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WELCOME to scotsman.com's Scottish Business Briefing. Every morning we bring you a comprehensive round-up of all news affecting business in Scotland today.

SCOTTISH Gas-owning Centrica will hit the acquisition trail in America over the next few years, the energy group revealed yesterday as it booked a two-thirds surge in first-ha

ST JAMES'S Place, the wealth manager majority-owned by Lloyds Banking Group, reported "terrific performance" in the first half of the year in a day dominated by up

PROFITS at Glenmorangie plummeted by 68 per cent in 2009 after the distiller continued to restructure its business following the disposal of its blended whisky arm.

CENTRICA will probably have its work cut out to ever even aspire to a "national champion" tag. The company's ownership of British Gas, whose status as a target of

AS THE UK economy teeters on the edge of a double-dip recession, the government's nostalgic desire to relive the nineties threatens to extend to a new surge in repossessio

STANDARD Life Investments (SLI) is teaming up with one of the largest trust banks in Japan in a partnership that will give the Edinburgh-based fund manager a major foo

PENSIONS group Scottish Life posted a 62 per cent rise in new business for the first half of the year, driving the performance of parent company Royal London.

AIRPORT operator BAA halved its first-half losses, helped by lower one-off charges, as passenger numbers fell 4.5 per cent on disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud and s

FACEBOOK won a legal fight over claims its hugely popular social networking website infringed a patent owned by little-known Leader Technologies.

THE well publicised plan to balance the UK budget within the lifetime of the Parliament yesterday saw farmers' leaders from both north and south of the border meet Danny A

PROFESSOR Iain Gordon, who is currently working in Australia, has been named as the chief executive designate to lead Scotland's new crop, food and land use research organ

LONDON FTSE 100 CLOSE 5,319.68 -45.99

CARPHONE Warehouse has rung up a solid start to its financial year after consumer demand for the latest smartphones boosted trading.

CAROLYN McCall, the new chief executive of EasyJet, has admitted to "crewing issues" just three weeks after taking control of the low-cost carrier.

TELECOMS and cable heavyweight Virgin Media has grown customer numbers in its spring quarter for the first time since its NTL-Telewest merger.

YELLOW Pages firm Yell yesterday warned revenues will remain under pressure as small businesses continue to fret about the pace of economic recovery.

APOLLO Management has raised its takeover bid for Brit Insurance to 1,075p per share, valuing the Lloyds of London insurer at £852 million.

THE motto used to be "join the army and see the world" but a new version is "shear some sheep and see the world."

BRITAIN is set to lose ownership of another iconic brand after John West, the canned fish firm founded in 1810 by a Scot of the same name, yesterday agreed a £568 million deal