Bank of Scotland bounces back into the top ten

Bank of Scotland moved from 290th to second place. Picture: PA

The Lloyds subsidiary moved from 290th in Scottish Business Insider’s top 500 rankings to second place after it made a £1.45 billion profit compared to a £1.24bn loss the previous year.

Number one for the third year running was Standard Life whose turnover climbed 18.65 per cent to £22.9bn although its profits fell 15.5 per cent to £915m due to fewer one-off gains such as the sale of properties in Canada in 2012.

Perth-headquartered energy giant SSE slipped down a place to number three with profits edging up by just 0.7 per cent to £575.3m on the back of an 8.06 per cent increase in turnover to £30.59bn.

Other firms in the top ten include Glasgow-based Aggreko and Weir. Transport giant Stagecoach Group moved up one place to tenth position after seeing a 2.4 per cent rise in profits to £158m.

Excluding the six big loss makers during the year including RBS and fellow bank Clydesdale profits of the Top 500 soared by 40 per cent to £12.4bn and turnover was up by 8 per cent to £171bn.

In terms of ownership of the Top 500 companies, 58 per cent are Scottish, with the US accounting for 11 per cent of companies and the rest of the UK 9 per cent.

France was the fourth biggest owner with 16 companies, the Netherlands was fifth with 12 and Norway sixth with 11, according to the rankings.

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