Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Green tycoon Dale Vince borrows £17m to pay divorce settlement
Green energy tycoon Dale Vince has borrowed £17.5million from his business empire to cover the costs of his divorce settlement.
Mr Vince, a prominent Labour donor, took a sum through an interest-free loan from Green Britain Group, accounts show.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Vince said: “The £17million is a loan I’ve taken in order to pay the first instalment of a divorce settlement from last year – total to pay was some £42million. Could have been worse though because I offered £68m out of court.”
Hunter urges pubs to ban ministers in rates protest
Sir Tom Hunter has stepped up his campaign to reform business rates by calling for pub landlords to ban every government minister and the rates assessor until they take appropriate action.
Echoing last year’s protest by pubs in England to ban Labour MPs over the same issue, the entrepreneur and investor called for direct action to force a change of direction.
Posting on social media, he said: “Rachel Reeves has been banned from her local pub because of the rates, so I’m going to say up in Scotland, let’s start banning the people in power from their local pub, their local restaurant until they sort the rates policy that is not fit for purpose.”
Walmart becomes first retailer to hit $1tn market value
Walmart has become the first traditional retailer to hit a $1trillion (730bn) market valuation, propelling it into a small group dominated by tech firms.
The milestone reflects the US retail giant's booming e-commerce business and its success in drawing in price-conscious shoppers. Wall Street has also responded enthusiastically to its investments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Walmart joins an elite club of mostly tech firms, including Nvidia and Alphabet, with valuations over $1trillion.
Ruth Davidson’s Prosper UK stumbles into trademark row
Prosper UK, the initiative aimed at taking the centre ground for the Conservative Party, has stumbled into a trademark row with an organisation which has been representing private firms for almost a century in one of its co-founders’ political backyards.
Prosper, known until 2023 as the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI), has accused the new centrist outfit launched by Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links and Sir Andy Street of stealing its name and threatening its hard-won reputation for political impartiality.
And in what threatens to be a major embarrassment for a movement selling itself as rooted in “competence”, the Scottish outfit is owner of the UK trademark for the Prosper name.
In a letter seen by The Times, Sara Thiam, the chief executive of Prosper, is calling on Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, Street and Simon Saunders, the executive director of Prosper UK, to change its name less than a fortnight after its high-profile launch.
Aberdeen jobs secured after management buy-out at scrap metal firm
Dozens of jobs have been secured in Aberdeen after a management buy-out of Panda Rosa Metals, one of the city’s largest metals recycling and repurposing firms.
Rodney McAllister Snr has acquired the business from his brothers, keeping the 60-year-old company in family hands.
The deal safeguards 30 jobs across the firm’s Harehill and Canal Road sites. The workforce is expected to double within five years as the business expands.
Irn-Bru maker AG Barr buys two rival brands in £50m deal
The makers of Irn-Bru have bought two rival soft drinks brands Fentimans and Frobishers in a deal worth more than £50million.
AG Barr purchased the Hexham-based botanical brewery and fizzy drinks brand Fentimans for about £38million, in a move funded through a combination of cash and debt.
It also closed a deal at the end of its financial year to January to buy Devon-based juice business Frobishers for £13million.
Crash inquiry hears rail network is better prepared for extreme weather
The rail network is now better prepared for the risks of extreme weather than when a train derailed following heavy rain, an inquiry has been told.
The Aberdeen to Glasgow train came off the rails at Carmont in Aberdeenshire on 12 August 2020, after it hit debris washed from a drain which had not been built as designed.
Network Rail's head of programme management Russell Shanley told the sixth day of a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) that there were still improvements to be made, but better systems were now in place for reacting to bad weather forecasts.