BANKING & INSURANCEAAM in groundbreaking deal with Japanese banking giant MitsubishiABERDEEN Asset Management unveiled a bold move into the potentially lucrative Japanese market yesterday, signing a deal with t
he country's largest bank – which will take a 10 per cent stake in the Scottish company.
Under the agreement, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (MUTB), the trust banking business of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, will market and sell Aberdeen's international products to its institutional investors.
Last night AAM, whose chief executive, Martin Gilbert, has turned it into one of Scotland's most successful financial companies, said it was looking to secure a proportion of $30 billion worth of investment business in Japan.
More than a year in the making, the deal will give AAM access to MUTB's clients, for whom it manages more than $245bn in assets.
AAM will not receive an immediate cash boost from the deal. The 9.9 per cent stake in the company bought by the Japanese bank yesterday comes entirely from existing shareholders.
While the price was not disclosed, the market value of the stake is about £94 million.
http://business.scotsman.com/business/AAM-in-groundbreaking-deal-with.4555095.jp
Salmond calls on economic experts First Minister Alex Salmond wants to harness the country's "economic firepower" in his campaign to protect HBOS banking jobs in Scotland.
Mr Salmond will ask the Council of Economic Advisers to help him persuade Lloyds TSB of Scotland's advantages when the £12bn takeover takes place.
It comes ahead of a meeting between the Scottish Government and the bank's chairman Victor Blank.
The Council of Economic Advisers will meet at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
It is chaired by former senior banker Sir George Mathewson and features Nobel prize-winning economists among its members.
Mr Salmond said he hoped the organisation would provide evidence and arguments to support the case to retain headquarter functions and jobs at the Bank of Scotland.
He said: "As decisions are being planned that will define the shape of that organisation, and the future of Scottish jobs and decision making, we must make a clear and united case for Scotland as a world-class business base.
"This is the time to harness the intellectual firepower at our disposal to promote Scotland's competitive advantage."
Read all today's banking news from scotsman.comECONOMYCredit scarcity fuels recession fear and rate cut hopesThe portents of UK recession continued to amass yesterday when it emerged banks intend to reduce lending to households and businesses still further as bad debts mount.
Banks' ever more cautious attitude towards lending was spelled out in a survey published by the Bank of England which, along with news yesterday from building society Nationwide of a further tumble in UK house prices in September, piles on pressure for a cut in benchmark interest rates.
Even more worryingly, most of the Bank of England survey was conducted before the latest meltdown in wholesale credit markets triggered by US investment bank Lehman Brothers' September 15 con-firmation that it had collapsed. The survey was conducted between August 26 and September 17.
The survey showed banks and building societies collectively cut the availability of mortgage finance and un-secured credit to households further in the three months to mid-September - by even more than they had anticipated in early summer.
These lenders attributed their behaviour to "expectations for house prices and concerns about the economic outlook".
Read all today's economics news from scotsman.comINDUSTRYLatest CIPS findings full of woe for commercial buildersUK commercial construction activity fell during September at the fastest pace since the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) began measuring it in 1997, amid a record pace of job-shedding in the sector as a whole.
Housebuilding activity meanwhile declined very sharply again last month, the CIPS survey showed, as the overall construction sector suffered a seventh consecutive month of falling activity.
CIPS' purchasing managers' index for construction, a composite measure of activity in the sector, fell from 40.5 in August to 38.8 in September.
This is well below the level of 50 which separates expansion from contraction and signals a rapid deterioration in construction sector activity.
CIPS commented: "The latest, and steeper, decline in total UK construction activity was linked by most survey participants to the ongoing financial crisis and poor global economic conditions.
"Competition to secure contracts intensified during the latest survey period, resulting in more unsuccessful tenders and smaller order books at many survey panellists' firms."
Read all today's industry news from scotsman.comRETAILM&S puts spending plans on the shelf after sales slide 6%MARKS & Spencer yesterday revealed plans to make dramatic cuts in its capital investment as it unveiled a slump in second-quarter sales that highlighted continuing high street woes.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Britain's biggest clothing group, said M&S would rein in capital spending to £700 million this year – down from its previous guidance of £800m to £900m.
The cut will be even more swingeing next year, with planned capital spending of £400m as the company adjusts to the sharply showing economy.
The cutbacks are mainly in the firm's store refurbishment programme, but a spokesman yesterday refused to rule out reduced funding in areas such as designer fashion collections.
City analysts welcomed the move as reducing the likelihood that M&S would cut its dividend, and the group's shares shot up yesterday, ending the day 8 per cent or 17p higher at 227.25p.
M&S's same-floorspace general merchandise sales, which take in clothes and homewares, fell 6.4 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 September.
Hard-hit shoppers looking to save on food bills snubbed M&S's premium-end goods, with sales down 5.9 per cent over the period, taking the overall group fall to 6.1 per cent.
http://business.scotsman.com/business/MS-puts-spending-plans-.4555094.jp
Read all today's retail news from scotsman.comTECHNOLOGYDrop in orders sends Wolfson to new lowSHARES in Wolfson fell to their lowest level since the 2003 flotation yesterday after the company warned of a sudden drop in orders as manufacturers' confidence crumbled.
The Edinburgh-based chip maker warned that in recent days it had seen a "material" reduction in orders as customers "respond to the continued deterioration in consumer confidence".
"It's entirely down to the economic downturn … the manufacturers of these goods want to keep tight inventories so they're scaling back orders," a spokesman for Wolfson said.
The company, which was spun out of Edinburgh University, makes chips that convert digital signals into analogue sound.
Its products are used in millions of consumer electronic devices, such as mobile phones, portable music players, digital cameras and satellite navigation systems.
Analysts had been expecting the company to record sales of about $60 million (£34m) for the final three months of 2008, but Wolfson said it now expected revenue to be in the range of $45m to $50m.
http://business.scotsman.com/business/Drop-in-orders-sends-Wolfson.4555097.jp
Read all today's technology news from scotsman.com
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