Scottish Business Briefing – Thursday October 4th 2012
BANKING
RBS has a direct line to buyers for full tranche of shares for sale
ROYAL Bank of Scotland is said to have found buyers for the full 33 per cent stake of Direct Line it is selling to stock market investors, just three days into a nine-day marketing drive.
ENERGY & UTILITIES
ITS Group hails rise in turnover
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Hide AdInternational oil services firm ITS Group announced yesterday big increases in turnover and profits following an improvement in market conditions. Aberdeen-based ITS provides drilling equipment and services through a network of 29 facilities in 18 countries
FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE
Food and drink could rival oil and gas as Scotland’s biggest export
FOOD and drink could be set to “rival” oil and gas as Scotland’s biggest export, with nearly half of the country’s producers eyeing up new overseas markets for everything from whisky and water to salmon, crabs and beef.
Irn-Bru maker gets extension for takeover talks
IRN-Bru maker AG Barr and Pepsi bottler Britvic were yesterday granted extra time to continue their merger talks amid reports that the pair cannot agree whether to call the new entity “Barr Britvic” or “Britvic Barr”.
RETAIL
Olympics and Tour de France boost Halfords bike sales
Halfords has said that its sales of bicycles and accessories were boosted by British successes in the Tour de France and Olympic cycling. Overall like-for-like sales were up 5.6% in the quarter, following a 5.6% fall in sales the previous quarter.
TRANSPORT
Franchise fiasco wipes more than £200m off FirstGroup’s value
ALMOST £250 million was wiped off FirstGroup’s market value yesterday as analysts warned that the west coast rail line franchise fiasco could weaken the Aberdeen-based transport group’s balance sheet and may trigger further asset sales or even a rights issue.