Company News Archive

JIM McFarlane, the longest-serving senior director at Scottish Enterprise (SE), is to step back from his duties, triggering a high-level reshuffle at the agency.

A GROUP of Scottish authorities is threatening legal action to prevent the liquidator of Scottish Coal from abandoning disused open-cast mines, with clean-up bills running to tens of millions of pounds.

MUTUALLY-owned Co-operative Group has insisted "this is not a Northern Rock situation" after its bank's credit rating was slashed to junk status and the lender's acting chief executive Barry Tootell resigned in the wake of its failure to buy a branch portfolio from Lloyds Banking Group.

CLYDESDALE Bank's controversial transfer of its troubled commercial real estate (CRE) portfolio to parent National Australia Bank (NAB) has seen it return to profit, slash bad debts and boost its capital surplus.

British Polythene Industries (BPI) said its first four months trading are ahead of last year and it expects a good first-half result.

SCOTLAND'S third-largest supermarket chain Wm Morrison continues to lose out to its rivals after posting a 1.8% fall in underlying sales for the three months to May 5.

SHAWBROOK, the challenger bank chaired by Sir George Mathewson, said it was confident it could raise more capital from a private equity fund run by Royal Bank of Scotland or other investors by the end of 2013 as it posted an underlying profit for its second year of operation.

THE chief executive of Aegon UK, which employs 1900 people in Edinburgh, shrugged off a sharp fall in profits saying it reflected choices made by the firm in the run up to regulatory reforms and said more changes were to come.

Insurer Esure said rules banning cheaper car cover for women drivers had benefited its Sheilas' Wheels business as customers chose to stay with the group thanks to minimum disruption to its prices.

FASHION chain Next, which is run by Tory peer Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, has illustrated the challenges facing retailers after it revealed falling sales in its stores but a surge in online business.

Profits at Sainsbury rose again today as the supermarket maintained its run of success under chief executive Justin King.

Booth Welsh, the ambitious Ayrshire-based engineering services business, has reported a 54% increase in profits to just under £1 million in its first year following a management buyout.

CAIRN Energy is set to invest more than £50 million hunting for oil and gas near Ireland after adding stakes in licences there to a portfolio of frontier exploration interests in places like Greenland.

THE chief executive of HSBC has warned the impact of rising interest rates on British borrowers is one of the remaining challenges to the banking sector.