Monday business round-up: Five key stories of the day

Sir Gerry Grimstone becomes deputy chairman at Barclays

Standard Life chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone was named as deputy chairman of Barclays as the lender continues to grow its focus on investment banking. The banking giant said Grimstone – who has been chairman of Edinburgh-based life and pensions group Standard Life since may 2007 – will take up his post on 1 January 1, succeeding Sir Michael Rake.

Aggreko, the Glasgow-based temporary power provider, said it would be reining in its spending plans but was sticking to its guidance of generating a pre-tax profit of between £250 million and £270m for 2015 – although this would be down from the figure of £289m reported for the previous year.

Goals Soccer Centres, the five-a-side football operator based in East Kilbride, delivered another profit warning on the back of tough trading. The Aim-quoted firm, which has 46 centres across the UK and one in Los Angeles, said trading on home turf over the summer holiday period had been “challenging”.

Power supplier Eon agreed to pay a £7m penalty after failing to hit a deadline for the roll-out of smart electricity meters to business customers. Ofgem, the UK energy regulator, said the company faces a further bill of £7m and a possible sales ban if it fails to meet new installation targets.

Fitness club operator The Gym Group floated on the London market in a move that valued the firm at £250m. The company, which runs 66 low-cost gyms across the UK, raised about £90m through the initial public offering of its shares, which began trading at 195p each.