PERHAPS it comes from bitter experience, but when news breaks that a foreign company is buying over a Scottish one there is always a fear that it is going to lead to job losses.
Not so with China’s Ctrip, which last year added a fair few millionaires to Edinburgh’s streets when it paid an eye-watering £1.4 billion for travel tech business Skyscanner.
Having started from scratch just 15 years before, Skyscanner had incentivised its staff with share-based payments in the intervening period, meaning many on the payroll were able to share in the deal’s rewards.
By comparison Ctrip’s latest move is more modest, with the company set to open a call centre in the capital at the beginning of next year.
With the project set to create up to 200 jobs in the next few years, though, it is no less significant.
Though the Skyscanner connection was a key factor in tempting Ctrip to our shores the Scottish Government played a part too, putting up grant funding that helped make Scotland a more attractive option for Ctrip than any other European country.
The level of government funding has not yet been revealed, but it is likely it will prove to be money well spent.
At a time when the Scottish Government is grappling with ways to increase its tax take, any move that widens the base of income-tax payers has got to be a good one.
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