Aberdeen council leader to open London Stock Exchange in nod to city’s bond issue

Senior figures representing Aberdeen City Council are to open the London Stock Exchange tomorrow to mark the Granite City’s pioneering bond issue.

Some £370 million was raised for major projects in Aberdeen when the bond was issued in November.

And now Jenny Laing will become the first leader of a Scottish local authority to symbolically start the day’s City trading at 8 am on Tuesday.

The council leader will not get to ring a bell – a tradition that was phased out in 1986 – but will instead set the screens flashing using an engraved glass tablet which can be kept as a souvenir.

The privilege is often handed to companies to mark their first day of having shares traded – but Aberdeen’s unprecedented finance deal is now being recognised.

Aberdeen’s foray into the capital markets was the first by any local authority in Scotland and attracted better than-expected interest.

Investors snapped up the state-backed finance package, which will help pay for a new exhibition and conference centre, schools, homes and transport links.

Aberdeen was able to launch the unprecedented municipal bond issue after securing a credit rating – another first for a Scottish council.

Leading agency Moody’s last month gave the authority a score of Aa2 – which means it is considered less likely to default than China, France or many others.

The council’s head of finance, Steve Whyte, said the actual physical cash they got in was a gross £415 million – though the city will only repay the £370million bond issue value.

“The extra is essentially the premium people pay to get us to take their money.”

Council leader Angela Scott said the complex process of securing the bond was “a bit like Dragons’ Den”.

Councillor Laing said: “We must invest in infrastructure. In other cities it may well be coming from national government or the private sector but in Aberdeen, particularly with the downturn we’ve seen, the local authority has had to step up to the plate.“