Watch: Business Briefing: 4 December 2024

Insider Media

Adam and Remy discuss metro mayors, significant deals in the Midlands and the expansion of a digital bank in Cardiff.

Transcript

00:00Metro Mayors, a couple of big Midlands deals and expansion for a digital bank

00:05in Cardiff all appear in today's business briefing.

00:13Good morning Remy, what do you have for us this morning?

00:16Yeah, so this morning I want to start off in the North West, which is obviously where we're based right now.

00:21So the story comes from a recent Insider Roundtable that was hosted by my editor Simon Keegan.

00:27And pretty much the two combined authority mayors, Andy Burnham, Steve Rotherham,

00:34have been criticised by manufacturers who say they're not bringing as many jobs to the region as perhaps they should be.

00:41Particularly as many as their counterpart in the North East, Ben Houchen, is.

00:47One manufacturer, Kevin Tully of engineering business Tullway,

00:51which was once based in Merseyside in Knowsley, but now moves to Middlesbrough in the North East,

00:57told the North West editor that the difference in business support between the two regions was quote, night and day.

01:04And he said in a quote, I'm sure they are doing great things in the North West,

01:09but you don't get that warm feeling that they're looking to create jobs, which I think is quite telling.

01:14Quite a big comment, yeah.

01:16Especially from the manufacturing industry, it's such a pivotal keystone industry I think.

01:20But I believe you've got something on a pair of deals from the Midlands, where?

01:26That's right, yeah. There was a couple of big ones today with a nursery group which is registered in Northamptonshire,

01:32which has almost 50 locations across the UK.

01:36It's been acquired by a private equity firm, Livingbridge.

01:39Kindred is the name of the company and it provides early years education to children aged zero to five.

01:44And it has been sold by Unigest John, a boutique asset manager, excuse me.

01:49Great pronunciation.

01:50Thank you, I made a good attempt.

01:52Which first invested in Kindred in 2017.

01:55Now during the time of that investment, the nursery group actually grew from four to 48 locations,

02:00which is obviously significant growth.

02:03As part of the deal with Livingbridge, Unigest John has actually made a new investment in their nursery group.

02:07So it continues to back it alongside Livingbridge.

02:10So worth keeping an eye on their growth in the future.

02:13Should be up to 100 nurseries in the next few years.

02:16Yeah, definitely.

02:18And management buy-in has been completed in Birmingham as we move over to the other side of the Midlands,

02:24with an engineering company which dates back to the 1800s during the reign of Queen Victoria.

02:31Aldermore Bank has provided funding to Michael Capewell's Astwood Group to support the acquisition of Cross and Morse.

02:37Now Cross and Morse, as I said, traces its roots back to the 1800s,

02:40but it provides engineering and manufacturing services to clients across the globe.

02:45Now Capewell takes over stewardship from David Shadbolt and Mike Scudamore,

02:50who have been with the business for more than 40 years.

02:52So it's really a deep manufacturing heritage there in the Midlands.

02:56Wow, absolutely.

02:57And I want to take us out of England, actually into Wales, to Cardiff specifically.

03:02But it's news from the Challenger Bank arena that Stalin, I'm sure you know them,

03:07them and Monzo seem to be the main popular, I suppose, Challenger digital banks.

03:14They've recently expanded their presence in Cardiff and taken on an extra, I think it's around 15,000

03:20or just under 15,000 square feet of office space.

03:24I've never been to Cardiff, but Brunel House is the new location.

03:28I believe it's quite an iconic.

03:31Prominent, yeah.

03:32I think it probably dominates the Cardiff skyline at the minute.

03:36And yeah, so the bank has, I think, it's about 4 million current and business customers.

03:42It's definitely growing, and this new office space will help them continue doing that, I believe.

03:47But yeah, that's all from me, Adam.

03:49Yeah, it's an interesting sector as well.

03:51And that's all from me.

03:52And you can read about those stories and others at insidermedia.com,

03:55where you can also subscribe to our newsletters and learn about upcoming events.

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