Crain's Manchester Business - 4-8 January, 2010 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S LIST Corporate Law Firms Page 14 STARTS ON PAGE 11 Corporate Law Tough times take their toll CRAIN’S MANCHESTER BUSINESS VOL. 3, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 4 - 8, 2010 CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk £2 What’s News ■ Mark Blower, head of Lloyds TSB Acquisition Finance in Manchester, has quit the bank and is understood to be joining the Manchester-based team at private equity firm Gresham. Blower, who also previously worked as an acquisition finance manager at the Manchester office of investment bank Rothschild, put together a number of deals funded through the bank’s Manchester office including a debt package for Lloyds Development Capital’s £100m buyout of Northwich-based British Salt and ISIS Equity Partners’ £50m buyout of Altrincham-based LBM Group. He is currently understood to be on gardening leave. Nobody from Gresham was available for comment. ■ Mark Senior, a mergers and acquisitions partner at the Manchester office of Ernst & Young, has left the firm. Crain’s understands that Senior’s role was one of a number recently cut from its advisory practice in the North of England, which also included Leeds-based partner Chris Kelly. A spokeswoman from Ernst & Young confirmed that Senior had left the practice on November 30. ■ Matthew Morgan, head of banking at DLA Piper’s Manchester office is to join Pinsent Masons. Morgan, who specialises in leveraged finance and asset-based finance, primarily acts for lenders advising on bilateral and syndicated debt deals used to fund MBOs and private equity deals. The most recent edition of law directory Chambers ranked Morgan in the top tier of banking lawyers in the city. ■ Trafford-based developer Property Alliance Group is planning to build a laboratory and warehouse on a one-acre regeneration site on the Chamberhall Business Park in Bury. The planning application for the 20,000 sq ft building, which also includes office space, was submitted in December to the park’s owner Bury Metropolitan Borough Council. PAG said it was being built for an unnamed bespoke occupier “whose current premises are no longer large enough for their requirements”. The new building will be on Carlyle Street, 500 metres from Bury town centre. ■ Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council is launching a design award to recognise new buildings across the borough. The 2010 Trafford Design Awards is celebrating buildings in the borough that have been completed since January 2009. There will be two awards; The Trafford Design Award, selected by a council panel, and The People’s Design Award, voted for by residents. ‘Poor image’ of city deters top business talent Big companies blame areas around rail stations and airport for creating bad first impression BY SIMON BINNS Greater Manchester is struggling to shake off an image problem which makes it difficult for the city to attract top business talent. That is the verdict from executives at 26 large companies who were surveyed about their views on the city region’s suitability as a business location. They told local authority leaders that Manchester was “a good location” and “generally better than other national or international equivalents”, but called for a number of key issues to be addressed. The report, commissioned by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, concluded: “Manchester continues to have an image problem that makes it tough to recruit top talent for some key roles.” It added that “skills, training and interface with academic institutions are currently not efficient and suitable for the needs of large business,” and suggested there were “opportunities to greatly improve this in ways that would benefit the region”. A total of 44 “large domestic” businesses were approached and 26 agreed to be interviewed, including The Co-operative Group, Warburtons, Bruntwood, Kellogg’s, N Brown Group, Brother, Addleshaw Goddard, Procter & Gamble, Speedy Hire, KPMG and JD Sports Fashion. The report’s executive summary describes Manchester as “a much better place to live and work than the outside world knows” but warns that its “poor image is confirmed when visitors view the appearance of the city at its main points of entry around railway stations, main arterial roads and airport”. Railway stations in Manchester city centre are already the focus of proposed regeneration initiatives. Manchester City Council recently signed off plans to regenerate 30 acres around the old Mayfield goods depot near Piccadilly Station and is involved in a long-running battle with Hale-based Britannia Hotels over the Mohammed Salim SEE IMAGE, PAGE 18 Sale or float is on the cards for phone recycler BY MICHAEL FAHY Frontiers Capital, the London-based venture capital firm which owns a majority stake in Macclesfield-based mobile phone recycling firm Eazyfone, has brought in advisors from Ernst & Young to complete a strategic review which could eventually lead to a sale or a flotation of the business. The London-based firm is believed to be looking at what sort of return it might be able to achieve from its three and-a-half year investment, during which time the company’s performance and prospects have been transformed. It initially invested around £4m and bought a majority stake from founder Pete Petrondas in July 2006. At the time, the firm was losing £1m a year on sales of more than £2.4m. However, in the following year to the end of August 2007 pre-tax losses widened to £1.9m albeit on increased sales of £4.9m. Petrondas was replaced as chief executive in June 2007 and the firm took a further two years to make a profit, but has racked up spectacular growth. Last month, it was named as the fifth-fastest growing privatelyowned firm in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 after achieving a growth rate of 260 per cent in 2009. In the year to August 31, it made a pre-tax profit of almost £3m on sales of £36.2m. Speaking when the firm announced its results last month, chief executive Nick Brown described its Fast Track listing as “a massive achievement”. Brown added: “Over the course of 2008/09, the company has achieved HOTS UP BY MICHAEL FAHY restaurant entrepreneur is hoping that a new city centre outlet could boost sales at his fledgling group to £4m by the end of this year. Mohammed Salim, owner of the Swadesh, which has just taken the place of the former Ikon Thai fish restaurant on Portland Street, said he hoped to achieve sales of £1m-£1.5m from the 200-cover restaurant. It will offer £6.90 buffet lunch specials as well as a more tailored a la carte menu to compete with the Manchester operations of Bradfordbased Zouk and Akbar’s. “I’ve always enjoyed competition,” said Salim. “I started out on the Curry Mile in Rusholme where there was lots of competition but my restaurant quickly became very popular.” Salim opened his first Sangam restaurant in Rusholme in 1991, a unit he later sold. He currently operates two Sangam restaurants at Heald Green and Didsbury as well as the Sanuk Thai restaurant and a takeaway business known as Sajna, both also in Didsbury. “There are many good, wealthy customers in the area who want high- CURRY DUEL PHOTO: MARTIN O’NEILL/STUDIOFIVEFOUR.COM SEE WHAT’S NEWS, PAGE 2 SEE EAZYFONE, PAGE 18 SEE SWADESH, PAGE 18 Leading Page 3 ALCOHOL SMUGGLERS ARE GOING MAINSTREAM WARNS CASH AND CARRY BOSS http://CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Manchester Business - 4-8 January, 2010

Crain's Manchester Business - 4-8 January, 2010