Duo of office sales sealed at Leicester’s Forest Business Park
FHP, acting on behalf of retained clients, have sold two office opportunities on Oswin Road, Forest Business Park just west of Leicester City Centre.
Both properties provide self-contained purpose-built office accommodation of just under 1,750ft² each, boasting ample car parking facilities to the front and within easy reach of J21A of the M1 Motorway.
Thomas Szymkiw, of FHP’s Office Department, who agreed both deals, said: “Small, freehold office opportunities in Leicester are scarce, so when I was instructed to sell both buildings I knew that interest would be high – receiving several strong offers within a very short marketing timeframe.
“I am pleased that I have been able to assist both purchasers with their expansion plans and happy in the knowledge that they have been able to acquire two fantastic office buildings in one of the city’s most established commercial locations.”
Partner promotion for private client specialist
East Midlands law firm Bray & Bray has promoted experienced private client solicitor Russell Dalby to partner and joint head of the firm’s Wills, Trusts and Probate department.
In his new role, Russell will co-manage a team of eight Wills, Trusts and Probate specialists.
A full member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP), Russell will also act as a reference point on technical matters such as Inheritance Tax positions. Alongside co-head Andrew Hitchon, Russell will also be responsible for training and mentoring the team.
Commenting on his new role, Russell said: “I feel very passionately about coaching and mentoring team members to ensure they are continually cultivating their knowledge and skills.
“Andrew and I have already begun developing some in-house scenario training for the team, which complements our traditional focus of attending specialist seminars throughout the year. Keeping at the cutting edge of the latest legal developments will continue to be a core focus for us as we head into 2022.
“As partner, I look forward to expanding the profile of the team and nurturing relationships with existing and new clients. Bray & Bray has a reputation for listening closely to clients and truly understanding their needs, particularly during these challenging times, and this is something I am committed to preserving.”
Prior to joining Bray & Bray, Russell worked as a senior bank manager before retraining in law in 2010. He achieved the highest grade in the Legal Practice Course, before choosing to specialise in Wills, Trusts and Probate.
Tim Gladdle, senior partner and head of Corporate & Commercial Law at Bray & Bray, added: “Russell’s well-deserved promotion is in recognition of the significant role and contribution he has made to the firm’s ongoing growth, as well as his consistent hard work and steadfast dedication to the Wills, Trusts and Probate team and private clients.
“Bray & Bray remains committed to investing in our people and supporting their ambition and professional growth. I look forward to seeing Russell continue to excel in his new role.”
Nottingham City Centre office building sold
8 Clinton Terrace, on Derby Road, just north of Nottingham City Centre, has been sold in a deal brokered by FHP Property Consultants to Clinton View Ltd.
The property which extends to just under 3,000ft2, provides modern office accommodation over three floors with substantial car parking to the rear.
Thomas Szymkiw, of FHP’s Office Department who agreed the sale, said: “8 Clinton Terrace is a great building, in a fantastic location bordering the desirable Park Estate and in an area that has seen some fantastic developments in recent years including both private and student residential schemes.
“The property provided a perfect opportunity for either an office owner occupier or developer and we had high interest in the property on both fronts – resulting in a competitive bidding process that ended up with a fantastic result for our clients.
“The purchaser is looking to undertake substantial redevelopment of the building for residential use and I am very excited to see how their ambitious plans evolve over the coming months.”
Intoware appoints business development specialist for future growth
Nottingham-based digital workflow leader Intoware, has appointed Nicholas Hope to the role of business development specialist. Nicholas joins from Artex Ltd, part of the Saint-Gobain Group, where he was a national account manager for the UK’s leading DIY retailers.
Nicholas Hope will be responsible for driving market growth and future strategy by bringing Intoware’s automation platform WorkfloPlus to enterprises.
Prior to his role at Artex Ltd, Nicholas was a commercial account manager for firestone distributor, Permaroof UK Ltd, where he led its cross-functional teams through product life-cycle development and strategic planning for new products, gaining the top five customers in target industries within two years.
Intoware’s CEO, Keith Tilley, says: “We are delighted that Nicholas Hope has joined us at this time of tremendous growth. Nicholas is a well-regarded sales leader and a highly motivated individual with proven experience driving strategic sales and marketing initiatives to generate revenue by opening up entirely new and emerging markets.”
Nicholas Hope, business development specialist, Intoware, said: “I’ve always had a keen interest in new technologies, Intoware is at the very forefront of the industry 4.0 revolution, not only does WorkfloPlus deliver paperless working, but when combined with AI and assisted reality it transforms the efficiency of processes by capturing ‘real-time’ data to drive more meaningful decision-making.”
Nicholas enjoyed entrepreneurial success at 13 years old, when he founded e-commerce business, Blue Orchard Records. He digitally remastered cassettes onto CD and vinyl, creating campaigns that trebled the value of the business in three years to £83,000.
Having later graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2013 with a BA in Business Management and Marketing, Nicholas decided to pursue his business development career locally.
Mattioli Woods achieves “key milestone”
Mattioli Woods, the specialist wealth management and asset management business, has achieved a “key milestone” and strong revenue growth, according to a trading update in advance of its interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2021.
Total client assets of the group and its associate reached £15.1 billion at the period end, an increase of 42% on the equivalent prior period.
The business meanwhile saw total revenues rise to £49.9m from £29.5m.
Ian Mattioli MBE, Chief Executive, says: “The first six months of this financial year saw us build momentum despite the complexities, economically and politically, that persisted throughout 2021. During the period, we proactively balanced securing good financial outcomes for our clients with ensuring the long-term sustainability of our business, and I am pleased to report further material progress towards our strategic medium-term goals, with total client assets now at £15.1 billion.
“We saw strong performances in our pensions and consultancy, and investment and asset management operating segments with the number of new clients on-boarded in the first half and net inflows into the Group’s investment and asset management services ahead of the equivalent period last year, reflecting the success of new business initiatives and strength of existing client referrals, with organic revenue growth in excess of 10 per cent. for the period. These initiatives are also driving an increasing pipeline of new business enquiries.
“Our discretionary managed funds continue to perform well and represent a combined value of £5.1 billion, an increase of c.55% on the equivalent prior period, including more than £1.3 billion with the Group’s associate, Amati Global Investors, an increase of c.75% on the prior period.
“Recent acquisitions and double digit organic revenue growth have driven a material increase in scale during the period, with the Group’s profit margins maintained through prudent cost management and investment to realise further operational efficiencies.
“During the period we were pleased to announce the completion of our two largest acquisitions to date, Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and Ludlow Wealth Management (Ludlow). Both businesses are trading ahead of budget and have contributed positively to the Group’s results, building upon our track record of more than 30 successful acquisitions.
“Within Maven we are progressing a number of cross-sell revenue synergy opportunities that are already being shared with qualifying Mattioli Woods and Maven clients, and plan to bring further new opportunities in the near future. Maven has also delivered a number of performance fees ahead of budget further supporting the acquisition rationale. Our Ludlow team is already engaging with our discretionary managed investment services, as well as delivering planned cost synergies.
“We anticipate further consolidation within the wealth management, pensions administration, asset management and financial planning sectors, with many more opportunities coming to market. We expect to continue to assess and progress bolt-on opportunities in the nearer term as well as potentially more substantial opportunities in the longer term, with all potential transactions required to meet our strict investment criteria and due diligence procedures.
“We remain committed to our culture of putting clients first and to delivering our ambitious growth plans for the business. We are progressing our strategic initiatives, including the development of our bespoke MWeb platform and digital client interface, where we anticipate additional medium term investment in the region of £2-4m per annum.
“The Group’s trading outlook for the current financial year remains in line with management’s expectations and Mattioli Woods remains well-positioned to deliver sustainable shareholder returns.”
2022 Business Predictions: Ian Taylor, MD of Henry Brothers Midlands
It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Ian Taylor, Managing Director of construction company Henry Brothers Midlands.
The construction sector will be extremely busy in 2022 with the roll out of a large number of frameworks and infrastructure projects worth billions of pounds nationally. There’s the £3.7bn New Hospital Programme, the £7bn Department for Education Construction Framework, schemes for the Ministry of Justice and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, plus the Government’s levelling up agenda to name just a few of the opportunities that are in the pipeline. Although we will have to wait to see if the levelling up delivers for the East Midlands in the way we were all hoping!
This huge programme of work will bring greater strain on the demand for materials and labour, leading to a knock-on effect on pricing. Supply chain issues during 2021 led to volatility and this will continue in 2022 as demand increases for the delivery of construction projects and we see inflationary pressures. To avoid pricing volatility, I expect that many clients will procure their developments through frameworks, which have a reduced procurement time over the traditional tender route, and allow projects to get to site more quickly. I also expect that clients and contractors will start working together on schemes as early as possible in the process – working smarter to avoid some of the uncertainties that are likely to arise in 2022.
Finally, I predict that there will be an increasing requirement to provide carbon neutral projects. We saw this grow in 2021 and the direction of travel is only one way. In time, all projects will need to show a carbon neutral performance.
Indie video game label makes duo of acquisitions
Team17, which has offices in Nottingham, Manchester, and Wakefield, has kicked of 2022 by revealing two acquisitions.
The indie video game label has acquired The Label, a USA-based independent publisher specialising in mobile subscription games content for an initial consideration of $24 million (£17.76 million) with additional earn out consideration of up to a maximum of $16 million (£11.84 million) over the next three years.
The total consideration of up to $40 million (£29.6 million) will be paid through a combination of cash and shares, which are subject to a 12 month lock-in period.
Michael Pattison, CEO of Team17 Games Label, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be joining forces with The Label’s entrepreneurial team, who are true pioneers in the delivery of quality mobile subscription games and technology. We are excited to tap into their unrivalled market and gaming experience to further take advantage of this growing market.
“The Label is a fantastic addition to the Team17 family, creating an indie game powerhouse across PC, console and mobile platforms. We look forward to helping them build on their impressive track record of success, further enabling them to scale even greater heights in support of our ambitious growth aspirations.”
Joshua Babich, general manager and Vice President, said: “It’s an honour to join the world’s leading independent games publisher. Team17 has been a pillar of excellence for over three decades for gamers and creators, bringing some of the most imaginative and unique titles to life. With their support the sky’s the limit and our partners can feel confident our combined leverage will accelerate success for all.
“Joining the Team17 family opens up unprecedented doors for us all. While we’ve carved out a strong foothold in the mobile subscription space, this allows us to instantly expand our market reach in ways that just wouldn’t have been possible before. We are delighted to be part of a Group that puts games development and creativity first!”
Team17 has also announced the acquisition of all rights and assets of Hell Let Loose (HLL), an existing 3rd party title to its 1st party family for an initial consideration of £31 million plus a contingent earn out consideration of up to a maximum of £15 million.
HLL is a multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video game which has over six million owners. HLL was created by developer Black Matter and is co-developed and published across multiple platforms by Team17.
Michael Pattison, CEO at Team17 Games Label, said: “We are delighted to be announcing the acquisition of the Hell Let Loose IP. Hell Let Loose has quickly become a highly credible and innovative multiplayer tactical first-person shooter supported by a very passionate and highly engaged community with over six million players.
“Having built a close and extremely productive relationship with Black Matter already, we believe that by bringing Hell Let Loose into the Team17 stable, we can serve and build upon the needs of an ever-growing community, improve and expand upon the existing player experience and develop new ways to entertain and delight. We firmly believe Hell Let Loose can become the definitive large-scale team-based military simulation.
“This acquisition represents an important next step in our strategy to expand our ownership of IP that is not only of the highest quality, but importantly has long-term growth potential.”
Max Rea, founder & CEO of Black Matter, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for our fans and a logical next step-up in the development of Hell Let Loose as a brand. Team17 love our brand and community as we do, which has expanded across multiple platforms successfully.
“We’ve worked very closely with our good friends at Team17 over the last several years and firmly believe that this acquisition is the next logical step to enable us to further deliver great content to the highly passionate HLL community, as well as find new ways to engage and entertain in the future.
“We are really excited to continue to work with Team17 on the next stage of growth for Hell Let Loose.”
The news comes as the company provides a trading update for the twelve months ended 31 December 2021 (FY 2021) in which it has “continued to trade above Management’s expectations across H2 2021 completing a solid performance in 2021. As a result, revenue and adjusted EBITDA for FY 2021 will be ahead of Management’s expectations and ahead of FY 2020.”
Debbie Bestwick MBE, CEO of Team17, said: “We are pleased with the 2021 performance, in which we continued to execute on our highly ambitious pipeline alongside completing the acquisition of StoryToys. Bringing StoryToys into the Team17 family sees us align our growth ambitions with their hugely talented team and is a clear marker for our future growth strategy.
“In addition, we are delighted with the acquisitions announced this morning. These further support our content and people growth plans. We look forward to working with them as part of our growing Team17 Group in 2022.”
M-EC appointed to trio of local authority projects
M-EC, a firm of technical development consultants, has been appointed to provide expert advice on a trio of local authority infrastructure projects in Leicestershire. The projects involve three of the company’s specialist departments.
The firm has been engaged by North West Leicestershire District Council (NWLDC) and Leicestershire County Council (LCC) to carry out a range of surveys and impact assessments for projects taking place in Coalville and Ashby de-la-Zouch.
In Coalville, M-EC is working with NWLDC and other specialists on the £1.5m Marlborough Square to ensure the success of the redevelopment project in the heart of the historic market town. The redesigned square is intended to provide a more attractive, pedestrian friendly public space suitable for families and for events and markets. The regeneration will complement the adjacent newly refurbished Coalville indoor market.
The new designs for the square necessitate the redirection of traffic around the town centre. M-EC’s specialist transport team has provided pre-planning highway and transport support for the project. The team has also created a road sign and lining design scheme in support of a future Section 278 application to undertake the works within the public highway.
Also in Coalville, M-EC have been working on a residential scheme on Highfield Street on behalf of NWLDC and LCC. M-EC’s GI, Geomatics, Civils, Structures and Lighting teams have all been involved in this project in order to progress on site construction and technical approvals from the relevant statutory authorities.
Working with Ashby-de-la-Zouch Town Council, M-EC’s Acoustic Air team has been commissioned to undertake Air Quality Monitoring to review the level of road traffic emissions within the Town. Continuous 12-month monitoring of Nitrogen Dioxide has been undertaken and the findings of this will be reported back to the Town Council.
Tim Rose, director at M-EC, says: “As Leicestershire headquartered, we are pleased to be working closely with several local authorities across the county on projects which will improve the lives of Leicestershire residents.
“The Marlborough Square development in Coalville in particular has been long awaited and the improvements to the town centre will have a positive impact on the local economy, encouraging further investment in the area and reducing pollution levels.”
East Midlands Chamber’s Enterprising Women co-chair Jean Mountain wins top award
The co-founder of East Midlands Chamber’s Enterprising Women network has been recognised for her career achievements with a major award.
Jean Mountain was named the Businesswoman of the Year at the Nottinghamshire Live Women in Business Awards today (5 January).
She was commended for “fighting tooth and nail to break the glass ceiling” for other professional women via her work with the group, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Jean, who owns The Dressing Room boutique ladies’ clothes shop in Mansfield Woodhouse, said: “I am absolutely delighted to have won the Businesswoman of the Year award 2021 – it’s such a huge honour.
“I’ve dedicated my entire working life to being focused on collaborative networking with businesses especially in my home county, Nottinghamshire.
“As co-founder of the East Midlands Chamber Enterprising Women network, I truly believe in holding out a hand to the next person by helping each other to learn, grow and succeed.
“As I diversify through my businesses and grow my high street boutique, I’m proud to be recognised with this prestigious award.”
Jean has a long history of entrepreneurship over three decades after completing a business studies course at West Nottinghamshire College in the 1980s. She was aged 23 when she was first tasked with running a factory for The Supreme Rubber Stamp Company, based in Huthwaite, before going on to set up an accessories busines, become a silent partner for numerous companies and a director at a national print management firm.
Alongside her commercial activities, she has been heavily involved in the region’s business community. Initially joining the former Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce board of directors, she went on to become president of East Midlands Chamber in 2015/16 and chair of the Chamber’s Nottinghamshire members’ forum.
Another role as chair of the East Midlands Business Crime Forum led to her becoming vice-president of the National Business Crime Forum, setting up an all-party parliamentary group lobbying for better security to stop business crime.
But it has been via the Enterprising Women network that Jean has had a profound impact on other professional women working across the East Midlands since it was set up in 1997.
She runs it alongside Eileen Richards MBE, the owner of Leicester-based ER Recruitment, and has grown it to a membership base of more than 500 people. It features regular networking events with guest speakers and an annual Enterprising Women Awards, which will be launched again this spring.
Eileen, who was East Midlands Chamber president until last month and remains a board member, said: “On behalf of the Enterprising Women network, I am absolutely delighted that Jean has been awarded with the Nottinghamshire Live Businesswoman of the Year accolade.
“Jean is a truly entrepreneurial spirit who manages businesses across a variety of sectors, and is an influential leader to both her employees and all of us who are part of the network.
“This award will mean the world to her and I know everyone in the network will agree just how much it is deserved.”
Proposals to transform Travelodge into student flats granted conditional permission
A proposal to convert the Travelodge Hotel on Maid Marian Way, in Nottingham, into student accommodation has been granted conditional permission by the city council.
The plan would see the ten-storey hotel become 121 studio apartments.
A design statement submitted on behalf of the applicant says: “The building is currently looking tired, with a light grey aluminium trim to the concrete frame, in need of repair, dark blue spandrel panels at first floor podium level, that change to off white in the tower levels above.
“We will celebrate the 1970s character of the building, retaining the language of expressed structure and infill curtain walling.”
It continues: “By increasing the number of dwellings and therefore the number of residents in the local vicinity, the proposed development of this site will help to support the existing businesses and facilities thus ensuring their long term success, and the sustainability of this urban centre.”
