Times may be hard but the vast majority of private equity houses expect the number of new buyouts to hold up in the coming months, according to Grant Thornton's latest Private Equity Barometer. The chartered accountants say, however, that although there has been little difficulty in funding new deals only...
Plans for the £50m Leisuredome all-weather attraction at Weston-super-Mare have been given the green light by the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government. The Leisuredome will be built on a 12.7-acre site at Locking Parklands – a former RAF base being redeveloped into a £400m sustainable community...
From Bristol 24-7 www.bristol247.com Consumers’ shift from newsprint to online to find local news shows no sign of stopping according to the latest official readership figures for the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press. The average daily sale of the Post fell 7.6% to 38,344 copies in the...
Icon Films, the Bristol-based natural history and documentary production company, has teamed up with the Bristol Old Vic to create a trailer for the theatre’s upcoming new play, Coasting. Filmed along the seafront at Clevedon, the trailer focuses on the play’s three characters – Ocean, Pearl and Falcon. Icon...
Wealth management group Hargreaves Lansdown underlined the recession-proof nature of its core business with a 42% rise in pre-tax profits and a 60% boost to its dividends for the year ending June. Its shares soared nearly 14.82% or 64p to 496p – a strong move back towards the previous high...
Bristol-based café/bar business Loungers is embarking on an ambitious expansion programme after securing a new financing deal with Santander Corporate Banking. The firm, which opened its first outlet in Bristol in 2002, aims to have 32 by mid-2013. It has recently opened its 19th outlet – Santo Lounge in...
Hype Agency, the Bristol party planning firm, has won a £500,000 contract to host Christmas parties in the historic Passenger Shed at Temple Meads Station. The contract, which will run for five years, was secured against competition from a number of other major national event companies. It was awarded...
CBI director general John Cridland will be guest speaker at this year’s CBI South West annual dinner. Mr Cridland is a key spokesman for the business community in the media, on public platforms and with Government, leads the CBI, the voice of UK business, and represents it internationally. The...
Developers Cotswold Homes have won a planning battle to build 10 three-bedroom town houses and two pairs of semi-detached three-bedroom homes on the former Starline coach depot in Clevedon’s Strode Road. CJH Land, based in Flax Bourton, brokered the site’s sale with a view to replacing derelict commercial buildings at the depot with...
West of England farmers looking to invest in renewable energy projects can apply for finance from a new £100m fund launched by Barclays Bank. The fund has been set up to cater for the massive groundswell of interest from farmers seeking to cut energy bills and generate new income....
Specialist waste management firm Ecowaste Southwest’s acquisition by Stericycle has been referred to the Competition Commission for further investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Ecowaste operates across the South West and owns a treatment facility at Avonmouth while Stericycle’s UK subsidiary SRCL provides similar services throughout England...
A refurbished Avonmouth trading estate has gone from half empty six months ago to almost full with five empty units now let. Just 10 per cent of St Andrews Trading Estate off Third Way now remains vacant, according to Knight Frank, which markets the estate jointly with Jones Lang...
The Bristol and Bath offices of chartered accountantcy firm Target are celebrating a combined 20% increase in turnover. The firm’s results for the year to June also show national turnover rose by 10% to £13.3m, making it the UK's 45th largest accountancy firm. Target, which recently opened its corporate finance...
