Scottish Business Briefing - Wednesday 01 July 2009

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 09:32

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

Lloyds and RBS face fire sale of their assets

BRITAIN'S semi-nationalised banks Lloyds and RBS may be forced to engage in a fire sale of parts of their businesses as the price for their multi-billion-pound government bail-outs, it was claimed last night (Scotsman). The fears emerged on the day that the Lloyds Banking Group – 43 per cent owned by the taxpayer – announced a further 2,100 job cuts across the UK, including more than 350 in Scotland. The giant bank could now be forced to sell off brands such as the Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows as a condition for its taxpayer-funded rescue.

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

ENERGY & UTILITIES

Petrofac remains busy in North Sea despite oil prices

Petrofac, the oil services giant that is a big employer in Aberdeen, said it remained busy in the North Sea despite the fall in oil prices since last summer as it prepared to increase production in the area (Herald). Announcing that it had made a good start to the year, Petrofac confirmed that operations including offshore engineering have been performing broadly in line with expectations. These have a big presence off Scotland. While the fall in oil prices from a record $ 147 a barrel in July to around $70 currently has prompted operators to look to cut costs Petrofac has not found that this has resulted in them reducing investment in existing assets.

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

INDUSTRY

Scots jobs face axe as MoD looks to scale back naval shipbuilding

TWO Royal Navy shipyards on the Clyde are facing the axe under secret plans to make huge savings from the bill for two new aircraft carriers, it was claimed last night (Scotsman). The yards at Scotstoun and Govan are said to be earmarked for possible closure by the Ministry of Defence, putting up to 4,000 jobs at risk. The claims have emerged in a leaked memo the day after it was revealed that the navy's new aircraft carriers are running 1 billion over budget.

Spottiswood minimises impact of downturn

FIT-OUT and construction specialist Morris & Spottiswood has reported a slight drop in both revenues and pre-tax profits in 2008, but said a decision to reduce exposure to recession-hit industries had minimised the impact of the downturn (Scotsman). The privately owned firm reported revenues of 122.5 million in 2008 – down from 125.3m the previous year – and pre tax profits of 3m, compared to 3.4m in 2007. Spottiswood, which employs some 480 people from its bases in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Warrington, said a strong performance in its housing division – where it has secured a number of key public sector contracts – had helped underpin the business.

Read all today's industry news from scotsman.com

RETAIL

HMV plays down impact of 80-fold surge in Jackson sales

MICHAEL Jackson's untimely demise is providing a sales boost for Britain's biggest music retailer, although the surge in demand is unlikely to affect HMV's full-year profit performance, the group yesterday admitted (Scotsman). Chief executive Simon Fox revealed there had been an 80-fold jump in sales of Jackson's material on Friday, the day after news of the singer's death broke. The week-on-week increase in Jackson sales was larger than surges following the deaths of Elvis Presley in 1977 and John Lennon in 1980, Fox added. He revealed the Jackson sales surge as the retailer booked pre-tax profits of 63 million for the year to 25 April, up 11.5 per cent on a year earlier and in line with City forecasts.

Read all today's retail news from scotsman.com

TRANSPORT

National Express loses rail route

The government is to take the East Coast rail service, run by National Express, into public ownership. The troubled rail franchise, which is expected to have lost 20m in the first half of the year, is suffering from slumping passenger numbers (BBC). Ministers have refused the company's requests for its contract with the government to be renegotiated. The Department for Transport said that all East Coast services would continue and that tickets would be honoured. It added it intended to put the franchise out for tender from late next year.

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."