Adam and Laurence discuss an MBO at a digital marketing, a Belfast scheme hitting the market, a £200m defence investment, and private equity backing for a university spin-out.
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00:00Private equity backing for a university spin-out, a Belfast scheme hitting the market and an
00:05MBO at a digital marketing agency, coming up in today's business briefing.
00:10Good morning Lawrence.
00:15Morning Adam.
00:16I believe you're kicking us off with some big property news coming out of Northern Ireland
00:20today.
00:21Yeah that's right, it relates to the Titanic Quarter which is like an urban waterfront
00:26regeneration project in Belfast, a massive ongoing project basically, and Savills has
00:34been appointed to market an investment opportunity within the scheme.
00:39It's an underdevelopment build-to-rent apartment complex in the Titanic Quarter.
00:46It's called Lady Piri House, occupies a prime position in the scheme and it's going to incorporate
00:55about 70 apartments.
00:57It's going to have a ground floor creche, it's going to have sort of extensive amenities
01:02and of course it will benefit from waterfront views and what have you.
01:05So it sounds like an appealing investment for someone.
01:08You'd think it'd be quite sought after.
01:09I would have said so, yes, because having followed the progress of the Titanic Quarter, it's a really
01:14sort of up and coming, thriving area.
01:17It's really connected, so very sustainable.
01:20So I'm sure it will attract interest.
01:21It's been developed by Watkin Jones and I think the completion is targeted for the end
01:28of this year.
01:29So fingers crossed Savills can get some interest in that and I'm sure they will.
01:33Yeah, I'm sure they will and it will be interesting to see the progress as it needs its completion.
01:37Absolutely.
01:38Moving on to something different now.
01:40We've actually got some big deal news coming out of the West Midlands with a digital marketing
01:44agency undergoing an MBO.
01:46Now, the marketing agency was founded by Sam Houghton, a digital specialist and celebrity
01:53magician Ben Hanlon, who's appeared on TV several times over the years.
01:57That makes it interesting, doesn't it?
01:58It does, yeah.
01:59And Houghton has bought out the business from Hanlon, has said he's immediately targeting
02:04£2.1 million revenues and has actually put a senior management team in place to try and
02:10achieve these growth plans following the MBO, and this comes in response to demand from clients
02:16in a range of sectors like manufacturing, technology in general.
02:20Now Pull The Pin, which is actually based in the SA Studios in Birmingham's city centre,
02:25is on course to achieve revenues in excess of £1.1 million this year, so they're already
02:29on their way to their target.
02:32It's clients, there's a few well-known names on their client list, not more than a few,
02:38including Mann Commercial Protection, Wright Hassle and Hoogarth Hotels, so definitely a big
02:42development for them.
02:43We'll see how they grow in the future.
02:44Excellent.
02:45Well, let's hope the new owner can work their magic on the firm.
02:48Yeah, very good.
02:49Fantastic.
02:50Well, actually, sticking with investment, we've got news from Bolton, where MBDA, European
02:58Defence Business, which has a UK site in Bolton, they've announced they're investing £200
03:04million into their site. That's in a move that's set to create hundreds of jobs, and it's part
03:11of a wider £500 million in their investment into their UK operations. The announcement follows
03:18the new security and defence partnership signed at the UK summit, so something the government
03:25will be delighted about, because they've sort of emphasised how they're going to increase
03:28defence spend. Of course, it creates UK jobs, so it's, I think, a win-win. So, yeah, keep
03:35an eye out for that and, you know, where those jobs, sort of, what areas they are and so on.
03:41But I think the estimate was about 700 jobs, so a real boost for Bolton.
03:44Very significant.
03:45Absolutely.
03:46And, you know, we've seen a lot of those types of investment stories to do with the defence
03:50sector recently.
03:51Yeah, absolutely.
03:52Absolutely.
03:53So, it's great, and it's another sector, isn't it, because property, we've been following
03:57UK Reef, there seems to be a lot of optimism there, and defence, so hopefully it's pointing
04:02to sort of growth in the months and years to come.
04:06Certainly.
04:07Moving on to another type of investment now, with a spin-out of Newcastle University securing
04:11the private equity backing from Vespa Capital. This is Fibro Find, and they were founded in
04:172019, and they have patented a precision-cut tissue slice platform, which is transforming
04:23drug testing and preclinical research. It specialises in testing treatments for liver,
04:28kidney, and lung fibrosis. It's certainly an innovative company, which, inside, it covers
04:33a lot of Vespa Capital's investment. It's hoped to support the next stage of growth, which
04:38includes expanding the platform into additional tissue types and broadening its application
04:44across both preclinical testing and drug discovery.
04:48Fantastic. It's interesting, the amount of worlds that the corporate finance touches
04:53on, doesn't it?
04:54Certainly.
04:55And all these spin-outs, they always do such wonderful things, and obviously it's for the
04:58benefit of the wider public as well, so fingers crossed this investment.
05:02And I know there's a real drive at the moment to create more spin-outs from our leading universities.
05:08Excellent.
05:09That's it from us today. You can read more about these stories and others at InsiderMedia.com,
05:14where you can subscribe to our newsletters and learn about upcoming events. Thank you.