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Top story
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Creatives iNet up and running
A new programme of funding to support and grow the South West’s creative sector is underway. The new Creative Industries iNet – iNet is a shortening of Innovation Network – will bring £3.2m of support to the South West’s creative sector until 2013. The objective is to help creative businesses thrive and advance the area’s reputation as a creative centre of excellence.
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Deals
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Viridor acquires East Anglian recycler in £16m deal
Taunton-based waste management business Viridor has acquired East Anglia-based materials recycling company Pearsons Group Holdings in a deal worth £16m. Viridor, a subsidiary of Exeter-headquartered water group Pennon, is paying £14.9m in cash in addition to taking on £1.1m debt.
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Twofour snaps up corporate comms specialist
Twofour Group, based in Plymouth, has acquired corporate communications specialist The Rocket Science Group for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition creates a group with an annual turnover in excess of £40m.
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UK tops global retail M&A table
The UK had the highest total transaction value worldwide for mergers and acquisitions involving retail businesses in the last 12 months, according to a report by IMAP, the global organisation of M&A advisory firms represented in the UK by Midlands-based Clearwater Corporate Finance. In the year to 30 September, there were 161 deals in the UK worth $3.9bn.
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Business
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Huge Chinese Airbus order boosts Filton plant
Airbus has won an order for 102 new planes from China for its A320, A330 and A350 aircraft. Business minister Mark Prisk said the news will provide a boost to its Filton plant on the outskirts of Bristol.
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South West arm helps rail group profits get back on track
Transport giant FirstGroup, which runs Swindon-headquartered rail franchise First Great Western, has reported a 14 per cent increase in half-year pre-tax profits to £77.7m, reversing a decline in the previous financial year.
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Cornwall Wave Hub plugged into National Grid
The Wave Hub scheme is open for business after being plugged into the National Grid. The £42m project - the world's largest test site for wave technology - was hooked up to the grid for the first time this week via a 25km cable, the final 5km of which is buried under 91,000 tonnes of rock.
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Property, Regeneration & Public Sector
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What will happen to Plymouth's Dome?
Plymouth City Council is poised to put the Hoe's disused Dome on the market, at the same time as three Plymouth businesswomen have put forward a £1m plan to turn the building into a restaurant that would employ and train jobless youngsters. A council spokesman said: "We are currently preparing our arrangements to market the Dome and details will be available in the very near future."
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Poole shopping centre set to go Dutch
Dutch property company Wereldhave has placed Grosvenor’s Dolphin shopping centre in Poole under offer for around £80m – a 6 per cent yield. Grosvenor’s shopping centre fund is disposing of the 530,000 sq ft shopping centre because it cannot complete a proposed extension before the closed-ended fund expires in 2014.
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