Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Bank’s net profit surges more 170% to more than €2bn as it records strongest financial performance in its history.
AIB said it plans to buy back a further €1 billion of its shares from the State after unveiling a higher-than-expected spike in profits last year amid heightened interest rates, to deliver the strongest financial performance in its history.
AIB is on track for strong profits after an “exceptional” 2023, the lender’s chief executive has said.
Colin Hunt was speaking after the bank announced after-tax profits of €854m for the first six months of the year, up 55pc on last year and thanks largely to higher interest rates.
On the evening of Friday 23rd June, we continued Queen Mary's 90th anniversary celebrations with a special charter of PS Waverley.
388 invited guests and passengers enjoyed a cruise from Glasgow Science Centre to the Tail of the Bank, and back.
AIB chief executive Colin Hunt expects “another number” of interest rate hikes this year as the lender looks forward to a significant rise in income.
Mr Hunt did not reveal if and when AIB depositors might benefit from the rate hikes, saying only that it was “an area of active consideration at the moment”.
The Parliament notes that Jim Pettigrew has stepped down as Chair of the Dundee Heritage Trust; understands that Mr Pettigrew has held the role for nearly three years, successfully guiding the trust through the challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and a period of redevelopment at the Trust’s flagship, Discovery Point.
Mr Pettigrew has led the independent charity through a period of exciting development at Discovery Point and helped raise significant funds to accelerate conservation plans across the Trust’s Dundee assets, including the social history museum Verdant Works.
Dundee Heritage Trust has today reopened its doors to unveil a dramatic upgrade to the gallery and previously inaccessible dome area of the iconic Riverside exhibition to create a new public gallery with a 360° panoramic view over the city and the River Tay.
A stunning virtual 360° experience showcasing Dundee’s history as one of the UK’s busiest ports will open on Thursday.The Courier was invited along for a first look at the immersive Dundee Dome Experience at Discovery Point.
Here we explain what visitors can expect from the refreshed attraction, which first opened in 1993.
These images from DC Thomson’s archive chart the historic moment the RRS Discovery made her last-ever voyage exactly 30 years ago.
AIB is to deploy between 500 and 1,000 staff to help deal with the influx of new customers arising from the impending departure from the Irish market of Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland.
Jim Pettigrew, chairman of Dundee Heritage Trust, says it is a “very exciting” time for locals with the Eden Project and transformation of Discovery Point on the horizon.
Mr Pettigrew has confirmed to The Courier that the first phase of Discovery Point’s £12 million upgrade will “definitely be completed by April”.
AIB has appointed the ex-chairman of UK bank Virgin Money as its new chairman.
Jim Pettigrew, who is originally from Dundee, Scotland, will succeed Richard Pym, who stepped down earlier this year, with immediate effect.
Work has started on the biggest upgrade to Dundee’s Discovery Point visitor centre since it opened in 1993.
The popular attraction, which tells the story of RRS Discovery’s expedition to Antarctica in 1901, is getting a £12 million facelift. Work on the Dundee-built ship itself will also be carried out to protect it from deterioration thanks to a £409,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
A multimillion-pound boost will see climate change placed at the heart of the Discovery Point heritage museum in Dundee.
Five new or improved major attractions at the home of the famous scientific research ship RRS Discovery are scheduled as the city looks...
A radical revamp and expansion of a waterfront museum action dedicated to a celebrated polar research vessel built in Scotland more than a century ago will be transformed into a “world-class” attraction exploring the impact of modern-day climate change and conservation efforts in Antarctica.
Dundee’s iconic Discovery Point is set to undergo a £12 million transformation – with more than half the funds already secured.
The project will see the attraction – home to RRS Discovery – given a major overhaul.
Jim Pettigrew CA is Chairman of Scottish Ballet, the forward-thinking national dance company based in Glasgow. He was also 2015-16 ICAS President.
Life under lockdown: “For ballet dancers, not performing for over a year can take a huge chunk out of your life...
One of Scotland’s most high-profile businessmen has been announced today as the next chair of Scottish Ballet.
Jim Pettigrew, who recently retired as chairman of Virgin Money, will take the role at the organisation’s annual general meeting in December, succeeding Norman Murray, who has led the board for seven years.
The former chairman of the Clydesdale Bank is to take over at the helm of Dundee Heritage Trust.
Dundee-born Jim Pettigrew, who recently retired from the bank, will take over in October.
He will succeed Andy Lothian, who is to step down after 11 years at the charity, which looks after RRS Discovery and Verdant Works.
Virgin Money, the UK lender formerly known as CYBG, has begun the search for its first new chairman since it became an independent bank and bought the old Virgin Money.
Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) has appointed Philip Grant of Lloyds Bank as its new chairman.
The representative group for the financial services industry in Scotland has announced that he will succeed Jim Pettigrew at the end of his three-year term, subject to members’ approval.
The question of how Scotland — a relatively rich and prosperous country, but with low productivity — can reach its true potential was among the topics debated at a recent gathering of business people, politicians and academics in Glasgow.
The £1.7bn merger between Virgin Money and CYBG has gone ahead this morning (15 October).
Earlier this year the two challenger banks agreed to a takeover deal which they claimed would create "the first true national competitor to the large incumbent banks."
Jim Pettigrew, chairman of CYBG, said: "I am delighted we have completed the acquisition of the Virgin Money business".
Today is the 70th anniversary of the Waverley's maiden launch on the Clyde and Jim Pettigrew, a long-time supporter of the charity behind the world's oldest operational seagoing paddle steamer, is marking the occasion with a trip aboard his beloved vessel along the Thames.
That was the conclusion of our expert judging panel as they set about whittling down the record number of entries for The Courier Business Awards 2016.
After a hotly debated judging session at the awards new home at Apex City Quay Hotel in Dundee, the first element of the judging process is now complete and today we reveal the excellent local firms that have made it through to the next stage of the 2016 competition.
Jim Pettigrew, unveiled as the next chairman of Scottish Financial Enterprise, has declared the financial sector north of the Border has “huge potential” and emphasised the importance of its “role in society”.
Financial services industry veteran Mr Pettigrew, who is chairman of Glasgow-based Clydesdale Bank, will succeed merchant banker Sir Ewan Brown as chairman of SFE on July 1. Sir Ewan is retiring from the role, having held it for four years.
In the backlash against the herd mentality and “casino-style” behaviour that laid the foundations for the financial crash, regulators of all varieties have set down scores of new rules to ensure such a disaster is never repeated.
The name of the game these days is “compliance”, which in itself has become a booming sector as firms of every size and description scramble to meet their statutory obligations.
The President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland has called for "tough leadership" from politicians and business figures to ensure the City retains a crucial role in global capital markets.
In a speech in front of Lord Mayor of London Alan Yarrow at the Mansion House, ICAS president Jim Pettigrew said: "The City has been the most remarkable success story for the UK economy since the industrial revolution.
While stock markets may finally be clambering out of the doldrums, high-flyers across the City of London continue to cry into their half-empty glasses of champagne. An end to the recession still seems to be a distant glimmer and investors remain cautious about pumping their money into funds.
But one man seems unperturbed by the ongoing doom and gloom. Jim Pettigrew, chief executive of spread betting firm CMC Markets, bounces into his large and airy boardroom in Tower Hill, smiling broadly and proclaiming that he feels "fantastic".
There are a number of titles Jim Pettigrew could opt for - nicest guy in the City, fastest talker or biggest hair - but he is a shoo-in for Best Nose for Financial Genius. The self-effacing Scotsman has, in turn, hitched his wagon to three of London’s most successful entrepreneurs and, on the way, become a success in his own right. Not that he would admit it. “Please don’t write that I was responsible for all of Icap’s success,” is his parting plea.
Jim Pettigrew likes to be boring. Boring is good. The more boring, the better. “I am a very cautious man, being a Scottish chartered accountant – and from the east coast, as well,” the recently installed FD of Ashmore Group tells us.
That much we already knew: when we interviewed Pettigrew in mid-2003 he was the finance director of ICAP, an inter-dealer broker that had grown to the point where it was handling $500bn (£255bn) a day and yet he managed to make the job sound strictly textbook: “You just have to have resilient systems that are scalable…” he told us then.
Ashmore Investment Management, one of Britain's fastest growing emerging market fund managers, is set to announce plans to float in move that could see its boss receive a windfall worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Weekend reports suggested that Ashmore hopes for a valuation of more than £1bn. Mark Coombs, the managing director, controls 60 per cent of the group.
For a company that’s still only just approaching the back door of the FTSE-100, ICAP is a pretty remarkable business. The numbers attached to this, the largest inter-dealer broker in the world, make it necessary to double- or even triple-check all the key facts – they just seem too enormous. We wonder if we have the right number of zeros, the right time period – the right currency, for that matter.
