Scottish Business Briefing - Wednesday 13 April, 2011

Published on Wednesday 13 April 2011 09:24

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 & INVESTMENTS

Katherine Garrett-Cox launches war of of words on rebel investors

ALLIANCE Trust yesterday mounted its own offensive in the increasingly bitter battle with activist investors, accusing ringleader Laxey Partners of peddling "inaccurate, false and frankly misleading information" (Scotsman).

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Punch reveals details of two-way split

PUNCH Taverns, which ranks as Scotland's biggest pubs operator, unveiled a slide in interim profits yesterday and posted more details of its plans to split the business in two to attack a 3 billion debt mountain (Scotsman).

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

MEDIA & LEISURE

Garden centre sales triple in year as Erskine reaps rewards of investment

A SCOTTISH garden centre run as a social enterprise to help support veterans of the armed forces has seen sales almost triple since investing 3 million in a new site (Scotsman).

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

RETAIL

JD Sports cautious despite rise in profits

Retailer JD Sports Fashion has reported a sharp rise in full-year profits and proposed a "significant increase" in shareholder dividends.Pre-tax profit in the year to 29 January came in at 78.6m, a rise of 28% on the 61.4m it made a year earlier. Revenue rose 15% to 883.7m (BBC).

Read all today's retail news from scotsman.com

TECHNOLOGY

Omega Diagnostics sees healthy returns from acquisitions

MEDICAL testing kit maker Omega Diagnostics saw sales grow by 27 per cent in the last financial year, thanks to a major acquisition and a growing global market for its products (Scotsman).

University funding move boosts gaming ventures

SIX fledgling digital games companies have become the first successful applicants to benefit from a Government-sponsored investment fund run by Dundee's Abertay University in a move to attract some of the billions of venture capitalist dollars swirling around the sector (Herald).

Read all today's technology news from scotsman.com