS to buy Asian assets

The sale of Royal Bank of Scotland's Asian assets is progressing after reports that talks have begun with Standard Chartered (Herald). Royal Bank, now 70%-owned by the taxpayer, is keen to divest much of its business in the region, which was largely acquired from its ill-fated purchase of ABN Amro in 2007. But it does want to retain its Chinese investment banking operations. "We are well advanced with the sale process, however, due to regulatory constraints and the confidentiality of the process, we will not comment on any individual bidders or elements of the transaction process until its completion," a Royal Bank spokeswoman said yesterday.

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Whisky loss leaves bitter taste

JOHNNIE Walker whisky bottle labels will have to change after parent company Diageo announced an overhaul that will see the closure of its last operation in the brand's home town of Kilmarnock (Scotsman). The whisky is set to lose its 189-year association with the town under plans to shut the packaging plant in a major re-structuring of Scottish operations that will see 900 job losses – 700 of them in Kilmarnock – in a bid to save about 40 million a year. The company announced yesterday its historic distillery at Port Dundas, Glasgow, which produced whisky since 1810, would also close.

Higher prices for drink 'will have serious impact' on jobs

SCOTTISH Government plans to impose a minimum price on alcohol will have a "serious impact" on 40,000 jobs in the drinks industry, the head of Scotland's largest privately owned whisky company has warned (Scotsman). Sir Ian Good, the chairman of Famous Grouse maker Edrington, gave the jobs warning as he attacked ministers' "ill-conceived" plans to use price rises to reduce alcohol consumption in Scotland.

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

TRANSPORT

First in the queue to take over east coast main line

SCOTTISH transport giant FirstGroup is in pole position to bid for Britain's most prestigious rail franchise, after troubled operator National Express signalled it was to pull out because of mounting losses (Scotsman). Ministers announced yesterday that they were to renationalise the east coast main line contract temporarily, as The Scotsman revealed in May. The move followed National Express admission that it would soon be unable to pay instalments towards the 1.4 billion it agreed to pay the government for the seven-year Scotland-London franchise.

Read all today's transport 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."