Shares in John Swan & Sons, the Edinburgh-based livestock auction business with substantial land interests, rose 11% as the company reported rebuffing offers for "some or all" of its assets.

Swan was reporting a half-year loss narrowing from £135,403 a year ago to £87,459, despite substantial professional fees incurred in evaluating "third party interests in acquiring some or all of our assets", chairman Alastair Ritchie revealed. He said the company's land asset value was now "highly significant" in the context of a recovering property market.