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Business Editor: Ian McConnellTel: 0141 302 7142Fax: 0141 302 6699

Deputy Business Editor:Greig CameronTel: 0141 302 7145

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Crosswords

SATURDAY’S SOLUTIONSThe Wee Stinker by Myops in association with McTear's Auctioneers

Please indicate your size: S, M, L, or XL. Please allow 28 days for prize delivery.

NAME ...................................................................................................................

ADDRESS ..............................................................................................................

........................................................................... Postcode ....................................

Today’s winner will receive a Wee StinkerT-shirt and a £50 voucher to spend at aMcTear's Auction of their choice over the next12 months. Standard Herald rules apply.

Send the finished crossword, to arrive by first post Thursday, to: The Wee Stinker,POBox946,MarketingDept,TheHerald,200RenfieldStreet,GlasgowG2 3QB.

ACROSS7 Man in street upset about ten

stupid diversions (14)9 After dance you'd regularly

stand (6)10 Wimps pick up the tab for

Spooner's sport (8)11 One agreeing to enrol on a

ship (8)13 Bolt in tie-breaker (3-3)14 Responsibility over nation

upset Scotland's leaders (4)15 Fish that's commonly excel-

lent (5)16 Charge forwards (4)17 That woman's clothing was

staggering guy (6)19 Holiday involves couple

heading off with flight (8)21 Thread from suit worn by the

French soldiers (8)23 In goal, blocking shot (6)24 Dish often being well cooked

(4,10)

ACROSS3 It’s an Oval delivery

(9)8 Elder with longer

service (6)9 In a bad way (9)10 Free in – free from

crudity (6)13 Marsh tree (5)14 Saucy fish (7)15 Lyric poem (3)16 Not dear (7)17 Ticket office (5)21 As you choose cloth

(2,4)23 Ethical dealing (4,5)24 Fringe (6)25 Morse code (4-5)

DOWN1 Typical soldiers put on musi-

cal when retreating (14)2 Corks, maybe, in front of

some hats (8)3 Swallow metal polish (6)4 Try to return bananas (4)5 Essential triangle playing (8)6 Heavy head leads to early

night (6)8 With skill in raising fine, we

find cars misbehaving (7,7)12 Cords that may be connected

to chargers (5)15 Sat next to writer, holding up

second-class degree (8)16 Warnings left by social work-

ers exchanging notes (8)18 County provides workers for

crooks (6)20 Temporary extra work (6)22 Cost of bikini, possibly not

including top (4)

DOWN1 Is he NASA tourist?

(9)2 Beyond words (9)3 Before long the rest

(4)4 Prepared & plated (5)5 Winstone’s winning

part (7)6 Faithful on balance?

(4)7 Just sole (4)11 Hypnotic (9)12 Got my holy stories?

(9)14 Help (3)15 Propriety (7)18 Junior DA &c.? (5)19 Ring 4 men (4)20 Ally’s tartan? (4)22 Scott’s 11 (4)

LAST WEEK’S WINNERS:

A. Duncan,Strathaven.

--------------------------L. Matheson, St

Andrews,

L. Hawthorne, Clarkston.

N. Brown, Troon.

O. Morrison, Helensburgh.

Across: 1 High, 4 Scream, 7 Ado, 9Torn, 10 Unending, 11 Gin, 12 Whim, 13Daybreak, 16 Transport cafe, 19 Lonsdale,23 Belt, 24 Nib, 25 Idomeneo, 26 Lees, 27Cue, 28 Wealth, 29 Rash.

Down: 2 In other words, 3 Hangman, 4Sound, 5 Reedy, 6 Adder, 8 Unlawfulness,14 Aboil, 15 Bat, 17 Sad, 18 Cobbler, 20Somme, 21 Annul, 22 Enoch.

Last week’s Wee Stinker

Across: 1 Alcopop, 5,8 Thick space, 9,10Paisley pattern, 11 Onset, 12 Partan, 14Simian, 17,19 Dutch auction, 22 Open air,23 Coarb, 24 Kudos, 25 Siamese.

Down: 1 Aesop, 2 Chanter, 3 Piece, 4Piping, 5 Tripoli, 6 Isles, 7 Krypton, 12Puddock, 13 Ashrams, 15 Imitate, 16Harris, 18 Tweed, 20 Cocoa, 21 Noble.

No. 13,840 by QIXMonday, 24th August, 2015

l Published by Newsquest (Herald & Times) Ltd, registered in Scotland with registered number SC011138 and registered office at 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB. Printed at 125 Fullerton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG

Ernst&Young adds a partnerACCOUNTANCYfirmErnst&Young has named its 12th newpartner in Scotland this year.

Paul Copland,whohaspreviously beenwithDeloitte,hasworked in sectors includingtechnology,media andtelecommunications,transportation, oil and gas andmanufacturing.

MarkHarvey, the senior

partner for EYScotland, said:“Paul’s appointment comes at atime of significant expansionand investment for EY inScotland.”

Just onemonth ago the firmpromoted 10 of its staff topartner.

The appointment ofMrCoplandmeansEYnowhas 33partners in Scotland.

Acumen co-founder plans to retire

PGPaper snaps upTullis brands

THEco-founder of publicrelations agencyAcumen isretiring at the end of nextmonth.

AlistairMcLean spent theearly part of his career as atourist officer for a number ofdifferent areas of Scotland buthas spent the last 36 yearsworking in PR. That included aspell heading communications

outside of London and then inScotland for accountancy giantPricewaterhouseCoopers.

He formedEdinburgh-basedAcumenwithKevinDorrian in2002.MrDorrianwill continueto run the company.

MrMcLean said: “I know thatAcumen clients are in very goodhands and that is important.”

PGPAPERhas acquired twobrands owned by the collapsedpaper-maker Tullis Russell.

Kilmacolmbased PG, ownedby husband andwife Puneet andPoonamGupta, paid anundisclosed sum for the TrucardandGemini ranges. TullisRussell was said to have soldmore than 73,000 tonnes ofTrucard in 2014.

Gemini is a similarcartonboard type of productwith both brands used bymodern printers and in high-quality packaging. In a jointstatement theGuptas said: “Weare delighted to have acquiredtwo incredibly reputable andwell-respected brands in thepremiumpackaging boardindustry.”

Partners atDeloitte toshare profitof £593m

PARTNERSatDeloittehave seen theiraverageearnings rise from£750,000 to£822,000 as the accountancy firmposted a seven per cent rise in profits.

Deloitte, which has 42 of it partnersin Scotland, said its revenue grew 6.4per cent from £2.55 billion to £2.71bnin the12months to theendofMay thisyear. That helped the profit – which isdistributable to partners – reach £593million, up from£554m.

Not every partnerwould receive theaverage figure with some getting moreand others less.

David Sproul, senior partner andchief executive at the company, said:“The past 12 months have beenmarked by improved economic condi-t ions and stronger businessconfidence.

“Whilst we saw some hesitation inthe run-up to theGeneralElection, thebroad-based increase in appetite fromUK plc to invest in growth, productiv-ity and efficiency improvements,governance and riskmanagement andtheir customer focus has contributedtoapositive set of results for ourfirm.”

Audit services remained the largestpart of the practice, signing off morethan 16,000 reports in the year, butonly grew 0.3 per cent from £706m to£708m. The consulting arm saw reve-nue increase10.5per cent from£622mto £687m while tax advisory revenuewas up five per cent from £562m to£590m.

Thefinancial advisorydivisiongrewnine per cent from£424m to £462m.

MrSproul,first electedas chief exec-utive in 2011 and re-elected earlier thisyear, said the firm was working to getmore women into senior roles and istargeting 25 per cent of partner posi-tions being filled bywomenby 2020.

He also hopes to close the genderpay gap of 17.8 per cent at the firm,which is around1.3 per cent below theUK average. He said: “However, whenlooking across the organisation as awhole the pay gap between male andfemale employees at each grade issignificantly lower, at 1.5 per cent.”

More puzzles on Page 20

BullishCBI upseconomicgrowthforecast

SUSTAINED consumerspending along with greaterbusiness investment willhelp boost UK economicgrowth this year, theCBIhassaid.

Thebusiness groupuppedits forecast for GDP growthin theUK to 2.6 per cent, upfrom the 2.4 per cent itpredicted in June.

The projection for 2016was increased to2.8per centfrom2.5 per cent.

It also predicts interestrateswill rise to0.75percentin the first quarter of nextyear, having previouslypencilled in the increase forthe second quarter.

The CBI said it was morebullish as a result of betterproductivity in the first halfof this year which is startingto feed through to strongerwage growth in some partsof the economy.

Household spending istipped to remain buoyantpartly as a result of low infla-tionanddepressedcommod-ity prices.

Along with that the CBIsaid its own surveys indicateanappetite for capital spend-ing by businesses causing itto revise growth projectionsupwards from4.5per cent to6.2 per cent.

John Cridland, CBI direc-tor general, said: “We’reencouraged by the twinengined-growth of house-hold spending, spurred bystronger wage increases andlow inflation, buttressed bybusiness investment. We’realso seeing tentative signs ofproductivity picking up.”

However the CBI didwarn that export marketsmaycontinue tobeadrag forthe immediate future even

Hotel chief saysdipwill not last forever

THE man leading an English hotelgroup’s £40 million expansion intoAberdeen has expressed confidencein the long-term prospects for themarket in the city although thedownturn in theoil and gas industryhasweighed on trading.

Andrew Mcloughlin said theLondon-based Dominus Group waspleased with the progress it hasmade in the Granite City since itopened its first outlet there in June,under the Holiday Inn Expressbrand.

The 193-bedroom hotel openednear Aberdeen Airport during aperiod when oil and gas firms havebeen slashing spending in responseto theplunge in thecrudeprice sinceJune last year. Travel budgets areseen by some as a soft target.

A report earlier this month foundoccupancy levels slumped in Aber-deen hotels inMay.

Dominuswillopena165-bedroomCrowne Plaza hotel near AberdeenAirport next month amid signs theNorth Sea oil and gas industry facesa long downturn. This did not seemto be on the cards when Dominusbought into the city.

DominusGroupacquired sites forboth hotels in November 2013during the boom in the oil and gasmarket that ended last year.

However, MrMcloughlin, who isgeneral manager of the Aberdeenhotels, said the indications are thenew Crowne Plaza will get off to agood start.

“We are happy with the level ofrooms that we’ve picked up in linewith our forecasts,” said MrMcloughlin.

Thehotel,whichoffersconferencefacilities, has signed up a range ofcorporate clients. It has taken book-ings for events.

Mr Mcloughlin said the HolidayInnExpresshad takenslightly longerto build up momentum than wouldhave been expected during theboom. However, it has achievedoccupancy rates of around 90 percent on keymidweek nights.

Occupancy is averaging 70 percent over the seven days.

But the hotel has accepted lowerrates thanmay have been hoped forto attract retail customers.

“It’s common knowledge thatrates in the market have dropped,”said Mr Mcloughlin. “We havedropped in l ine with thecompetition.”

While rates paid by corporatecustomers have held up, MrMcloughlin noted other signs thatmarket conditions have got tougher,including the trend to leave itincreasingly late to book hotels.

“The booking lead time hasdramatically reduced,” he said.

However, he expects such pres-sures to ease as conditions improvein the oil and gas industry.

“We see the current situation as adip, it will not last for ever,” saidMrMcloughlin, who noted otheraspects of the Aberdeenmarket thatencourage confidence.

“It’s a fantastic city … it’s not justoil and gas.

“There’s wind and energy, there’sa vast amount of corporates.”

Recent reports have underlinedthe scale of the challenge that iscurrently facing the leisure sector inAberdeen.

Aberdeen Airport said recentlythat its domestic passenger numbersin Julywere downby 5.9 per cent onthe samemonth of 2014.

Helicopter traffic remainedbelow2014 levels, showing a 14.8 per centyear-on-year decline in July.

Aberdeen’s international passen-ger numbers in July were up by

1.8 per cent on the samemonth lastyear.

By contrast, Glasgow and Edin-burgh airports saw total passengernumbers increase by 13.7 per centand 10 per cent respectively year onyear in July.

Accountants BDO found occu-pancy inAberdeen dropped 17.5 percent year on year inMay to 62.5 percent, whilst the cost per averageroom fell almost one third to£52.45.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inver-ness recorded strong increases inbusiness.

Dominus Group also operates aHoliday Innhotel inDumfries.

Founded in 2011 the group oper-ates three hotels in England.

It has properties under construc-tion in Manchester, Oxford andLondon.

Companies have shed around5,000 jobs in the North Sea inresponse to the plunge in the crudeprice from $115 per barrel in Junelast year, to less than $50.

Managerat cityvenues insistsAberdeen iswellplaced tooutlastcurrentcrisis

CONFIDENCE IN FUTURE: Andrew Mcloughlin has been pleased with the progress being made in the Granite City.

MARKWILLIAMSONBUSINESS CORRESPONDENT

GREIG CAMERONDEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

GREIG CAMERONDEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

CityBriefing

STOCK EXCHANGE INDICES LAST WEEKClose Change %Change

FTSE 100 6187.65 -363.09 -5.54FTSE 250 16876.60 -744.33 -4.22FTSE All-Share 3399.93 -187.24 -5.22FTSE techMARK All-Share 3024.61 -148.19 -4.67DJ Industrials 16459.75 -1017.65 -5.82NASDAQ Composite 4706.04 -342.20 -6.78S&P 500 1970.89 -120.65 -5.77FTSEurofirst 300 1427.13 -101.02 -6.61XETRA Dax 10124.52 -860.62 -7.83CAC 40 4630.99 -325.48 -6.57FTSE Italia All-Share 23378.81 -1562.06 -6.26Nikkei 225 19435.83 -1083.62 -5.28Hang Seng 22409.62 -1581.41 -6.59

TOURIST EXCHANGE RATES

INTERNATIONAL MONEY RATES

BANK DEALING RATES GOLD & OIL

TAILPIECE

Close Change Close ChangePound/Dollar 1.5682 +0.0058Euro/Pound 0.7243 +0.0132

Gold ($) 1156.50 +38.25Brent Crude 46.62 -2.60

Overnight 1wk 1mnth 3mnths 6mnths 12mnthsSterling n/a - n/a 21

32 - 1532

1116 - 1

223

32 - 1732

1316 - 5

8 1132 - 27

32

US Dollar n/a - n/a 38 - 5

325

16 - 316

1532 - 5

165

8 - 1532

3132 - 13

16

Euro n/a - 14

332 - 3

161

32 - 532 n/a - 3

321

8 - 132

732 - 1

32

(£) Buy SellUnited States 1.4958 1.5830Eurozone 1.3214 1.4021Australia 2.0299 2.1856Canada 1.9376 2.0712Croatia 9.4995 10.72Czech Rep 34.13 38.70Denmark 9.8906 10.57Hong Kong 11.55 12.34Iceland 181.56 -Israel 5.5031 6.2701

India 91.32 113.63Japan 184.15 198.05New Zealand 2.2250 2.4537Norway 12.29 13.09Poland 5.1599 6.0121Singapore 2.0671 2.2802South Africa 18.93 21.62Sweden 12.69 13.49Switzerland 1.4280 1.5196Turkey 4.3405 4.7539

CPI Inflation (Jul) +0.10%RPI Inflation (Jul) +1.00%Retail Price Index (Jul) 258.60

Base Rate: (06/08/2015) 0.50%Fin House Rate (Aug) 1.00%Source: The Press Association

(£) Buy Sell

Source: Travelex (for indicative purpose only)

workingforbusiness08000522345voice data vision internet e-commerce

Base price is close on December 31, 2014

Castle Street Investments 37 1812 +11

4 +100.00Iomart Group 246 170 -9 +44.71Craneware 6393

4 476 -514 +34.40

Optos 339 25518 +32.88

STV Group 470 365 -734 +28.77

Menzies (John) 45014 3551

2 -5914 +26.65

Faroe Petroleum 69 6012 -23

4 +14.05Standard Life 4273

4 40018 -123

8 +6.92Stagecoach 3837

8 37058 -151

8 +3.59British Polythene 683 661 -13 +3.33FirstGroup 110 1063

4 -7 +3.09Edinburgh Inv Trust 667 6511

4 -2512 +2.42

Monks Inv Trust 393 394 -2378 -0.25

Scottish Mortgage 24434 248 -173

8 -1.29Wood Gp(J) 578 5961

2 +12 -3.10

Scottish Inv Trust 591 611 -29 -3.27Alliance Trust 4627

8 47878 -253

8 -3.34Devro 2901

2 305 -1212 -4.75

Barr (AG) 555 590 -1412 -5.93

SSE 1490 1622 -48 -8.14Smart Metering Systems 3411

2 395 -214 -13.54

Royal Bank Scotland 32318 3943

8 -1814 -18.08

Cairn Energy 14512 1781

2 -778 -18.49

Bowleven 2312 311

4 -1 -24.80Aberdeen Asset Mgt 3135

8 43214 -281

4 -27.44Weir 1324 1851 -138 -28.47Aggreko 1036 1504 -43 -31.12Parkmead Group 843

8 12734 -131

4 -33.95Johnston Press 98 166 -91

2 -40.96

Current Base +/-p +/-%price price on week on base

SCOTLAND’S TOP 30 SHARESin association with the complete communications company

Monday August 24, 2015 H E R A L D S C O T L A N D . C O M

Continued on Page 23