Scottish Business Briefing – August 6th 2013
FINANCE
HSBC says salaries may rise to beat bonus cap
HSBC chairman Douglas Flint strongly hinted on Monday that the bank may ramp up basic salaries for key staff as a way around a European cap on bonuses. Flint said the caps being imposed by the European Union made the bank feel “very uncomfortable”, given 80 per cent of its profits were outside Europe in countries where many local competitors for staff would not face the same crackdown.
ECONOMY
Service sector figures add to recovery momentum
Hopes that the economic recovery is gathering pace have been boosted by figures showing the strongest service sector growth in six years.The latest purchasing managers’ index (PMI) from Markit and Cips climbed to its highest reading since December 2006 during July, posting a score of 60.2, up from 56.9 in June.
ENERGY
Shell pumps £3m into research centre at Heriot-Watt
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Hide AdOil giant Shell is to invest £3 million in a scheme to boost exploration research at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. The group said the five-year deal to create the Shell Centre for Exploration Geoscience aims to help meet the world’s growing energy demand by combining industry insights with cutting-edge research.
Wood Group secures extension to £40m Dana deal
Energy services firm Wood Group has retained its long-running contract to provide support for Dana Petroleum’s operations in the North Sea. Under the two-year extension, worth up to £40 million a year, the Aberdeen-based group’s PSN subsidiary will continue providing maintenance and construction services for Dana’s Triton floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
TRANSPORT & INDUSTRY
Benedetti business wound up with debts
Gio Benedetti, one of Scotland’s best-known entrepreneurs, wound up his final trading business with substantial creditor debts and a pension scheme set to fall into the Pension Protection Fund, it has emerged. Deloittes was last week appointed liquidators to the former Wallace Cameron.
MEDIA, TECH & LEISURE
RAD Hotel group prepares for busy year with £6m loan deal
A Scottish hotel group has secured £6 million funding ahead of what is expected to be a busy period for sector players north of the Border. RAD Hotel agreed a funding deal from Santander Corporate Banking that will support continued expansion by the group. The package includes a development loan that RAD will use to extend the Shawlands Park Hotel in South Lanarkshire, which it acquired last year.