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Top story
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Who will lose out to pay for £300m housing plan?
Northwest Regional Development Agency chairman Bryan Gray has responded to the government’s decision to divert £300m from the regional development agencies’ (RDA) budgets to fund the Homebuy Direct housing initiative. In a letter to business secretary John Hutton, seen by Insider, Gray said that “funding will need to be moved from longer-term economic regeneration priorities”. He said that funding for urban regeneration companies, tourism projects, support for local authorities in setting up multi-area agreements, capital investments and match-funding for European-backed projects will be affected, in the last case “increasing the risk of this funding being lost to the UK". He added: "RDAs will now begin work to identify which future programmes need to be reduced."
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Deals
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Cheshire deal heralds sector consolidation
The Cheshire Building Society and The Derbyshire are preparing to merge with Nationwide in a deal that confirms predictions for the sector. The KPMG Building Societies Database last month said the housing downturn would trigger a wave of mergers and the Macclesfield-headquartered Cheshire, which has assets of £4.9bn, is expecting an unaudited pre-tax loss of £10.5m for the half year to 30 June due to an exceptional £11.5m impairment charge on a single secured commercial loan. Earlier this year it hired NM Rothschild to carry out a strategic review and identify a merger partner, but a previous deal fell through. Nationwide is satisfied that both societies' general reserves will cover future losses and the merger will create a society with £191bn of assets and £122bn of retail deposits. Cheshire chief executive Karen McCormick will remain with the society for up to 12 months to ease the transition.
Spice on the trail again
Spice, the parent company of Lancashire-based Inenco, Liverpool-based Saturn Energy and Lytham St Annes-based commercial energy broker Energy 2000, is to continue its aggressive acquisitions programme following its £50m share placing last week. The Leeds utility support group is headed by Fylde businessman Simon Rigby, who said: "Energy saving is going to be a huge market. There will be âchance of a lifetime' opportunities to consolidate the energy market even further." Inenco manages nearly £1bn of gas and electricity for blue-chip customers.
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Business
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Hoxton Hotel - coming soon to Manchester?
Sinclair Beecham, the co-founder of ethical sandwich chain Pret a Manger, plans to bring his "budget boutique" hotel model to Manchester. The Hoxton Hotel, billed as an "urban lodge", opened in September 2006, offering food and drink at high street prices, some luxuries and a sliding scale of room prices starting at £1 for the first five rooms booked on any given night. Beecham plans to bring the concept to the Northern Quarter, where developer Argent is leading the city council's plans to sell the area as the city's bohemian quarter. Beecham is reported to have funding in place for the roll-out programme across ten sites.
Canadian company calls for Carlisle expansion
Pressure is mounting to approve Stobart Group's plans to redevelop Carlisle Airport. Canada-based World Biofibre Technology, headed by Carlisle-born Peter Jardine, is keen to invest £250m in building a green power plan in west Cumbria, but wants reassurance that Stobart would remain at the heart of the area's distribution network. Stobart's reworked plans will be put forward next month in the hope of avoiding a public inquiry.
Davenham shows ABL still buoyant
Manchester-headquartered Davenham Group has again shown the resilience of the asset-based lending (ABL) sector in the face of the credit crunch by posting underlying pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June up 13 per cent to £13.1m and group revenue up 27 per cent to £53.1m on a loan portfolio of £284m. With an expanding geographic footprint, the group has seen growth in asset and trade finance, while the property portfolio has struggled. Chief executive David Coates is confident of being able to meet "near-term challenges" thanks to a robust business model.
Tax fraud taxis owner jailed
Norma Astley, owner of Bolton-based Metro Cars, has been given a jail sentence of nine months for a tax fraud involving false accounts. Her son Nicholas received a six-month sentence. She was found guilty on 18 counts of fraud after an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs officers found that the Astleys were responsible for evading VAT and income taxes totalling over £75,000 and vastly under-declared their business and personal incomes.
Profits for telecoms company Neteller
Neteller, the Salford-based telecoms network provider, is expecting to record a profit for the year to the end of August, after margins were maintained and outstanding payments were recovered from certain customers. The company has found that the difficult economic conditions mean sales cycles are lengthening and contracts are taking longer to convert, increasing the uncertainty surrounding the timing of new business revenues. Meanwhile, Paul Foley has been appointed as director of sales and business development, joining from O2 UK, where he spent four years leading the business sales division in the north.
North West bucks economic trend
It may seem that all economic surveys are full of gloom these days, but the August PMI Business Survey from The Royal Bank of Scotland has found that the North West private sector actually registered an expansion in output in August. While the region could not escape the national trend of shrinking private sector workforces and sharp increases in input prices, business activity rose for the second month running in August and the rate of expansion picked up to its highest in five months. The North West posted a faster rate of output growth than London, the only other UK region to record expansion in the latest period.
Burnetts joins global network
Carlisle law firm Burnetts has been appointed by the MSI Global Alliance. The firm, which specialises in the education and global sectors, is the sixth member of MSI in the UK and is the association's first member in the north of England. Membership of the alliance is expected to improve the services Burnett offers its growing number of international clients. MSI was formed in 1990 in response to the growing need for cross-border cooperation between professional services firms.
Selective hire
Wilmslow-based investment and development group Select Property has appointed Stephen Blank as group planning and finance director. Blank, a former partner in Binder Hamlyn and financial director at Swinton Insurance, joins from Generis Technology. He said: "I looked at the business and its strong performance, spoke in depth with chief executive Mark Stott about his future plans and quickly decided this was just too good an opportunity to pass up." Select has sold over £550m worth of property since its inception and has £1.5bn in overseas property in the pipeline in areas including the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Regional lawyer secures major appoitment
North West employment lawyer Paul Chamberlain has been appointed to oversee new rules for temporary and agency workers. Chamberlain will be the sole legal adviser in the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's Agency Workers Commission and will assist in the preparation of recommendations to be submitted to the government to ensure that the new EU Agency Workers Directive does not damage the UK recruitment industry. Chamberlain is a recruitment law expert and an employment partner based in the Manchester office of Brabners Chaffe Street.
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Property
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M&S signs up in Preston
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has finally signed as the second anchor tenant at Preston's £750m Tithebarn scheme, to be developed jointly by Grosvenor and Lend Lease. The deal comes ahead of a planning application for the 32-acre retail-led scheme this autumn. Jim Carr, chief executive of Preston City Council, said: "For M&S to have the confidence to invest and expand in Preston is a fantastic boost. You could not wish for better anchor stores than M&S and John Lewis." M&S will relocate to a new 150,000 sq ft store, more than double its existing location, when the development opens in 2014.
Glaisyers moves up in the world
Both offices of Manchester law firm Glaisyers have moved to new accommodation. The city centre office, previously in Manchester House on Bridge Street, has moved to a refurbished 13,500 sq ft space in St James's Square, while the Longsight office has taken 6,600 sq ft over two floors on Stockport Road, more than double the size of its previous offices.
Ryder quits regeneration role
Mark Ryder has quit as chief executive of ISIS Waterside Regeneration, the developer behind the Islington Wharf scheme near Manchester's Great Ancoats Street. The business, a joint venture between Muse Developments, British Waterways and Morley Fund Management's Igloo regeneration fund, shed eight staff in the summer and is narrowing its focus on its Manchester and Leeds projects out of a portfolio of ten schemes, a situation Ryder said would not put his skills to the best use.
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Events
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Dates for your diary this week
There’s a range of events to choose from this week. Accountancy Hurst and law firm Mace & Jones are holding a breakfast seminar in Stockport on Wednesday about succession planning and exiting your business, or you could head down to Manchester’s Cube for a TIF consultation event - Penny Boothman, a senior member of the TIF consultation team is presenting the proposals at two sessions, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. Meanwhile, DTZ is again holding its Property Debate breakfasts in Manchester tomorrow and Leeds on Wednesday. Hosted by Insider editor Michael Taylor, the event will feature a panel discussion and a showcase of DTZ’s commercial real estate research survey, Money into Property.
Have they got the Y Factor?
Budding stars from Manchester’s corporate finance community are in the final nervous stages of preparations for Thursday night’s Y Factor challenge, following the success of the inaugural event last year in which eight acts and an audience of over 300 professionals raised over £22,000 for learning disability charity Mencap. For a hint of who will be performing, visit the event website. Hopefuls will be performing at the Chicago Rock Café in Peter Street, in front of a panel of judges that includes Rowetta, the former Happy Mondays backing singer and star of TV show X Factor. To buy tickets, priced at £30, email nwfundraising@mencap.org.uk or phone 0161 968 9269. The event is sponsored by Barclays Commercial Finance, Cobbetts, Clearwater Corporate Finance, Dabbs PR and Marketing, Insider, Yorkshire Bank and Zutmedia.com.
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And finally...
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Well done, James Whittaker
James Whittaker, development director at Peel Holdings, has become the first man to swim the Manchester Ship Canal. After completing the first 21 miles in horrendous conditions on Friday, he swam the last 15 on Saturday, completing the whole swim in just over 18 hours. With sponsorship fees still coming in, he has raised well over £100,000 for the New Children's Hospital appeal already.
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