Business briefs: Eddie Stobart | Valiant Petroleum | Morgan Sindall | Allied Vehicles

THE owner of haulage firm Eddie Stobart yesterday said it had axed the role of executive chairman as it lifted full-year forecasts, thanks to recent better trading.

Just months after warning over profits, Stobart Group revealed it now expects to post annual results “moderately” ahead of market hopes. The haulier also said it had cemented a three-year distribution deal with Tesco.

The group, which runs the iconic fleet of more than 2,200 Eddie Stobart trucks, warned over profits in January as the uncertain economy weighed on its chilled distribution division.

• Shareholders of North Sea driller Valiant Petroleum yesterday voted overwhelmingly to accept a £203 million offer for the firm by Aberdeen-based rival Ithaca Energy.

More than 97 per cent of investors chose to accept the offer of 307p in cash and

1.33 Ithaca shares for each Valiant share.

Valiant was formed in 2004 to develop assets in the northern North Sea but was put up for sale last year.

The takeover will double Ithaca’s oil production to around 15,000 barrels a day.

• Construction and infrastructure group Morgan Sindall has landed an £8 million contract from South Lanarkshire Council to build a replacement primary school.

The 70-year-old Forth primary is to be demolished and replaced with a 31,200sq ft eight-classroom building, which will include a public library, crèche, community learning space and “multi-use games area”.

The contract was awarded under the council’s £812m primary schools modernisation scheme, which will rebuild 129 facilities by 2016.

• Allied Vehicles, the Glasgow-based niche car supplier, has won a contract from the Motability car scheme, the largest fleet operator in Europe.

Under the deal, Allied’s hire car division will supply Motability Operations with replacement vehicles for the next three years.

The contract is expected to boost turnover at Allied’s hire division from £638,000 last year to more than £2 million in 2013-14.

The company has already added 45 cars to its hire fleet to fulfil the contract, taking its total to 170 vehicles.