Government’s grand plan is as good as it gets

12:16am Friday 21st November 2008

Two shareholder votes in the last two days should ensure grim reality returns to the discussion of what the future holds for Edinburgh-based HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Ramsay reassures on late filing

Saturday 25th October 2008

SCOTTISH celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has responded to concerns about late filing of his holding company accounts by issuing reassurances about the financial health of his empire.

i-mate considers delisting

12:55am Saturday 18th October 2008

I-MATE, the mobile phone and hand-held computer generator, could return to private hands in just 60 days, with company founder and majority owner Jim Morrison in full control as chairman and chief executive.

Call for crackdown on ‘sale and rent-back’

12:38am Saturday 18th October 2008

FRANCIS SHENNAN A MAJOR side-effect of falling interest rates could be to turn hard-up homeowners away from cowboy "sale and rent-back" schemes and towards regulated equity release.

Quayle Munro earnings slide

12:29am Saturday 20th September 2008

QUAYLE Munro, the AIM-listed independent investment bank, yesterday unveiled lower first-half profits, describing them as "good in parts" with a particularly strong performance in corporate finance - but it added that the outlook for 2009 was "one of difficulty".

Hornby loses his fizz and struggles for a watery smile

12:24am Friday 19th September 2008

ANDY Hornby, the hitherto baby-faced chief executive of HBOS looked every one of his 41 years yesterday as he joined the chairman and chief executive of Lloyds TSB to explain how and why the two companies had merged, writes Tim Sharp.

HBOS slump mutes talk of UK quick fix

12:07am Tuesday 16th September 2008

Fear is often touted as the opposing force to greed in determining the direction of a stock market. But it looked something more like terror which sent UK banking shares, notably those in HBOS, plummeting yesterday.

Oil steady above $100 as Opec cuts output

12:09am Thursday 11th September 2008

Oil prices traded above $100 in a jittery session after a surprise decision by Opec, the 13-nation cartel of oil-producing nations, to cut daily supplies by 500,000 barrels per day.

Lehman Brothers’ share drop leads UK banks into losses

12:10am Thursday 11th September 2008

UK bank shares fell yesterday after Lehman Brothers Holdings announced plans to spin off to its shareholders the "vast majority" of its commercial real-estate assets, sell about a 55% interest in its investment-management division and cut its dividend 93% as it also predicted a fiscal third-quarter loss of $3.9bn.

Milne abandons plans to expand into England

12:18am Thursday 11th September 2008

Stewart Milne has shelved plans to expand into middle England because of the slowdown in the housing market, admitting that he has no idea when things will get better.

Outlook not as desolate as dark days of depression and slump

12:20am Thursday 11th September 2008

At the start of this month, when the Paris-based OECD published its latest economic assessment, the findings were widely interpreted as showing the UK as the only G7 economy heading for outright recession.

Barratt is latest builder to be hit by housing market slowdown

12:20am Thursday 11th September 2008

Barratt Developments, Britain’s second-biggest housebuilder by volume, reported yesterday that full-year profits fell by 71% as the year-long credit crunch depressed sales in the second half and warned it sees no improvement in the market in coming months.

Next feels the pinch as poor sales dent profits

12:56am Thursday 11th September 2008

Britain's young professionals are eschewing purchases of smart jeans and neat sweaters so they can keep paying the mortgage, high street retail chain Next reported as it booked a 12.4% drop in pre-tax profits on the back of falling sales.

Syntropharma raises £1.25m to push drug patch

12:58am Thursday 11th September 2008

Borders pharmaceutical firm Syntropharma has raised £1.25m from investors as it attempts to bring its revamped depression drug to market.

New Sun centre to ‘attract global trade’

12:21am Thursday 11th September 2008

Sun Microsystems yesterday unveiled its new executive briefing centre at its site in West Lothian, part of what the US network computing giant has described as “the largest Sun Solutions Centre in the world”.

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