Scottish Business Briefing - Wednesday 18 April, 2012
ENERGY & UTILITIES
Scotgold bullish over funding for gold mine
CHRIS Sangster, chief executive of Scotgold Resources, said yesterday that the miner was confident of securing the necessary £22 million of financing to begin drilling for gold and silver at its Cononish mine (Scotsman).
Pensions race against time for Scotland’s offshore oil and gas firms
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Hide AdSCOTLAND’s oil and gas companies are in a costly race against time to enrol workers automatically into a new generation of pension schemes after an exemption given to them was controversially scrapped by the government (Scotsman).
INDUSTRY
Soames cashes in £7m of Aggreko shares
AGGREKO chief executive Rupert Soames has sold £7 million of shares in the Glasgow-based temporary power company after netting a bumper payout from an incentive plan (Herald).
RETAIL
Warm March gives sales boost to Scottish retailers
WARM weather in March pushed Scottish retail sales 1.8 per cent higher this year compared with 12 months earlier in the first positive sales figures since Christmas and the best overall results for nearly a year (Scotsman).
Tesco unveils profits rise and £1bn investment in UK
Tesco will invest £1bn in its UK business this year in an attempt to revive its flagging domestic operation (BBC).
TECHNOLOGY
Angel wins American life sciences contract
LIFE sciences firm Angel Biotechnology has secured an £800,000 contract with US drugs developer TransGenRx as the Edinburgh-based firm continues to expand its newly-reopened facility near Newcastle (Scotsman).