| - |
|
Top story
|
Cityscape to appoint developer to Castleward
Derby Cityscape is to appoint a lead developer to drive plans for the Castleward area of the city centre to market. Plans include creating residential neighbourhoods, a central boulevard linking the railway station to the city centre, primary schools, shops and a multi-storey car park. It comes as Cityscape plans to focus on areas of its masterplan that have so far not been addressed including Becketwell, earmarked for high-quality offices. John Cadwallader, Cityscape's chief executive, said: “These are challenging times for the development industry, and although none of us have a crystal ball we will come out of this economic gloom. We will be marketing Castleward from early next year and drawing up proposals for Becketwell.”
|
|
|
Deals
|
Sweet deal for Big Bear
Barclays Commercial Bank has funded a £27m senior debt facility for Leicester confectionery and breakfast cereal producer Big Bear Group, maker of Sugar Puffs cereal, Harvest Chewee bars and Fox’s Confectionery. The facilities were arranged by Chris Mitchell, director of corporate leveraged finance, in conjunction with Andrew Gornall, Big Bear’s relationship director and food manufacturing specialist at Barclays.
Tenon advises on double education deal
Tenon Corporate Finance has advised Melorio on the acquisition of a series of education businesses. Melorio, based in London, has bought training companies Zenos and Zenos Learning, both based in Banbury. The deal was funded with £23m provided by Barclays and Clydesdale Bank. Melorio has also acquired Sheffield’s HB Group, which provides apprenticeship training to the construction sector, for £2.7m. Tenon provided due diligence for Melorio as well as Barclays Bank and Clydesdale Bank.
Labelling companies merge
AM Labels (AML), the Kettering labelling and bar coding specialist, has merged with Applied Labels of Corby. AML's managing director Tony Mariani said: “This is a great alliance and a superb partnership. This is an exciting opportunity and positive news in the current economic climate for the local and national business community. The merger brings us a strong and solid future.”
|
|
Business
|
Interest rates cut
The Monetary Policy Committee has cut the UK base rate to 1.5 per cent from 2 per cent in addition to December’s 1 per cent cut. The base rate is now at its lowest level since the Bank of England was founded in 1694.
Two hundred staff not welcome
Up to 200 jobs could go at Ruddington loan company Welcome Finance, part of stock exchange group Cattles, which is in talks about cutting 1,000 jobs across the business. Welcome Finance employs 1,000 people in Nottingham at different sites including offices on Abbeyfields Road, Lenton. Welcome said new business volumes were down 75 per cent in 2008 and blamed a lack of access to funding for the cutbacks. An employee told Insider: “This has come as a real surprise because three months ago I was in a meeting where management were saying the credit crunch hadn’t affected the company at all.”
Young Directors’ Forum launched
An East Midlands Young Directors’ Forum is being launched after the region picked up the inaugural Young Director of the Year award in 2008. It will include a masterclass on crisis management and handling media, with presentations by two young entrepreneurs. The evening event will be at the Holiday Inn, Nottingham/Derby, near junction 25 of the M1, on Tuesday 27 January.
|
|
Property
|
Pilgrim’s progress for F&G
Building consultancy Faithful & Gould has announced the completion of Pilgrim Hospital, Boston. The £22m project, on which Faithful & Gould advised as project consultant to Progress Care Housing Association, has provided 303 units at Boston as well as 111 new and 109 refurbished units at Lincoln, 46 new and four refurbished units at Grantham and 17 refurbished units, including four family homes, at Louth.
SCM buys into Blenheim
Blenheim House on Blenheim Industrial Estate in Bulwell, Nottingham, has been sold on a long leasehold basis by agents DTZ and Nattrass Giles to clients of Lambert Smith Hampton for a figure close to the quoting price of £2.35m. The 37,696 sq ft warehouse and offices have been bought by SCM Group, which makes woodworking and panel processing equipment.
Franklin Underwood moves to Pride Park
Accountancy firm Franklin Underwood has moved from Ruddington Fields Business Park in Nottingham to 6,500 sq ft offices on Derby’s Pride Park. The firm said it had outgrown its Ruddington base. The move was funded by Yorkshire Bank in Derby.
|
|
People
|
Farnsworth on board at Science City
Intellectual property and bioscience lawyer Scott Farnsworth has been appointed to the development board of Nottingham Science City. Farnsworth, a partner with Nottingham-based law firm Berryman, is the only lawyer on the board and also a member of Nottingham Science City’s Business Working Group, which was formed to identify and drive the involvement of businesses in Nottingham.
|
|
|
Contact Us
Insider Weekly
Canterbury House
85 Newhall Street
Birmingham
B3 1LH
Telephone: +44 (0)121 232 0980
Email:
editor.eastmids@newsco.com
|
|
Subscribe
To subscribe to the eBulletin,
click here
|
|
-
|
