Crain's Manchester Business - 25-29 January 2010 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S LIST Commercial Property Managers Page 14 STARTS ON PAGE 11 Commercial Property The quest to buy distressed assets CRAIN’S MANCHESTER BUSINESS VOL. 3, ISSUE 4, JANUARY 25 - 29, 2010 CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk £2 What’s News ■ The huge redundancy programme by CMP Batteries at its Over Hulton factory near Bolton last year cost the company £9m, according to its latest accounts. The firm also took a £3.9m hit on the disposal of machinery at the plant, which made heavy duty batteries for plant and materials handling equipment. The business, which is owned by US giant Exide Technologies, announced that it was ceasing manufacturing at the plant in April 2009, which eventually led to 385 jobs being cut. Around 35 posts have been retained at the facility which has been retained as a distribution centre. Accounts for the year to the end of March 2009 show a pre-tax loss of £629,000 on sales of £73.2m. ■ Commercial mortgage managers working for Morgan Stanley has negotiated the payback of a £28m defaulted loan secured against the 250,000 sq ft Anchorage office scheme on Salford Quays. Londonbased Hatfield Philips, acting for the lender, was ready to appoint a receiver on the property if the loan was not paid back by the special purpose vehicle set up to own the building. Philip Byun, associate director at Hatfield Philips, said the owners had been trying to negotiate a reduction of “around 25 per cent” on the loan, but Morgan Stanley had insisted on receiving the full amount. “We were confident we could have sold the building for the amount outstanding,” he said. “We’d done our due diligence.” ■ Jim Magee, one of the founding directors of Manchester-based Affinity Insurance Management, has left the underwriting agency less than six months after it was launched. The firm unveiled plans to hit £100m gross premiums written by 2014 when it started up last July. Magee formed the company with Tony Docherty and Neil Revill. He served as operations director for four months and left the company in November. He has been replaced as company secretary by Barry McCurdy. ■ Kirsty Shenton has joined law firm DWF as its senior communications manager. Shenton, a former commercial director at Manchester-based PR agency MC2, has previously held business development and marketing roles at a number of the city’s professional services firms, including Grant Thornton, Hill Dickinson and Arthur Andersen. ■ Paul Kitching, former head chef and owner of Altrincham’s Juniper restaurant, has won a Michelin star at his 21212 venue in Edinburgh. Kitching’s restaurant, which he opened with partner Kate O’Brien United versus City: CEO pay gap narrows Garry Cook pulls down £1.5m — three times what predecessor Mackintosh was earning BY JAMES CHAPELARD Manchester City Football Club’s growing ambitions has seen the pay of its chief executive rocket to £1.5m. Garry Cook’s remuneration is now not far short of Manchester United’s chief executive David Gill, who got £1.83m in the year to June 2009, according to accounts filed last week. Gill’s pay includes aggregate emoluments of £1.6m, up from £1.5m and a £203,000 contribution to his pension scheme. His total emoluments have increased by more than 60 per cent since 2006 when he was paid £1.1m. Cook was appointed by former owner Thaksin Shinawatra in May 2008 to the new post of executive chairman, effectively demoting the then chief executive Alistair Mackintosh. In the year to May 31, 2009, his £1.51m package includes emoluments of £1.42m and pension contribution of £90,000. As a measure of how much City has improved the packages for its top executive, Mackintosh was paid £293,000 for the 2007 season and £477,000 in 2008, before he left the club in June of that year. Chris Poole, director of the North West office of executive recruitment consultants Robert Walters, said board level pay in general had not seen an increase over the last two years, so the football clubs are in an almost unique position compared to the rest of the corporate world. Poole said Cook and Gill’s pay was dictated by what the clubs’ owners felt was value for money. He added: “Owners are able to pay whatever they want to because they do not have to deal with shareholders like plcs. “David Gill has been driving some big commercial deals. Manchester United needs to keep up with debt repayments. It’s disproportionate to what you pay in the normal business world but football is unique.” Petrondas, left, and Hogan at Barbirolli SEE COOK, PAGE 18 Victim asks why wasn’t law firm closed sooner BY MICHAEL FAHY The crisis caused by the collapse of conveyancing solicitors Wolstenholmes LLP could have been averted if the Solicitors Regulation Authority had intervened earlier, according to a victim whose £41,000 deposit is stuck in a frozen account. Stephanie Boyce, a solicitor whose house purchase was hit by the firm’s collapse over Christmas, said that complaints were made to the SRA about the firm’s conduct by one of Wolstenholmes’ former partners in January 2009. She wants to know why the SRA did not act sooner, saying that her attempts to report the firm’s conduct both to the Legal Conciliation Service and to the police have proved fruitless. “No one was interested,” she said. Boyce initially instructed the firm to complete on her property in July, and said they were chosen because they seemed to have a reputable pedigree. “I saw they were established in 1818, had four national offices and 160 employees. Also, this is not a sector with a two-tier regulatory system so if they were a body that was regulated by the SRA I thought it would be fine.” She said that she initially complained to the Legal Conciliation Service about the firm in October last year, but said that despite personal reassurances from former managing partner Imran Hussain that her case was being dealt with, nothing else happened until a further complaint was lodged in December. UPPER GLASS BY MICHAEL FAHY SEE WHAT’S NEWS, PAGE 2 The founder of a new bar concept aimed at older, more sophisticated customers believes it could be rapidly rolled out into a chain. Pete Petrondas, 33, and his new business partner, Barry Hogan, have spent around £775,000 on acquiring the former Pitcher & Piano unit at Manchester’s Barbirolli Square from brewer Marstons and converting it into a new bar/restaurant known as Barbirolli. Petrondas, founder of Macclesfield-based mobile handset recycler Eazyfone Ltd, said that he decided to invest in the venture for three reasons. Firstly, to team up with Hogan, who has run a series of venues in south Manchester and still owns the Mezza Luna bar in Macclesfield. Another factor was the unit’s location — at the foot of the Barbirolli Square office buildings on a canal basin looking onto the Bridgewater Hall. The key motivator, however, was that the model could be rolled out. “I wouldn’t have been interested if we were just opening one bar,” Petrondas said. Hogan got the idea for the venue after he tried to entertain guests in the city centre. “I had some friends over from Dublin and we came into Manchester for a meal, but we walked around afterwards and there was nowhere for us to go,” said Hogan. “We actually considered getting on the train and going back to Macclesfield.” He said the aim was to create a “Ronnie Scott’s-style vibe” where customers come in to have dinner and see a show. He has already lined up SEE BAR, PAGE 18 SEE LAW, PAGE 18 Leading Page 3 COUNCIL VAGUE ON DETAILS OF FESTIVAL’S £36M CITY WINDFALL http://CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Manchester Business - 25-29 January 2010

Crain's Manchester Business - 25-29 January 2010

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