RBS – McDonald Road junction roadworks – Film Festival App – Spa in the City – Northern Lights
RBS have just announced this morning a pre-tax profit for the first three months of 2013, and Chairman, Philip Hampton said that the bank’s capital position continues to improve, their liquidity is ‘very strong indeed’ and the bank’s funding requirements are extremely low. He also hinted that the public ownership of the bank may be coming to an end. “This is our best quarterly performance for some time now. We are trying hard to support business. This is what banks should do particularly in difficult times. Our SME lending quarter on quarter has grown, so there are some encouraging signs. What we want to do is have a business that is performing well and strong in capital so that the Government can start selling shares from the middle of 2014 on. The recovery process should be substantially complete in about a year’s time.” Full details on the RBS website but the basic points are:-
- RBS reports a Q1 2013 pre-tax profit of £826 million
- Group operating profit of £829 million, up from £553 million in Q4 2012
- Q1 2013 net attributable profit of £393 million
- Core Tier 1 ratio increases 50 basis points to 10.8%, or 8.2% on a fully loaded Basel III basis
- Tangible net asset value up 3% to 459p per share
In order to complete the utilities work at the McDonald Road junction as quickly as possible, the contractor was working there overnight last night, and will also be working at the junction on Saturday and Sunday this weekend in order to carry out valve/hydrant replacement works. The additional hours will be as follows:
Saturday 4 May – 13:00 to 22:00
Sunday 5 May – 10:00 to 18:00
Following this, work will commence as normal on Monday 6 May 2013 although further additional work outwith normal hours may still be required. The completion date for this work is now 12 May.
McDonald Road is closed to through traffic from Leith Walk meantime.
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This year Edinburgh International Film Festival will be keeping you connected by introducing their brand new EIFF App. Free to download, this latest feature of the Festival will allow you to view trailers of the upcoming films, give you access to the EIFF line-up and screening times as well as let you browse venue and ticketing information all from the palm of your hand.
What’s more, the EIFF App will be equipped with GPS and city mapping to ensure that you’re never far from your favourite flick. The EIFF App will be launched alongside the Festival programme on 29 May 2013.
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Spa in the City features in our photograph today. This event run by Essential Edinburgh is a chance for the girls to get some beauty treatments and have a fun day out. There is more information on the Spa in the City Facebook page.
Even though pre-bookings have closed the organisers assure us that there will be loads of appointments available on the day. The event is being run over Saturday and Sunday. The Reporter is invited to the pre-event bash this evening and we may have more news for you after that!
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Northern Lights is being shown at cinemas across Scotland from today. This is a film about Scotland made by you if you contributed your footage to the project. Funded by Creative Scotland the project was to gather as much film footage about Scotland in the year of Creative Scotland and edit this into a film showing what the country is all about. It is being hailed as a success by those who have already seen the previews. It is showing at Cineworld over the weekend to rival Iron Man 3, beginning from today at 12:45. There are five daily screenings for the next week. More details about times and how to book here on the Cineworld website which describes the film:-
“Compiled from footage shot by the public, this fascinating documentary provides a uniquely intimate look at Scottish life. How do you capture the essence of Scotland in just one film? You invite people all across the country to submit their unique visions in a mass participation project and combine them into an impressionistic feature film that is poignant, thrilling, moving often very funny and strays far from the stereotypes we often encounter. There is banter and blether, bike rides and booze, the mundane and the magnificent, beautiful landscapes that take your breath away and ideas that fill you with pride and hope for the future. This is a chance to re-discover Scotland through the eyes and thoughts of the people who live here.”
If you have a venue then apparently you can also ask to screen the film. More details here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
