Simon and Phil discuss the Ovo Energy relocation to Bristol, the investment in Audiological Science by YFM Equity Partners, the results of Junior Trader and the North West Asset Based Lending Dinner.
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00:00An MBO at a Northwest law firm, an energy company relocates and new kids on the
00:06block in city trading. That's what's coming up in today's Daily Business
00:11Briefing.
00:17Hi, I'm Simon Keegan. And I'm Phil Conliff. So Phil, I believe you've got some news
00:22about an energy company relocating. Not only an energy company but a very large
00:29one. OVO Energy, the utility provider founded by entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick,
00:35has agreed a deal to relocate its UK headquarters to a landmark office in
00:41Bristol, which is great news for Bristol of course. Savills negotiated the
00:46deal on behalf of investment and development company CEG, while C Squared
00:52acted for OVO. OVO is the fourth largest energy provider in the UK and it'll be
01:00the first occupier of the building called Crescent. And it's taking 22,000
01:05square feet of space, which includes the entire fifth floor of the building and a
01:10fourth floor suite as well. The business said it was attracted by the wide
01:14range of facilities on offer and the building's sustainability credentials. CEG
01:19is targeting BREEAM excellent, an EPC A rating and net zero carbon in its
01:29operation as part of the refurbishment of Crescent. It includes energy
01:34efficient systems, a bike friendly design and employees will have a flexible and
01:41sustainable approach to working in the building. So really exciting and it just
01:46shows you that the South West and Bristol is really becoming a big
01:50hub for that type of business, so very exciting. Sounds that way, well not
01:55only the South West but we've got some exciting news for the North West as well.
01:59Indeed, as ever. Absolutely, so this is an MBO, there's a management buyout at
02:04Harrison Drury Solisters. So six members of the management team, so it's Simon
02:13England, Nick Booth, Hannah Hughes, Malcolm Ireland, Rick Life and Mark
02:18Traynor. Now Simon England's going to assume the role of managing partner, now
02:24the current majority shareholder and Executive Chairman John Chessworth is
02:31going to become senior partner and he's going to support the new ownership. John
02:37is Mr. Lancashire as well, whenever I want to know anything about Lancashire I
02:42go to John, he's a really good guy but really good guys on the new
02:46ownership as well. Excellent. I was out with a couple of them the other week
02:52combating dry January. I don't think we want to know any more. I won't get
02:56into that, I won't get into that, but under John's leadership that firm has
03:01really grown, I mean it started off just from 12 partners in Lancashire they've
03:0912 staff in Lancashire I should say, they've now got 190 staff they're across
03:15Lancashire, Cumbria, Manchester, Southport and you know the firm has been named 28th
03:23in the UK's top 100 mid-sized companies to work for. So the buyout really makes
03:30sense for them. Absolutely yeah, you know they've got 42 solicitors ranked in the
03:35national legal 500 as well, so really really good operation and it'll be
03:41exciting to see what what the new leadership does with it as well. Indeed,
03:45absolutely. Well I want to talk about a business as we've taken investment from
03:53a private equity firm, a very successful business but also taken equity from a
03:59very very prolific investor, YFM Equity Partners. So YFM have invested 12.4
04:08million pounds in audiological science, which is a leading independent
04:13audiological provider. So the firm provides hearing tests, hearing aids and
04:20a broad range of audiology services to both NHS and to
04:26paid private patients. As a specialist community-based provider AS plays a
04:33crucial role in supporting the NHS and its ambitions to take low-complexity ear
04:38care out of hospital settings, reducing waiting lists and freeing up hospitals
04:43to focus on complex procedures. And the company is expanding its footprint to
04:49make high-quality hearing more accessible at a time when demand has
04:54never been higher, with an ageing population as we have of course. So
05:00YFM's investment will support AS's ambitious growth plans enabling
05:07further expansion into additional NHS regions as demand for community-based
05:11care continues to rise. So it's a really, it's an interesting investment from YFM,
05:17it's exactly the sort of thing they normally invest in and we'll see how
05:24that boosts the business further in a really interesting area.
05:28Absolutely, well look, talking of investment, I met some young investors
05:34recently. So somebody that longtime readers of Insider will know, Mark Dechem,
05:40one of our 4,242, company CEO, he's led companies that have actually
05:47listed on the stock market. So he knows what he's doing? He knows what he's
05:51doing. Now what he's doing is he's passing that wisdom on to the next
05:55generation. So he's going into schools and he's teaching the young
06:01people, I think age 16 to 18 sort of age, how to play the stock market. So what
06:07he's doing is he's set up a competition called Junior Trader and they're given
06:14sort of types of sectors that their client would like to invest in and it's
06:20basically a competition to see which team can do the best and
06:26they pit the kids, if you like, against the professionals as well.
06:32So I was invited to go down to Manchester. As one of the kids or one of the
06:36professionals? Well yeah, I was invited to go down to Manchester High School for
06:41Girls and we've got teams there and Mark actually, he put me on the spot Phil,
06:48he said Simon's just gonna say a few words to you now. So I had to get up on
06:52the podium, no prep whatsoever, very very unlike me. The way you like things.
06:57Yeah, so I said a few words about kind of business to them and so on but
07:02he revealed that all of the girls had made money and they had also, some of the
07:11teams, beaten the professionals who'd failed to make money. So really... The
07:16investors of the future are probably going to be women. Well, that may be the
07:20case and I think what it comes down to is, it comes down to diversity. I don't
07:25think there's any coincidence that they were able to beat
07:30the professionals. It's not about luck and so that's quite interesting because
07:34I think the city has got this reputation of, you know, being in a
07:39certain way, should we say, you know... A bit old-school. Exactly, so that was a
07:44really really interesting day. We can read about that. Yeah, that story is
07:51online, you can see some of the pictures as well. So that was good fun. Something else
07:55which is good fun, we've got one of our events this Thursday night. It's called,
08:00this is a really snappy title, I wish I could take credit for this,
08:04Northwest Asset-Based Lenders Charity Dinner. My goodness, well it took hours to
08:09think about that one. We call it NWABL. NWABL? Yes, NWABL. So we've got
08:13NWABL on Thursday night. Sounds good. At the Midland. It's sold out. All of the
08:18asset-based lending community and the sort of associated sectors are going to
08:25be there. It's always a good night. I bet it is. I bet you're looking forward to that one.
08:32Well that's it for today. If you want to read about some of these stories and
08:36other events we've got coming up, please go to insidermedia.com and you'll find
08:41everything there. And that's it for us. We'll be with you again tomorrow, but for
08:47the time being, have a great day. See you next time.