The leader of Aberdeen City Council today opened the London Stock Exchange to mark the city’s pioneering bond issue.
Jenny Laing became the first Scottish local authority head to symbolically start the day’s City trading at 8am.
The privilege is often handed to companies when their shares start trading.
But this time Aberdeen’s unprecedented finance deal was being recognised .
Some £370million was raised for major projects in the Granite City when the bond was issued in November.
It was the first such foray into the capital markets by any local authority in Scotland and attracted better-than-expected interest.
Investors snapped up the state-backed finance package, which will help pay for a new exhibition and conference centre, schools, homes and transport links.
Aberdeen was able to launch the municipal bond issue after securing a credit rating – another first for a Scottish council.
Top agency Moody’s last month gave the authority a score of Aa2.
City Council boss opens London Stock Exchange to mark pioneering finance deal