By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald July 28th, 2002 FORD Motor Company is this week expected to announce the sale of Kwik-Fit, Europe’s largest car repair business, to London-based venture capitalists CVC Capital Partners for around £350 million-£400m. CVC is believed to want to create synergies between Kwik-Fit and Halfords, the car accessories and bicycle retailer […]
By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald July 28th, 2002 WHAT, if anything, do Scotch whisky brands have in common with ancient Rome? The answer: they’re not built in a day. Edrington Group, the Glasgow-based company which acquired Highland Distillers in November 1999, now has four “drive” brands in its drinks cabinet. But these have an average […]
By ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 14th, 2002 SCOTLAND will feel the brunt of amalgamations and job cuts if National Australia Bank’s £15 billion takeover approach to Abbey National bears fruit, according to banking analysts. The NAB and Abbey talks, first revealed by the Sunday Herald on June 16, have been going on […]
By Ian Fraser and Torcuil Crichton Published: The Sunday Herald Date: July 7th, 2002 The Treasury has hidden a £47 billion debt mountain caused by Britain’s PFI schemes using “Enron-style accounting” to keep payments off the government’s balance sheets, according to to the head of one of the UK’s largest accountancy firms. Maurice Fitzpatrick, the head of economics at Tenon, […]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 7th, 2002 JOSEPH Stiglitz is a rare breed, an heretical economist who has ruffled the self-satisfied global establishment that once fed him. When I met him in the fashionable surroundings of One Aldwych last week, Stiglitz warned that current fears about the reliability of corporate accounts could […]