Bodycote, the Macclesfield-based thermal processing company, has renegotiated a new £110m revolving credit facility with its existing banks. The multicurrency facility replaces the current £225m agreement which expires in August. In a statement to the stock exchange, the company said the facility “reflects the group's funding requirements”. It added that the agreement will mature in March 2013 and will run alongside its €125m facility.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has provided a funding package worth up to £2.5m to the niche business Airkix that has allowed it to open its second UK vertical wind tunnel and indoor skydiving centre. The new centre, located at Trafford Quays Leisure Village near the Trafford Centre, cost £4.4m to build and is expected to attract up to 55,000 people each year. Phil Taylor, relationship director at RBS, said: “Airkix has a very strong management team and is ambitiously growing its operations in the UK.” The company was advised by Hazelwood Chartered Accountants in Cheltenham and law firm Harrison Clark in Worcester, who have worked with the company since its 2004 formation.

A University of Manchester spin-out company has been awarded a £112,829 grant to develop its odour control and air-purification technology. Plasma Clean, based in the Stockport Business Incubator, has secured the cash from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA). It will use the funding to further support the development of its non-thermal plasma system, known as Plasma UPG. The product is intended for use in the manufacture of semiconductors, flat-panel displays and solar cells and any other ultra-high-purity gas application.

Chess Telecom has signalled its intentions to the market with a new £10m fund for acquisitions. The Alderley-Edge-based business, which continues to consolidate the reseller market, has done 39 deals in the past five years. In this latest move, it has extended its facility with The Royal Bank of Scotland to fund further transactions. Corporate director Richard Btesh said: “In my experience, people sell their businesses when they are bored or have cash-flow problems. This is not the best time; it is usually better to sell a business that is performing well. As a buyer, I have no problem paying an enhanced price for a better-performing business.”

Manchester car dealer and parts supplier Lookers is set to post a record performance for the year to 31 December 2009 when it announces its annual results later this year. The company, which operates more than 100 dealerships across the UK, said full-year trading has been strong in both its motor and parts divisions despite the challenging conditions. The motor division increased its market share with like-for-like sales up 13 per cent on 2008 levels, despite the UK car market falling 6 per cent, while the government’s car-scrappage scheme helped it sell 280,000 vehicles. The group said its aftersales business benefited from the consolidation in dealership representation in the UK, a trend which it expects may continue during 2010. In the six months to 30 June 2009, Lookers reported a 34 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £8.6m, against a turnover of £870.4m.

Fresh from announcing a five-year services agreement in the Middle East and North Africa with Al Futtaim Carillion, Speedy Hire has secured a raft of new deals worth more than £30m. The plant hire business, based in Newton-le-Willows, has won a contract with BT to supply mobile generators to support its nationwide network of 6,000 telephone exchanges. The agreement will run for one year with an option to extend for a second. It has also secured a two-year sole-supplier contract with Tube Lines, the company upgrading three lines on the London Underground, and won two contract extensions with ExxonMobil and civil engineering contractor Osborne. Both contract extensions are for the next three years.

Consumer debt business Fairpoint, based in Chorley, this morning said that trading for the second half of the year has been strong, reflecting the group’s continuing improvement in performance. The company said its diversified business base and increased approval on individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) has helped to boost revenues by 9 per cent on the previous six months, and 19 per cent on the previous year. It expects that pre-tax profit for the year to 31 December, adjusted for brand amortisation, is expected to be more than £6m. In the first six months of 2009, the company reported adjusted pre-tax profits of £2.4m, compared with £300,000 a year earlier.

A subsidiary of AIM-listed organic waste company TEG Group, based in Chorley, has secured a new contract worth up to £1.05m a year. TEG Environmental will process mixed food and garden waste for Perth & Kinross Council at the TEG’s Glenfarg in-vessel composting facility in Perthshire. The four-year contract starts in March and has the potential for a two-year extension. TEG said it will be worth between £470,000 and £1.05m per year.

Reported fraud in the North West has fallen 48 per cent in the past year despite the rest of the UK seeing a sharp increase in the number of cases. According to research from accountancy firm BDO, the region’s reported fraud now stands at £58m, down from £110m a year earlier. The North West is now fourth in the national league table of corporate fraud behind London and the South East, the North East and the Midlands. Nationally, the amount lost by businesses and the public sector to larger frauds increased by 76 per cent in 2009 to more than £2bn.

The North West’s Carbon Challenge Fund (CCF), set up by the Northwest Regional Development Agency, has awarded a combined total of £435,000 to three businesses that are involved in carbon-saving projects. The fund, managed by Envirolink Northwest, has invested £135,000 of match funding to Diodes Zetex Semiconductors for its clean-room air-conditioning project; £100,000 to Water Power Enterprises for its plan to establish a community-owned micro-hydro scheme in Stockport; and £200,000 to United Utilities’ £950,000 GRAVITOX project. The NWDA said the schemes, which involve an aggregate investment of £1.7m, would prevent 17,350 tonnes of carbon emissions and safeguard 75 jobs.

New figures released today by the Commission for the New Economy have revealed that more than 700 jobs have been created in Greater Manchester as part of the £52m Future Jobs Fund. The fund, a government initiative as part of the Young Persons Guarantee, began in November 2009 with an aim of creating 8,000 jobs over the next two years. Mike Emmerich, chief executive of the Commission for the New Economy, said the scheme is on target to create 1,500 jobs by the end of March.

Investec Specialist Private Bank has been confirmed as a main sponsor for RAW2010, the business event for entrepreneurs. The firm joins Tenon, MMU Business School, Business Link and Smarta as a sponsor of the event. Phil Tarimo, Investec’s regional director of growth and acquisition finance, said: “RAW2010’s mission to nurture and celebrate entrepreneurship is vitally important as we emerge from recession, and its vision is one to which our own is closely aligned.” RAW takes place on 20 January 2010 at The Lowry, Salford Quays.

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