Aberdeen oil services company Wood, one of Scotland’s big publicly quoted companies, was in focus last week as it delivered results hard on the heels of Middle Eastern suitor Sidara walking away from a takeover bid.

Wood chief executive Ken Gilmartin appeared very keen indeed to be on the front foot as he gave his assessment of the outlook for the business.

And he told The Herald: “The world needs Wood.”

Scotland has seen many of its biggest companies disappear from the stock market in recent years, largely through takeover.

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It has been something of a demoralising situation, although Scotland is not alone in this regard, with experts having noted this is a broader UK problem.

We should not underestimate the effect on Scotland of losing the headquarters of the two big, formerly Edinburgh-based clearing banks. This is a very big deal.

Royal Bank of Scotland, after its highly successful acquisition of NatWest in 2000 in the wake of a hostile bid battle, came close to collapse as the global financial crisis took a lurch for the worse in autumn 2008. It had to be bailed out to the tune of tens of billions of pounds by the UK Government. Now rebranded as NatWest, the institution is run from London these days.

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Bank of Scotland merged in 2001 with Halifax to form HBOS. The enlarged entity was based in Edinburgh. However, HBOS came unstuck as the global financial crisis took a grip and was acquired by Lloyds in a rescue takeover.

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Other major names in corporate Scotland which featured on the stock market in decades gone by but do so no longer include Stakis, Kwik-Fit, ScottishPower, and Scottish & Newcastle, which were all acquired, and General Accident, which was swallowed up in a merger deal.

Major quoted company headquarters are generally important to both Scotland’s reputation on the international stage and the nation’s economy.

In this context, therefore, it is good to see Wood retain its independence.

The company is a key employer in Scotland. It ¬employs around 4,500 people in Aberdeen and in its North Sea operations.

Obviously, it remains to be seen what happens now.

This is not the first time Wood has attracted bid interest recently, with US private equity outfit Apollo having weighed a takeover last year before deciding against it.

No other suitors emerged amid the Sidara bid interest. And, at the time of writing, none have done so in the wake of the Dubai-based group walking away from a deal, citing rising geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty.

Only time will tell, of course, where Wood goes from here.

The Aberdeen company said last week it remains busy in the North Sea, as it posted an after-tax loss of $983 million for the six months to June 30. This reflected its cutting of the valuation of operations acquired under previous management, with Wood booking an exceptional charge of $815m.

Mr Gilmartin said the bulk of the charge related to operations acquired through the $2.7bn takeover of Amec Foster Wheeler in 2017.

He struck an upbeat tone when Wood published its results last Tuesday.

Mr Gilmartin said: “There is no net zero in the world without the people we have. We’re very important to energy security, the energy transition piece …sustainable solutions, decarbonising, reducing CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and we are continuing to hire and grow our headcount.”

Also in focus last week was the Scottish Government’s revelation that peak rail fares would be reintroduced at its ScotRail operation from late next month.

My column in The Herald on Friday observed this was “certainly disappointing”.

However, it added: “The crucial point, however, and that which looks to have sounded the death knell for the brave move to remove peak fares, is that the 6.8% increase in demand during the pilot scheme was just not enough. The Scottish Government calculated that a 10% increase in demand for ScotRail services was required to ensure the cost of removing peak fares was paid for through the growth in rail travel generated.”

Transport Scotland puts the cost of the full-year subsidy that will have been provided by the Scottish Government for the removal of peak fares by the time the scheme ends on September 27 at about £40m.

The column observed that “In less difficult times for Scotland’s public finances, which are under great pressure at the moment because of UK-wide factors, it might have been possible to absorb this cost”.

It added: “However, the public finances are excruciatingly tight, and the Scottish Government must balance other key priorities.

“In this respect, the disappointing decision to resume peak fares is entirely understandable.”

The pilot scheme was a bold move, and it would have been good to see it become self-financing with a sufficient increase in rail travel to offset the cost of doing away with sometimes eye-watering peak fares.

The temporary removal of peak fares has provided a significant boost to the finances of many households, in these difficult times. And the pilot scheme looked like a good thing for city and town centres struggling to recover fully from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

If the opportunity ever arises to have another go at removing peak rail fares, it would be good to see it taken. That said, given the outlook for the public finances and UK economy, this appears to be an unlikely prospect in the short term.