News

FirstGroup has announced the completion of its £90m group section pension liabilities buy-in.  The Aberdeen-headquartered company said around £22m of its group section escrow had been utilised to complete the transaction. The group said that £17.5m had been returned to the gro

AMS Accountants Group has revealed plans to create around 25 jobs in Aberdeen as it builds towards a £5m audit business in the city within the next three years. The move is part of a wider ambition to turn over more than £20m and have around 200 staff within the next five years. The firm

Aegon Asset Management has expanded into European collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) through the launch of three new funds. The funds will invest across the full credit spectrum from AAA to sub-investment grade. The new Aegon High Grade CLO, European CLO and European CLO Opportunities Funds prov

Takeover talks for Monzo have heated up as private equity group Advent International held separate talks about buying a minority stake, alongside other buyout firms, in the challenger fintech, it has been reported. It comes after reports that the board of the bank was in early-stage talks over a sal

Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) is set to host Scotland's first-ever Global Investment Scale-Up Summit, in a bid to drive focus and investment in domestic scale-up companies. The business-led summit will take place in January 2027, building on last year's flagship global investment summit hosted

Baillie Gifford's Schiehallion Fund saw its shares move from a small premium to a steep discount to net asset value (NAV) in the six months to July 2026. Shares at the investment trust, which backs later-stage private growth companies, traded at a discount of 14.4% at the period end, reversing a 0.4

Lloyds Banking Group has completed its £1.75bn share buyback programme, purchasing 1,712,662,647 ordinary shares ahead of the year-end 2026 deadline originally set out when the programme was announced. The buyback was managed by Goldman Sachs International between 30 January 2026 and 24 Septem

LendInvest has completed a £265m securitisation backed by 1,240 UK prime buy-to-let mortgages, its eighth transaction under the Mortimer programme and a further source of funding for future lending. The Mortimer 2026-1 transaction, which includes £35m of pre-funding, attracted strong dem

Professional services and accounting firm Wbg has appointed 14 trainees. The trainees comprise 11 graduate trainees, two school leaver/graduate apprentices, and one internship – across its external audit, internal audit, business advisory and marketing teams.

Thomson Cooper has promoted Chris Steedman to audit director and opened a third office. Mr Steedman was recently award Responsible Individual (RI) status by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). He joined Thomson Cooper as a Senior Audit Manager in 2025 following a senior manage

Tax increases, inflationary pressures and the threat of a cyber attack are key concerns facing Scotland’s family, privately owned and owner-managed businesses, according to new research from Armstrong Watson. The accountancy and business advisory firm found in its latest survey that Scottish b

Bond traders have voiced concerns over reports that Chancellor John Healey is planning to slash the government's fiscal headroom to avoid breaking its self-imposed spending rules, warning it would spark a negative reaction in markets. David Zahn, Franklin Templeton's head of European fixed income, w

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust manager Tom Slater has revealed that founders of the "brilliant" companies that they back raised concerns over a "shortage of humans". Mr Slater made the comments at the trust's digital conference, responding to questions from shareholders and investors about what

UK Banks have completed their first live transaction with customers using tokenised Sterling deposits, marking a major milestone for payments innovation in the UK. Tokenised deposits are digital representations of traditional commercial bank money. UK Finance, the trade association for the financial

A Scottish insolvency practitioner is urging business owners to consider an potential under-used lifeline to save their business. Christine Convy, director of Dunedin Advisory, who is a Chartered Accountant and licensed insolvency practitioner with more than 25 years’ experience in restructuri