3i in joint bid for Edinburgh Airport
PRIVATE equity firm 3i has joined forces with two major city investors to line up a bid to buy Edinburgh airport from BAA. London-listed 3i, along with pension fund manager the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and fund manager M&G, plan to make an offer early in the New Year.
The Spanish owned British Airports Authority is being forced to sell Edinburgh, Glasgow or Stansted airports by the Competition Commission after it ruled on its dominant position in UK airports. Other names being reported with a possible interest are Edinburgh based Noble Grossart, US private equity house Carlyle, entrepreneur Brian Souter and Global Infrastructure Partners; who own Gatwick. Figures of between £450m and £500m are being quoted in terms of valuation.
Last year Edinburgh Airport handled about 8.6m passengers, with numbers having gone up 9.5 per cent between the start of 2011 and October.
EU approval for Banco Santander to buy RBS branches
Banco Santander has won the European Commission approval to buy over 300 Royal Bank of Scotland branches in the UK.
The commission said the transaction would not raise competition concerns, because the overlaps between the parties' activities are very limited and Santander market shares will remain low in the UK.
Spain-based Banco Santander's acquisition comprises of 300 branches and 40 small and medium sized-enterprise and business banking centres of the RBS in the UK.
Williams de Broe secures more senior staff for Edinburgh office
The Edinburgh office of wealth management company Williams de Broe has hired another two senior staff from Barclays Private Wealth in the latest in a series of high profile appointments in the sector. Rosie Daniels and Catherine McMorrin have been appointed as investment directors. The firm has also recently appointed Douglas Spence, who will join from Standard Life Wealth in October, as investment director.
Murray MacKay, a former director at Barclays Wealth leads the Williams de Broe team in Scotland, which now numbers around 30 and includes staff the company had earlier lured away from Barclays Wealth in 2008. As part of the Evolution Group, Williams de Broe has £5.8 billion funds under management for private clients and employs 290 staff across the UK.
Change for the better
Edinburgh and Glasgow based Change Recruitment Group’s ambitious plans to deliver strong growth in both domestic and international markets has paid off with the company seeing a 51% increase in annual turnover. The company, which claims to be Scotland’s largest independent financial services specialist and the UK’s leading international recruiter, saw turnover for the 2010/11 financial year reach £14.7 million – a marked increase on the 2009/10 turnover figure of £9.8 million.
Change’s recent success is down to the recruitment specialist making inroads into emerging foreign markets, as well as benefitting from Scotland’s reputation as a centre of excellence in the financial sector.
Suzanne Ramsay, Chief Executive, said: “By turning to more challenging emerging markets Change has managed to outperform on the 2009/10 financial year. We have expanded our international services considerably from our initial focus on accountancy recruitment to encompass financial services, HR, legal consultants and oil and gas, which is our fastest growing area having trebled in size since May 2010. During the recession we saw a shift in activity from our domestic to international operation, however both are now really taking off again and the financial sector is going from strength to strength, with companies looking to recruit the high-calibre candidates that we are ideally placed to deliver.”