Search: financial focus

ASOS, the online retailer, has sold a significant 75% stake in Topshop to parent company Bestseller, owned by Scotland's wealthiest man – Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen – in a deal worth £135 million.

The UK's Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is proposing to lower the maximum amount banks must refund victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud from £415,000 to £85,000. The regulator is currently consulting on this change, having reviewed data on high-value APP scams, which

Scottish renewable energy projects with a joint capacity to generate almost 2GW of clean electricity have today won contracts in a vital UK auction.

Glasgow-based tour operator McKinlay Kidd, which projects turnover in excess of £8 million this year, has become employee-owned. Announcing the change of ownership, managing director Zoe Davidson, said: “After 21 years as a trail blazing tour operator, we are thrilled that McKinlay

STV Group plc has appointed Rufus Radcliffe as chief executive officer, effective from 1 November 2024. Mr Radcliffe joins STV from ITV plc where until April 2024 he was a member of the executive committee and latterly held the position of managing director of streaming, interactive and data, playin

Scotland's onshore GDP saw a slight decline of 0.3% in June, following a 0.2% growth in May. The overall picture for Q2 remains positive, with 0.6% growth, compared to Q1's 0.5%. The largest contribution to headline GDP in was electricity & gas supply, which contributed 0.3 percentage points to

Shoplifting is up by more than a third since last year, according to new police figures. The latest recorded crime figures reveal that 40,554 alleged shoplifting crimes were reported to police in the year ending June 2024, up from 30,202 the previous year and 27,045 in the year ending June 2020.

The Single Cask – home to a warehouse in Glenrothes of over 3000 casks – has collaborated with drinks and hospitality charity The Drinks Trust to release an "Ultra Rare" single cask whisky from Teaninich Distillery.

Scottish technology services company Waracle has agreed a new multi-million-pound contract with SP Energy Networks that will help the electricity network operator accelerate its digital technology delivery programme.

Accountancy, tax, and audit firm Wbg has joined Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce support local businesses with specialist business advice. The move follows the recent opening of Wbg’s Prestwick office at 104 Main Street, headed up by director Andrew Flinn, a consolidation of John Kerr & Co in

The number of overdue invoices in Scotland has reached its highest level this year, according to R3. R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body, analysed data provided by Creditsafe revealing that businesses in Scotland had 538,172 unpaid invoices on their books last month – th

Business succession expert Mike Kane discusses the advantages of selling a business when there is no immediate need to do so, exploring various exit strategies, and how owners can avoid pressure during negotiations. "I'm thinking of selling my business when I reach retirement age – can you hel

The jailed former office manager of an Edinburgh property firm who embarked on a luxury lifestyle after embezzling company funds has been ordered to pay back more than £211,000. Emma Hunt, 38, who was imprisoned for three years in August last year after a jury found her guilty of fraud and emb

Public sector fraud in Scotland has risen by almost 50% according to Audit Scotland. A data matching exercise, part of the UK-wide National Fraud Initiative (NFI), detected £21.5 million worth of fraud and payment errors across the Scottish public sector.

The Scottish Government’s Government Expenditure and Revenue (GERS) figures have shown that people in Scotland benefit from £2,417 more per head of additional spending compared to the UK average. In 2023-24, £88.5 billion in tax receipts was raised in Scotland through devolved and