It was the year the Peel empire seemed to take over the world, or at least the North West. Neil Tague charts the dizzying highs and stomach-churning lows of the year in business
January
With the North West still snoozing off the mince pies, Tata Chemicals swoops for Cheshire soda ash producer Brunner Mond for £365m, in what is unlikely to be the last Asian raid on the region.
Howard Raynor of World Class Service launches the Manchester Standard, a campaign to improve the quality of Manchester's hospitality.
A good month for
United Utilities, as the utilities group finally manages to flog its loss-making telecoms business Your Communications to Scottish rival Thus - although it twice has to slash the asking price, with the business eventually valued at just £358m.
UU also announces that outgoing chief executive John Roberts will be replaced in March by Philip Green - that's the ex-chief of Royal P & O Nedlloyd, not the king of cheap high street fashion.
February
Insider asks the question everyone's thinking but nobody dares to ask: what if Manchester Airport were privatised? The airport is also recognised as the UK's best in the Travel Weekly Globe Awards.
TV guru Phil Redmond asks of the BBCs proposed move to Manchester: "Do they really mean it?" Insider secures a rare interview with Paul Flanagan, construction magnate and owner of "Liverpool's trendy Newz bar" at the opening of the Craig Phillips Construction Academy, a star-studded event attended by John Aldridge, Ricky Tomlinson and the curly-haired bloke from the Stones bitter adverts.
Flanagan rails against the handout culture, and asks when the "grantrepreneur" developers who've made a few quid in Liverpool will put a bit back.
A good month for
The St Helens glass industry, as Pilkington finally accepts a cash offer of £31.8bn from its long-term partner Nippon Sheet Glass for the 80 per cent of Pilkington shares it doesn't already own.
March
Insider profiles the Piccadilly Partnership, a public private partnership featuring super suave developer David Partridge, Wayne Mellor, Chris Nisbet and overlord of Manchester's Danish pub chain KRO, Mark Ruby, who says: "If you'd told me ten years ago there'd be a dozen places in Piccadilly people would be happy to pay the best part of three quid for a cup of frothy coffee I'd have said they were crackers".
A good month for
Manchester at MIPIM. The "original, modern' city lords it over La Croisette with one of the international property show's top stands.
Together with Ask Developments and Manchester City Council, Insider gathers a dozen European big hitters to discuss the future of Manchester. "We're not having people who'll only say nice things" is the reassuringly frank prerequisite as prospective guests are whittled down.
A bad month for
Jonathan Barnett. Six months before Panorama's investigation leads to a nation wincing over Sam Allardyce's house, Insider looks at football's bung culture. Jonathan Barnett, Ashley Cole's agent, insists that top agents should be allowed to police their own industry, while the chief executives of Stoke City and Oldham Athletic say otherwise. Six months later, Barnett is banned for a year.
April
The North West's first serious weekly journal for business people in years is launched. The Insider Weekly e-bulletin proves an instant hit, winning scoops on Piccolino's national roll-out and Wilson Bowden's acquisition of Roland Bardsley Homes within its first three issues.
A good month for
Wayne Bardsley as acquisitive property group Wilson Bowden pays £325m cash and assumes £324m debt to take on Roland Bardsley Homes.
Bardsley, the majority shareholder, an alumnus from the 2001 class of the Insider 42 under 42 and long tipped as a man with a nose for a deal by Insider, says he's "having his cake and eating it".
A bad month for
Isoft as the Manchester provider of healthcare IT systems declares a profit warning two days before its year end.
It had used aggressive accounting practices that had focused the business on winning upfront payments, practices that had propped up a healthy share price over recent years, allowing founding directors Patrick Cryne, Steve Graham and the late Roger Dickens, accountants each, to trouser £341m, £330m and £310m respectively.
Rather unsportingly, the NHS refuses an upfront cash injection that would allow the cracks to be papered over for a bit longer, having already rescued 2005's figures with a £358m payment for something to be delivered sometime in the future, or possibly never.
May
Manchester and Blackpool are still in the race for the regional supercasino, but everyone reckons it's heading for the Millennium Dome. Sefton is the only one of the North West authorities bidding for a smaller licence to make the shortlist, although operators like Liverpool-based Stanley have twigged that the new legislation gives them some leeway and are quietly building largish small casinos anyway.
**Steve Broomhead**, chief executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, tells Insider how he has killed off the cash-machine culture at the agency. He's also at pains to point out that there is no clash of personalities between himself and chairman Bryan Gray.
Odd, seeing as no one had mentioned itx85
A good month for
David Russell. For the second year, Insider's Property Personality of the Year is voted for by the 800 guests at the Property Awards. Top bookie and friend of Insider Fred Done runs through the form book for diners, with stallion Russell winning by a nose from the only filly in the race Carol Ainscow. Russell will later liven up July by parading across stage for a £320,000 charity bet at Freddie Flintoff's benefit dinner.
June
Liverpool City Council makes the safe choice, appointing Colin Hilton as its new chief executive. Supanet, the internet service provider set up by the owners of collapsed computer makers Time Computers follows its parent company into administration.
A good month for
UK Land & Property (UKL & P). The developer once derided by cynics as a grant-chaser wrestles Horton House, part of Liverpool's magnificent but neglected Exchange Flags complex, from the recalcitrant Walton Group. Along with joint venture partner Pochin, UKL & P announces a 41,000 sq ft pre-let to law firm Brabners Chaffe Street.
And for...
Peel Holdings. There's dancing in the streets of Salford as the Peel-backed Media:City UK wins preferred bidder status over Manchester's Central Spine as the proposed home for BBC departments set to make the move north. The relocation is still very much "if' rather than "when' though, with insiders predicting that the move will be used as a bargaining chip when the licence fee settlement is decided later in the year.
A bad month for
Ask Developments and Manchester City Council, whose submission to the BBC is derided in the Beeb's house mag Ariel, with Karen Carter saying: "There was a certain irony that those advocating the so-called Central Spine appeared to have no backbone when it came to enthusiasm for the project." The bleak assessment of a senior council figure is that it won't happen, full stop. "They're not f***ing coming," he says.
July
The Liverpool Culture Company is thrown into a tailspin when cruise ship singer Robyn Archer resigns as artistic director.
Officially blamed on personal reasons, her departure causes the usual talk of rifts and speculation about replacing Archer, with potential contenders said to include media mogul Phil Redmond or Susan Woodward of ITV.
A good month for
Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which announces the start of a service to New York. Starting from 25 May 2007 and operated by Glasgow airline Flyglobespan, the daily service forms part of a 25-year masterplan by the airport. In September an extra boost comes with confirmation that the service will fly into the iconic JFK airport in Manhattan, rather than Newark, and there will be a service to Toronto too.
And for...
Manchester City Council, which after two years of negotiations receives the go-ahead for a scaled-down Metrolink phase three.
A bad month for
Rumford Investments. The London-based developer of Liverpool's Unity (pictured below) issues a rare statement saying that it has called off negotiations with prospective tenant HBOS due to the bank's pussyfooting. The market is sceptical. One senior property figures says: "No one's buying it. You just don't tell a blue-chip company they're not welcome." At the time of going to press the building stands empty.
August
John Hargreaves, founder and chairman of Skelmersdale-based discount retailer Matalan, is granted an extension in his bid to take the business he floated in May 1998 private. Hargreaves' bid, which succeeds in October, values the company at £3817m. Geoff Brady, chairman of the committee of non-executive directors, says Hargreaves was "a fish out of water trying to run a FTSE company with corporate governance". But not to his face, presumably.
A bad month for
Nighat Awan. The publicity-hungry restaurateur is fined £340,000 after a diner finds a cockroach in his poppadoms, with a subsequent inspection finding the Shere Khan to be infested with insects - eight breaches of food safety regulations are admitted and the restaurant is temporarily closed voluntarily.
And for...
The Asian Business Federation (ABF). With scores of Asian business successes to choose from, the ABF is blinded by celebrity and chooses Syed Ahmed of the BBC's The Apprentice to address its annual dinner. He'd only just escaped jail after his fourth drink driving offence and would soon be arrested on a fraud charge.
Nevertheless, the self-styled business badboy talks of his successful businesses. Their websites are still "under construction" four months later.
September
Peel Holdings seems to be on the brink of taking over the North West. It launches the £34.5bn Wirral Waters scheme at Birkenhead Docks and one of a similar size in Bootle, stopping long enough to draw breath and mention that it also intends to build a scaled-down Trafford Centre on the Wirral.
Chief executive Philip Green says United Utilities is on track to deliver results in line with expectations, with a strong performance from outsourcing arm Vertex, which secured contracts worth £3128m, Vertex is the constant subject of takeover rumour though, with pesky old Tata in the frame again.
A good month for
Andrew Stokes' Marketing Manchester. The destination manager not only hosts a successful Labour Party conference, organising bookings, reservations and the like for a bewildering cornucopia of New Labour apparatchiks, Old Labour union types, time-wasters and Andy Spinoza, but wins the 2008 UEFA Cup Final for the City of Manchester stadium.
It's not all japes though. A row erupts at the Labour Friends of Israel bash, with the Jewish media pointing out that mozzarella wrapped in parma ham is not perhaps the wisest choice.
And for...
The People's Firefighter, Warren Bradley. Anointed as leader of Liverpool City Council at the turn of the year, Bradley has warmed to his role and calls for a bonfire of the quangos, saying that most of the city's six thousand (OK, 60-odd) quangos could work more effectively as a streamlined body, which could be called Liverpool plc.
And for...
Ask Developments, which sells a 25 per cent stake to Morgan Stanley and simultaneously launches a £3300m investment fund with its new partner.
Despite the BBC loss, it's been a busy year for Ask, which has acquired most of the Central Spine site and the Boddingtons brewery and has announced plans for Exchange Greengate.
October
Hollow laughs are laughed at IT healthcare providers as former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling gets 24 years.
Could it happen here? One Insider source retorts: "The sort of people who get labelled a maverick accountant here are blokes who take off their ties when leaving the office instead of waiting until they get home".
Speedy Hire, the acquisitive Newton-le-Willows hire company, is at it again with the purchase of Lifting Gear Hire (LGH) for £313.5m.
Founded in 1970, LGH grew from its Atherton roots to open offices in Europe and the US and turns over £316m a year. Speedy's acquisitions for 2006 now exceed £3100m.
Insider deputy editor Lisa Miles wins an International Building Press award for her interview with Liverpool developer George Downing in June, a feature so good that it appeared elsewhere in the regional press within a couple of weeks.
A good month for...
Addleshaw Goddard, the only law firm to be ranked in the Times' inaugural Where Women Want to Work Top 50. Early money is placed on Addleshaws topping the "Where blokes want to work 2007".
A bad month for...
Residential developer City Lofts, victim of trial by luvvie.
Coronation Street megastar Susie Blake storms into a Salford City Council planning meeting to vent her fury at a scheme by City Lofts that spoils her view across the Quays.
Diddums.
And for...
Inter Link Foods. A bid launched by directors to take the company private for £370m is derailed when chief executive Paul Griffiths resigns to concentrate on charitable interests, such as the restoration of Gorton Monastery in Manchester - Griffiths' wife Elaine heads the monastery's fundraising trust. He is replaced by finance director Chris Thompson.
November
Peel Holdings is to free up cash for its property plans by selling 49 per cent of its ports division - the UK's second largest - to RREEF, Deutsche Bank's UK property investment arm, for around £3750m.
The North West teams of Eversheds and NM Rothschild carry off Insider's Deal of the Year title for their part in the high-profile sale of Caudwell Communications, while James Dow is named Dealmaker of the Year.
In Warrington 500-acre super-business park **Omega** finally clears planning.
Developers Miller and RBS undertake to pay for any further road improvements necessary, almost as if they've sensed a hint of reluctance to let the thing happen in certain quarters. Work could start in 2007, so sarcastic property writers may soon need another "Mousetrap" to poke fun at.
Another Scousescraper should do the trick...
A good month for...
Martin Higginson, the founder of Lancaster mobile phone content provider Monstermob. Sacked as chief executive by Monstermob in June Higginson bounces back by buying a major shareholding in London-based Stream, which also sheds its previous core business of psychic phone lines (they should have seen that coming) and changes its name to Netplay TV. Higginson will be charged with making it big in interactive gaming.
A bad month for...
Lancashire pudding maker Farmhouse Fare, which is acquired by Singapore Food Industries, the owner of the New Covent Garden Food brand, for £310m. Managing director and serial award winner Helen Colley says she's staying with the business. "I'm very much staying, there's still so much to do, besides, I love it," she says.
Also in: December 2006
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Up and atom
The nuclear industry - the Green pilgrim's great Satan - is coming in from the cold, and where better to welcome back the mighty atom than its spiritual home in West Cumbria? David Chadwick reports
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Going out in a blaze of glory
United Utilities is going to be Philip Green's last executive job. He isn't about to name the date, less than a year into the role. But his mission is to make a good company great. Michael Taylor reports
