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Top story
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St Modwen brushes off Tesco proposals
Developer St Modwen has described proposals by Tesco for an alternative scheme in the Great Homer Street area of Liverpool as “simply not comparable” as the supermarket giant tabled proposals to develop a superstore and market covering less then a third of the entire 45-acre site. Talks between the two parties stalled in July when Tesco failed to commit to St Modwen’s scheme, known as Project Jennifer, after four years of negotiations. Today Michelle Taylor, regional director of St Modwen, said: “Project Jennifer is a large-scale regeneration project that will create 740 full-time jobs, 480 homes, the largest supermarket in Merseyside, a new library, health centre, dentists’ surgery and a purpose-site for Paddy’s market. Tesco’s application is simply not comparable.” St Modwen says it is in advanced discussions with another supermarket chain for a 115,000 sq ft store with the entire project, including two residential phases, expected to complete by 2012.
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Deals
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David McLean Homes in MBO
Elan Homes, a new business formed by the former senior management team of David McLean Homes, has taken over that part of the Flintshire property group, which went into administration on 27 October. John Kendrick, the former group finance director, led the buyout, which is supported by equity and senior debt funding from Barclays Bank. A statement issued by the management team said: “We have some fantastic schemes and, although we won’t see the high levels of sales we did two years ago, we will be in a position to maintain this level of trade until the market returns.” Bill Dawson of administrator Deloitte said: “We are delighted to have been able to secure a going concern sale of the business that will preserve a significant number of jobs and also represents best value for the group’s creditors." 
NatWest funds hotel upgrade
A £250,000 project to upgrade all bedrooms at The Scafell Hotel in Rosthwaite has been funded by NatWest’s commercial banking team. Owner Miles Jessop and managing director Andrew Nelson launched the project last year with the initial refurbishment of six bedrooms, and have now completed the upgrade of the hotel’s remaining 18 rooms. The three-star hotel is situated in the Borrowdale Valley.
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Business
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Culture Company honoured at PR awards
The Liverpool Culture Company was last night presented with a special recognition award for its outstanding contribution to the region at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ North West PRide Awards held at Manchester’s Hilton Hotel. The award was collected by Culture Company director Kris Donaldson, who had attended the event as a guest. Meanwhile, Merseytravel walked away with a gold award for the best event for Under and Over the Mersey, and the in-house team at Warrington’s United Utilities took home four awards: a gold for use of media relations, a silver award in the best corporate communications category, gold for the best internal communications campaign and silver for the best integrated communications campaign. The PRide Awards showcase the best PR work being carried out across the UK and set standards of excellence for the industry.
Protherics narrows losses
Runcorn-based biotechnology company Protherics has seen revenues rise 16 per cent for the six months to 30 September, while also narrowing losses for the period. Revenues jumped to £17.2m from £14.8m a year ago, with the strong dollar helping underlying revenue grow 10 per cent and pre-tax losses cut to £5m from £6.1m. The company said its proposed takeover from life sciences company BTG, which values it at £157m, is expected to be completed by 4 December. Chairman Stuart Wallis said: “It will create a new flagship specialty biopharmaceutical company in the UK with the required financial strength and product portfolio.” Protherics also said today it had submitted a marketing application with the Food and Drug Administration for use of its Voraxaze drug in the US.
Job cuts planned at AstraZeneca
Drugs giant AstraZeneca, whose UK headquarters is in Cheshire, has today announced proposed changes to its global manufacturing and supply chain operations that will affect roles in Macclesfield. The group will exit three sites in Spain, Belgium and Sweden, and roles will be affected at its facilities in Macclesfield in the UK and Södertälje in Sweden, cutting 1,400 jobs by 2013, as new manufacturing processes allow it to improve efficiency. AstraZeneca is investing in its Wuxi plant in China to support growth in the Asia Pacific markets. A full update will be provided at the full-year results announcement on 29 January 2009. In October the group reported third-quarter sales up by 3 per cent in constant exchange rate terms as it beat expectations to record a pre-tax profit that rose 22 per cent to $2.4bn.
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Property
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C&W gets busy
Cushman & Wakefield’s (C&W) offices team has secured a letting at Birchwood’s Olympic Park to sustainable energy technology business ENER-G. Olympic Park, a self-contained office scheme, was completed earlier this year by Commercial Developments Projects and funding partner Pinder Fry & Benjamin. C&W has also sold a 5,162 sq ft office building at CDP Marshall’s Cobra Court office scheme in Trafford Park to Dubai property investor Bhakti, to be used as a showroom and administration office for its UK operations.
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