Fears over 3,000 ScottishPower jobs

SOME 3,000 ScottishPower jobs could be at risk if efforts by a consortium to break up the utility's Spanish owner, Iberdrola, are successful, it was reported yesterday.

Industry insiders told a Sunday newspaper that as many as a third of ScottishPower's 9,000 posts could be cut in the event of a merger of the Scottish energy group and rival EDF.

Last week, it was reported that ACS, Spain's largest building firm, and French utility EDF, had held preliminary talks about a bid for Iberdrola, which bought ScottishPower a year ago.

EDF already has a substantial presence in the UK and were it to tie-up with ScottishPower, it would have about ten million customers and become the UK's second largest power company.