Scottish Business Briefing - October 4th 2012 ITS Group hails rise in turnover International oil services firm ITS Group announced yesterday big increases in turnover and profits following an improvement in market conditions. Aberdeen-based ITS provides drilling equipment and services through a network of 29 facilities in 18 countries Irn-Bru maker gets extension for takeover talks IRN-Bru maker AG Barr and Pepsi bottler Britvic were yesterday granted extra time to continue their merger talks amid reports that the pair cannot agree whether to call the new entity "Barr Britvic" or "Britvic Barr." Olympics and Tour de France boost Halfords bike sales Halfords has said that its sales of bicycles and accessories were boosted by British successes in the Tour de France and Olympic cycling. Overall like-for-like sales were up 5.6% in the quarter, following a 5.6% fall in sales the previous quarter. Franchise fiasco wipes more than £200m off FirstGroup's value ALMOST £250 million was wiped off FirstGroup's market value yesterday as analysts warned that the west coast rail line franchise fiasco could weaken the Aberdeen-based transport group's balance sheet and may trigger further asset sales or even a rights issue.