By ian Fraser Published: The Sunday Times Date: May 31st, 2009 I was all set to write this column on the shocking dearth of opportunities facing Scotland’s current crop of graduates. According to Go, a business support organisation, 56 graduates will compete for every graduate-level vacancy this year. The statistic sends shivers up the spine [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: The Sunday Times Date: May 31st, 2009 AG Barr’s outgoing chairman doesn’t worry that the recesssion will hit sales of the company’s iconic drink Robin Barr, the outgoing chairman of Cumbernauld-based soft drinks group AG Barr, appears to be in love with his job. Even though the 71-year-old stepped down as [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: The Sunday Times Date: May 31st, 2009 THE Intercontinental Hotels Group is refusing to scale down plans for a 17-storey hotel in the West End of Edinburgh, despite fierce opposition to the project from local celebrities and a heated planning inquiry. Kirk Kinsell, the group’s president for Europe, the Middle East [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: The Sunday Times Date: May 31st, 2009 David Watt, executive director of the Institute of Directors Scotland, has accused Alex Salmond of “posturing” over the planned £500m reduction in the Scottish government’s block grant. Watt said he can see no reason, when private sector firms are having to slash their budgets [...]
May 28th, 2009 Soon after it was formed from the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland in 2001, HBOS embarked on rapid growth strategy that included the adoption of a pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap approach to the banking market. The Edinburgh-based bank was so determined to win share from the ‘big [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: BBC News website Date: May 27th, 2009 A BBC News investigation has uncovered reckless lending at HBOS Corporate and some irregular loans at its ‘high risk’ unit in a regional office. Financial journalist Ian Fraser hears from former insiders about the inadequate safeguards which left the bank open to huge losses. [...]
May 26th, 2009 Note: Since September 22nd, 2010 this article has been subject to a legal action by Mr Lynden Scourfield Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Eric Daniels may not have known precisely what he was buying with HBOS. But, given today’s revelations about the Bank of Scotland Reading debacle, writes Ian Fraser, the “Quiet [...]
May 26th, 2009 The residential property bust in Dubai has become even more spectacular — and scary. House prices in the Middle Eastern emirate are falling faster than those anywhere else in the world, according to the global property consultants Knight Frank. “On a quarterly basis, the most dramatic fall in prices were recorded by [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: 24th May, 2009 In a Val Doonican-esque session, Archie Kane, Lloyds Banking Group’s most senior director north of the border, recently stressed that his bank is committed to Scotland. In the opulent surroundings of Edinburgh’s Signet Library, in front of an audience of business bigwigs, Kane stressed that [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: The Sunday Times Date: May 24th, 2009 BUSINESSES will have to pay over six times more than the Treasury has estimated for implementing the rise in VAT from 15% to 17.5% at the end of 2009, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (Icas). The organisation asked member firms [...]