Cheshire property group Eatonfield has drawn down a further £100,000 from an equity facility provided by joint venture partner Jenard Properties. The cash is part of an £800,000 facility that is available to Eatonfield before 31 August. However, the company admitted that the facility, if drawn down in full, will only provide it with sufficient working capital through to mid-July. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, the business said: “The board continues to seek further equity funding and has confidence that additional equity funding will be made available to the group.”

B3 Cable Solutions, based in Manchester, has launched a new brand, B3 Future Technologies, to design and manufacture high bandwidth optical fibre cables. The company has also acquired two distributors in Europe and is investing more in its Spanish factory. It has bought ANPEQ GmbH in Germany and Catway AB in Sweden, which each employ about 20 people, for undisclosed sums. ANPEQ distributes access technology for home broadband users, while Catway also offers fibre-to-the-home systems.

For those still wavering over who to vote for in today’s general election, the video highlights from Insider’s North West election debate are now online. The debate, which took place at Manchester Business School last month, features Labour MP Phil Woolas, Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim, Liberal Democrat Cllr Jackie Pearcey and leading business figures from the region. The three main political parties locked horns over issues ranging from the low-carbon economy and manufacturing to regional development agencies and spending plans. To watch the video – and see one-to-one interviews with the candidates – click here.

Marine services group James Fisher, based in Barrow, this morning said that trading in 2010 has been in line with expectations, with the trading pattern broadly similar to the second half of last year. The quoted company, which acquired Norwegian business GMC Produkt AS for £11.5m in April, said its specialist technical division has continued to trade strongly, but it has experienced lower volumes in its marine oil business. Analyst Panmure Gordon retained its buy recommendation and said: “Growth prospects remain sound, driven by the company’s successful acquisition strategy, further product development and improving economic outlook.”

Five websites have been shortlisted for the Tasty Website award at this year’s Big Chip Awards. The panel of judges set aside the sites they considered to have the ‘wow factor’. The five shortlisted entries are Fudge for the England Squash & Racketball site; Digital Blah Blah for the Adam Rix site; Manchester Museums Consortium for the Creative Tourist site; Iris Manchester for the Wonderbra Ultimate Strapless site; and Cahoona for the Cahoona website. Voters can text their choices right up until the awards night at the Palace Hotel in Manchester on 10 June. For full details of how to vote, including the terms and conditions and costs for voting, click here.

Exchange Chambers, the barristers’ set which has 120 members and 16 QCs operating out of offices in Manchester and Liverpool, has announced a record turnover for the 2009-10 financial year. It reported a turnover of £21.7m for the period, exceeding its budget by £3.7m. Director Tom Handley said: “In such a challenging financial climate – particularly for publicly-funded work – our criminal, civil and commercial departments all exceeded budget, with income from criminal work up by 27 per cent on the year before.” Exchange Chambers has also announced that author and academic Professor David Milman has joined as a professorial associate. The move comes as the set launches its specialist exchange insolvency division.

Yorkshire Bank today launched a new business planning service for companies in the region and reiterated its pledge to make £1bn of new lending available to support North West business and personal customers over the next two years. The bank’s Investing for Growth package offers loan repayment holidays, interest-only repayments and extended loan and credit terms. The announcement follows the bank’s latest results, with underlying profit up 11 per cent to £264m and pre-tax cash earnings up 17 per cent to £81m in the six months to 31 March.

Altrincham creative business The If Agency has secured a new contract from betting giant William Hill. The company won a competitive pitch to deliver a new customer relationship management programme to focus on improving customer retention and increasing spend within the online gaming and bookmaking market. William Hill hopes the move will improve cross-selling communications and new client retention.

IAS b2b Marketing, based in Cheshire, has secured seven new contracts over the past two months. The wins have a combined fee income of £500,000. Joining the agency’s roster of clients are CEL Group, Utility Masters, Target Group, Bioquell and Construction Specialties. It has also developed its relationship with global industrial group Trelleborg, winning work with two of its divisions.

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