Watch: Business Briefing: 24 July 2024
In today's briefing Simon Keegan and Miri Thomas discuss the Environment Agency's report into water companies, the latest investments from the British Business Bank's Investment Fund for Northern Ireland and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund 2, plus UFC's arrival in Manchester this weekend.
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00:00Coming up in today's daily business briefing, water companies, UFC and boots selling off
00:06land at its Nottingham headquarters.
00:13Good morning. I'm Mary Thomas.
00:15And I'm Simon Keegan.
00:16So, Simon, we do not need to know just how woeful the water companies have been in the
00:23UK recently. But if you did want hard evidence of just what was happening, just look at the
00:29Water Management Agency's annual report. So, it has used a ranking system, a star system
00:35to rank how well these companies are performing. And most of them are in need of improvement.
00:41I'd say probably the worst performer was Yorkshire Water, which last year was ranked three stars
00:47and this year is only on two stars. And if you want to put that in context, also scoring
00:52two stars is Thames Water, which you've heard quite a lot about recently.
00:56What else have you seen today, Simon?
00:58So, something that I'm quite interested in, as you may recall, a couple of weeks ago,
01:02I went over to Belfast to help the British Business Bank launch their new investment fund
01:08for Northern Ireland. So, they've announced, it's sort of similar to the Northern Powerhouse fund
01:13that we've got, 70 million quid going in Northern Ireland SMEs. So, it's divided between a debt fund
01:22and an equity fund. So, the equity fund has done their first deal. So, that's Clarendon Fund Managers
01:31and they've done a deal with a data solutions company called IncData, which is based in Belfast.
01:38So, that's for £750,000 worth of funding, which has come from the investment fund,
01:44but then they've also got additional funding, which brings the total up to 2.5 million.
01:50So, I expect to see a lot more from that fund.
01:52And you mentioned the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, that's done a deal in South Yorkshire.
01:57So, a legal technology company called Finlegal in Sheffield has secured around £2 million
02:03from Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund 2, which earlier this year announced it was investing
02:09£660 million into companies across the Northern Powerhouse. So, Finlegal is a company used by firms
02:18in the UK and Australia to help manage sort of class action suits. So, big, big claims.
02:27And the company is going to use that money to accelerate its growth in the UK and internationally.
02:32And that's funds managed by Mercia. And I think Mercia's own money has gone into this deal as well.
02:39Right, okay.
02:40What else have you been up to?
02:42Well, yesterday, I actually went to do an in-person interview in Wigan with a gentleman called Tom Blackledge.
02:50He's one of our 42 Under 42s, isn't he?
02:52He is, yeah. And the reason why is because the UFC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship,
02:58is coming to Manchester on Saturday. Tom is one of Britain's pioneers in the UFC.
03:04So, for those who don't know, UFC, Mixed Martial Arts, they fight in an octagonal ring with a cage around it.
03:11And it's a combination of sort of striking and grappling and so on.
03:15And Tom was doing that, you know, 20 plus years ago. And he became a really successful coach.
03:21He coached world champion Quentin Rampage Jackson. So, I talked to him about his fighting, his coaching.
03:29But also, what I think is really interesting is he does a lot of mindful work with people like business leaders.
03:37So, he'll talk about breathing techniques and things like that.
03:40And how you can use these sort of techniques to improve your mental health.
03:45Does a lot of sort of charity things as well.
03:48So, it was fun. I had a good chat with Tom.
03:51And then also, I convinced him to show me a few things as well.
03:56So, he threw me about a bit.
03:59So, people will see the video of that later on as well.
04:02Right. That's really interesting. We'll look out for that one.
04:05People always want to see me get beat up. So, they've got that to look forward to later as well.
04:10Another one of those videos. Yes, we can't have too many.
04:13Also, and finally, we do have a story from my new UK property editor, Chantelle Deet.
04:19So, Chantelle's been speaking to the experts in Nottingham.
04:22And she's discovered that Boots, the retailer, is selling off more land at its headquarters there.
04:28So, to find out more about what the plans are for that particular part of land,
04:33just check out the stories on today's Midlands newsletter.
04:36And I believe it's also going to be in our new Investment Hub newsletter too, which is every other Wednesday.
04:42So, you can read more about these on InsiderMedia.com.
04:46Check out the latest video with Simon and read all the rest of our news on our website.
04:51And we'll be back tomorrow for your next daily business briefing.
04:54See you then.