BANKING & INSURANCEGiants lose £13.2bn in shares rout and at last they will actA MASSIVE rescue plan to bolster UK banks was to be announced by the government this morning, after £13.2 billion was wiped from Scot
land's leading financial institutions (
Scotsman). The bail-out of up to £50 billion, revealed in The Scotsman yesterday, could effectively mean the part-nationalisation of major high-street names, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS. Yesterday, the value of RBS and HBOS plunged – by 39 per cent and 41.5 per cent respectively – on a dramatic and devastating day for the Scottish giants. At one point, worst-hit RBS was haemorrhaging value by almost £2 million a second. Its shares closed at 90p, wiping a further £9.6 billion off the group's market value. Shares in HBOS fell to 94p – a £3.6 billion loss – despite last week's assurances that the emergency takeover by Lloyds TSB would go through as planned. The share plunges fuelled concerns that major corporate customers were planning to move their assets to safer havens.
Ferguson McKenzie sees opportunityFerguson McKenzie, the small Scottish recruitment specialist, forecasts that it will break the £1m-turn-over barrier on the back of a global credit crisis increasingly bleeding into Scotland's financial services sector (
Herald). Amid a crisis that began as a US sub-prime lending problem and has now radiated around the world, financial sectors everywhere are being pummelled. Ferguson McKenzie's turnover projections serve as a reminder that the demise of one company can sometimes be a springboard for another's success. The firm is also one of the recruitment companies that will be used by Lloyds TSB to help decide who stays and who goes in the wake of its agreed takeover with HBOS. The recruitment specialist yesterday said it had already noted a substantial increase in the number of financial jobs on the market this year. Ferguson McKenzie last year turned over around £500,000 and said that it was projecting that it would hit the £1m mark in four years - although McKenzie admitted the forecast was "conservative", given the economic circumstances.
Read all today's banking news from scotsman.comECONOMYDefined benefit pension closures expectedA further wave of closures of defined benefit pension schemes looks in the offing just as employees are regaining faith in pensions as a way of saving, according to the latest survey from the National Association of Pension Funds (
FT). Pension funds are being battered by the financial turmoil that will see their value fall sharply on current stock market and bond performance. But even before the financial crisis reached its current peak, a further one in five of the remaining defined benefit – chiefly final salary – schemes were considering switching their employees to money purchase pensions, the NAPF's annual survey shows. A further 10 per cent were seeking to reduce costs or risks. A significant minority of all employers – one in five – said they intended to "level down" their pension provision in 2012 when the new system of personal accounts arrives, according to the survey. "There is still much outside pressure on pension schemes, (with] further change on the horizon," said Joanne Segars, NAPF chief executive, said ahead of the association's annual conference in Glasgow this week.
Read all today's economics news from scotsman.comFOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTUREVinnie and the Goodfellas on trackNORTHERN Foods yesterday said revenues at its Fox's bakery division jumped by 6.7 per cent after an advertising campaign became an online hit (
Scotsman). The group's cartoon character Vinnie – a cross between a panda and a dog – was introduced last April as part of a relaunch for the Fox's biscuit brand. And Northern yesterday claimed that the campaign was so successful that it was now planning a second series of Vinnie ads to further boost the brand in the run-up to Christmas. Northern – which makes Goodfella's pizza and supplies products to Marks & Spencer – moved to reassure the markets over its performance yesterday ahead of its interim results, stating that it was continuing to recover soaring input costs through price increases. It has raised its selling prices by 5.6 per cent on average, which had offset a 1.7 per cent drop in sales volumes. The increasing popularity of its Fox's brand is helping lead a recovery within Northern's bakery division, with the underlying sales rise cementing a return to sales growth over the past year. Total underlying sales rose 3.9 per cent year on-year in the 26 weeks to 27 September.
Read all today's food, drink and agriculture news from scotsman.comINDUSTRYIndustrial park leads Scrabster's £50m bid for key oil sector roleAN INDUSTRIAL park is being planned as part of £50 million expansion plans for a north of Scotland harbour as it aims to exploit new opportunities in oil and gas and the renewables sectors (
Scotsman). Scrabster Harbour Trust will lay out the park on 30 acres of land in Caithness it has acquired from Scrabster Farm. The trust is working with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to develop the port as the supply base of choice for companies working in the oil and gas fields in the Atlantic Frontier – and those targeting marine power developments in the Pentland Firth. Last week the Crown Estate confirmed it is opening up the firth seabed for applications for commercial-scale marine energy development. It is estimated that more than 700mW of energy could be generated by 2020. ScottishPower also said it expects to lodge planning applications next summer for a large-tidal stream projects in the Pentland Firth.
Read all today's industry news from scotsman.com TECHNOLOGYUS software giant expands Edinburgh baseSOFTWARE giant Adobe is expanding its Edinburgh operations in one of the city's biggest office deals of the past 18 months (
Scotsman). The move comes years after the US-headquartered company reduced its presence north of the Border. Previously it had established a European HQ and customer services operation employing hundreds of people. According to Adobe, the group's Edinburgh office currently employs 35 staff and focuses on technical support and customer relations for European clients. The $4 billion (£2.3bn) turnover company, based in San Jose, California, develops document software Acrobat as well as the Flash and Photoshop computer applications. Adobe has taken a ten-year lease on an office two-and-a-half times bigger than its current premises. The group will move into Hermiston Quay 2 next to Edinburgh Park and the city bypass.
Read all today's technology news from scotsman.com
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