Adam and Stephen discuss investment for a law firm, a major development close to Old Trafford and a funding deal led by the family office of Spotify's founder
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Investment for a law firm, major development close to Old Trafford and a
00:04funding deal led by the family office of Spotify's founder, featuring today's
00:07business briefing.
00:13So Adam, what's caught your eye this morning? Yes, we have a major deal in the
00:19Midlands involving a law firm, FPC Mandy Bowdler, a law firm which employs 200
00:25people, so of a significant size, has secured a £30 million investment
00:30from private equity firm Horizon Capital. Now this investment will be used to
00:36expand the firm, doubling its size in 18 months, that's the goal. The investment
00:42will include the creation of 20 jobs as well as the opening of a new office in
00:47Knoll near Solihull. FPC Mandy Bowdler will become the founding firm of Horizon
00:52Capital's new Adeptio Law Group, but each firm in the new group will maintain
00:58its own identity moving forward. Great stuff, I'm sure we'll be hearing more about them
01:01there. I'm sure, yeah. Well, over in the North West today we have news of a major
01:07development close to Old Trafford, the former Hilti HQ site off Trafford
01:11Wharf Road in Stratford. Plans have now been submitted there, we previously
01:17covered the public consultation and also the deal to acquire the site, so now
01:21Coal Waterhouse has submitted its planning application. Its plans include
01:26438 build-to-rent apartments, including affordable housing, student
01:32accommodation, a new higher education facility with teaching space, offices,
01:36student amenities and an on-site cafe. Two towers will be built there, two residential
01:42towers as well as new landscaped public space, and the
01:48development is expected to have a gross development value of about £200 million.
01:51The developers said that about 1,300 jobs could be created during the
01:57construction, as well as nearly 300 once it's operational, so potentially big
02:01impact from that scheme. The site is also part of Trafford
02:06Council's Wharfside Regeneration Area. Plans are there to build more than 5,000
02:12new homes. It's also the area that includes the potential new stadium for
02:15Manchester United, so a big regeneration area there in the North West.
02:19Certainly, and I'm sure Insider will be continuing to monitor the progress of
02:23the scheme. It's another deal from me, a funding round which involves a very
02:31interesting backer, N Industries Group, which is a business established to build
02:36a new group of quote best-in-class British industrial firms. Now N
02:42Industries will acquire majority stakes in small UK industrial
02:47companies, and said it will typically work with the existing management to
02:51help them be faster growing businesses. Now N Industries have actually
02:56secured a funding round led by the family office of Daniel Ek, the founder
03:02of Spotify, so definitely a significant backer there for the company.
03:07The funding round also involved a number of other investors, so definitely worth
03:12looking that up on Insider this morning. Well, sticking with the theme of
03:16deals, we're seeing a lot more employee ownership transactions. I think
03:20definitely, certainly we're seeing more and more every week. In Yorkshire
03:25today, we've got news of a manufacturer, a Sheffield-based manufacturer, becoming the
03:29latest business to move to employee ownership. So Armag was established in
03:341973, and it manufactures and supplies a range of power tool accessories, drill
03:39bits and other tools. The company's 55 staff are now going to be beneficiaries
03:44of the new Employee Ownership Trust. The company has emphasised that it's
03:48business as usual. The existing directors will continue to manage the company.
03:52They're also looking to bring forward the next generation of management, so
03:56very much emphasising it's about making sure that they're securing the long-term
04:01future of a already well-established business. It's an important deal as well
04:05for the deal-making community in South Yorkshire, so we've got a number of
04:09advisors there. We've got Laura from Blake Smith, Accountancy Practice Shorts, who
04:13both advised on that deal, so a really interesting one for South Yorkshire.
04:16Yeah, definitely a big day for deals overall. You can read about those deals
04:21and the property story Stevo mentioned on insidermedia.com, where you can
04:25subscribe to our newsletters and hear about upcoming events. Thank you.