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Top story
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Manchester and Abu Dhabi could bid for Gatwick
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is considering partnering with the new owner of Manchester City Football Club in an audacious bid to control Gatwick Airport. The Abu Dhabi-based group is among a number of sovereign wealth funds keen to purchase infrastructure assets. MAG, owned by the ten Greater Manchester local authorities, would manage Gatwick as part of a new partnership, Insider understands. Last week Manchester Airport issued a statement confirming its interest in Gatwick. “MAG remains interested in one or more of BAA’s airports if an acquisition would add value for our shareholders," it said. "We are an experienced, UK-owned airport operator with a very strong track record in investing in the customer experience, delivering efficient operations.”
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Deals
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Dusanj brothers buy back Cains
Sudarghara and Ajmail Dusanj have bought back Cains brewery and the leasehold interest on nine pubs, just over six weeks after Robert Cain & Co was placed into administration. After an extensive marketing period, the former owners saw off a range of potential buyers - at one point administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) had received 50 expressions of interest - effectively to take the business back to the position it was in before the reverse takeover of Honeycombe Leisure in 2007. The family, which acquired the Liverpool brewer and pub operator in 2002, still owned the freehold on the brewery and nine pubs through a separate company. PwC is seeking buyers for the remaining 45 pubs.
Volex in a power play
Volex, the Warrington-headquartered global electrics and cabling group, has put its Singapore-based power products division in play after a strategic review by Rothschild. A statement said: "The board has decided to investigate the potential for realising value from its Power Products division including its potential divestment or flotation of the business on an Asian stock market." The division supplies cable assemblies for clients including Sony, Dell and Samsung. Volex added that group trading during the second quarter has continued the positive trend reported in July.
Close Brothers closes in
Corporate finance advisory firm Close Brothers Corporate Finance has already made two appointments at its newly opened regional office in Manchester, led by managing director Richard Pulford. Ben Thompson joins as an associate from Zeus Capital and James Hurrell joins as an analyst from Christopher Street Capital, a subsidiary of GFI Securities in London.
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Business
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Stick together, futurologist urges the north
Northern cities should build on their closer ties in order to compete for global business, a leading futurologist has urged. Dr James Bellini, speaking at a fringe event this morning at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, said there were threats to Europe from the emerging BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, but that the “outward trading” mentality of Manchester and Leeds “uniquely placed” these cities to shift economic power from London in the future. The event was sponsored by Marketing Manchester and featured a panel debate chaired by Insider editor Michael Taylor.
Oldham gets crunched
Oldham Council could cut 850 jobs from its central workforce of 5,000 as it plans its budget for 2009. Compulsory redundancies are being considered by the ruling Liberal Democrats. Leader Howard Sykes said: "The fact is that the council has to find £17.3m of savings to balance next year's budget. Staffing costs are a big part of our overall budget, so it is inevitable we should explore the potential for savings."
North West jumps on Olympic bandwagon
Culture Northwest, the region's cultural commission funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency and the Department for Culture Media & Sport, is to hold 39 events over next weekend to celebrate the launch of the Cultural Olympiad of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The events will be spread across the region and will involve mass participation.
Adapt or lose value in climate wars
Tackling climate change can have a significant impact on company value, according to a new report by the Carbon Trust out today Climate Change: a business revolution? The report, based on analysis by McKinsey & Co, found that the deep emissions reductions will create business opportunities and risks. Well-positioned and forward-thinking businesses could increase company value by up to 80 per cent, while poorly positioned companies run the greatest risk of destroying value. As much as 65 per cent of company value was found to be at risk in some sectors.
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Property
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MCR buys three
Aneel Mussarat's MCR has taken its spending for 2008 to £83m with a trio of deals. The group has paid Norwich Property Trust £4.8m for a retail warehouse scheme occupied by B&Q and Netto at Crostons Retail Park, Bury, and has acquired a 5,345 sq ft building on Manchester's Fountain Street for £1.41m from a private trust. Occupiers are Pizza Hut at ground level and the Manchester Central School of English in the office space. Finally, MCR has paid £2.6m for an incomplete residential scheme on a 4.11-acre former hospital site in Leicester in a deal with receivers.
Pochin's profits fall
Cheshire property company Pochin's has posted a fall in pre-tax profits, from £9.1m to £1.8m in its results for the year to June 2008. Although turnover remained steady at around £115m, write-downs and investment provisions saw profits slashed. The company will pay a dividend of 3 pence a share on top of the interim dividend of the same amount. Pochin's said that its construction services business had been affected badly and that it will focus on public sector contracts to alleviate this. The Royal Bank of Scotland has renewed and extended the group's banking facilities.
Wilson Bowden hits back
Developer Wilson Bowden has hit back at criticism of its £350m Kingsway project in Rochdale, the scheme having come under fire from local Labour candidate Simon Danczuk. Development director Ian Tullock said: "At half the size of Manchester city centre, Kingsway is a long-term project whose delivery life is ten to 15 years. It is on schedule. We are currently in advanced discussions with a number of design-and-build occupiers. We may also have some scope for speculative development during 2009."
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Events
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Dates for your diary this week
If you’re looking for an alternative to the hundreds of fringe events around the Labour Party Conference, there is plenty on offer. Tomorrow lunch time Cushman & Wakefield is launching its UK Cities Monitor report at its Manchester office, while rival agency Jones Lang LaSalle is holding a Breakfast Briefing at the Lowry Hotel on Thursday, with presentations on the UK economy and the residential and industrial markets. And on Friday, accountancy firm Hurst and Cheshire-based Applewood Asset Management are holding a breakfast seminar on how owner managers can grow their wealth. Friday also sees Liverpool’s BT Convention Centre play host to the Northwest Regional Development Agency annual conference. And, to top all those, Insider is holding its Creative Forum on Wednesday evening at the Lowry Centre, featuring an audience with Kevin Roberts, worldwide chief executive officer (CEO) of Saatchi & Saatchi.
Debate to unlock ways of funding city growth
The Core Cities Group, an alliance between Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, is holding a Labour Party Conference fringe event at the IoD Hub tomorrow lunch time called Financing the city – who pays?, with a panel discussion chaired by Insider editor Michael Taylor. Chris Murray, director of Core Cities, will outline the findings of the Unlocking City Growth report and will join a panel with local government minister John Healey MP, Manchester city council leader Sir Richard Leese and Greater Manchester Chamber chief executive Angie Robinson, to discuss innovative financing mechanisms for major infrastructure projects. The event starts at 12.45.
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