Real estate billionaires the Reuben Brothers swooped for a historic Newcastle city centre shopping arcade in a multimillion-pound deal.
The entrepreneurs beat competing bids from local and national companies to acquire Central Exchange, a Grade II-listed triangular retail and arcade property with 22 shops that has dominated the city centre since the 1830s. The deal comes less than two years after Reuben Brothers bought luxury retail building Monument Mall in 2021, using their property investment vehicle Motcomb Estates to buy the property.
The same investment company swooped for the neighbouring Central Exchange, paying ‘significantly’ more than the £11.75m asking price. The building was marketed by Clifton Agency, the same property experts who sold Monument Mall to the Reuben Brothers in May 2021, who acted on behalf of vendors Royal London Asset Management (RLAM).
Read more: People on the move: key North East promotions and appointments
While marketing the property Clifton Agency said its represented the chance for investors to acquire a historic trophy asset in the heart of Newcastle, at a time when new developments are expected to increase footfall in the area. The landmark deal means Reuben Brothers now owns a large share of Newcastle city centre land and property, with Monument Mall and Central Exchange’s ownership sitting directly next to its £100m-plus developments taking shape in Pilgrim Street.
Hospitality firm The Inn Collection Group has snapped up a third Welsh site with the acquisition of St Kilda Hotel in Llandudno. The Newcastle-based operator has bought the 60-room Victorian property, its sixth purchase of the year which takes its total number of venues to 33. Based on the promenade between the Great Orme and Little Orme headlands in the popular seaside town, the St Kilda dates back to 1854 and has coastal views overlooking Llandudno Bay.
The hotel has been under family ownership for the past 21 years and joins other Welsh acquisitions the Swallow Falls Hotel in Betws-y-Coed – where enabling works are under way as part of a major refurbishment project – and recent acquisition The Bull in Beaumaris on Anglesey.
Sean Donkin, managing director of The Inn Collection Group said: “We are absolutely delighted to be bringing The St Kilda Hotel into our pubs with rooms family and continue our expansion into Wales. What sets The Inn Collection Group aside is the exceptional locations of our trading environments and their beautiful outdoor localities and The St Kilda is a perfect match.
A Tyneside utilities tech provider has been acquired by a major UK infrastructure group in an undisclosed deal.
M Group Services has acquired the trade and assets of Salient Systems Limited, based at Cobalt Business Exchange in North Tyneside, in a deal which includes its proprietary software, 10 staff and client contracts, to add further capabilities to its data management offering. Hertfordshire-based M Group Services is a £1.7bn turnover essential infrastructure services provider operating within water, energy, transport and telecommunication sectors across the UK and Ireland, employing over 10,000 people.
Salient Systems, founded in 2001, is a specialist provider of technology solutions to the UK utilities metering market which has been working with an M Group Services company – Callisto, provides data management to energy suppliers – for a number of years. The relationship between the two companies has been key in recent innovations at Callisto, which has ultimately led to the takeover deal. The deal value has not been revealed.
The owners of a prime Newcastle hotel have secured a multimillion-pound refinance package to help fuel the group’s ongoing growth.
Sandman Hotel Group has made a series of recent acquisitions to add to its core sites in Newcastle, Gatwick and Aberdeen, with further growth planned. The UK and Ireland business – based at the Gallowgate hotel in the shadow of St James’s Park – forms part of a family-owned business based in Vancouver, Canada, which is one of the largest privately owned hotel chains in North America with more than 50 sites in Canada alone.
The group has secured a new eight-figure funding facility from HSBC, having been supported by longstanding advisors in the specialist real estate finance team at Newcastle law firm Sintons. The UK arm of the group has recently added to its portfolio with Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links in Ireland, as well as a newly acquired site in Sheffield .
Newcastle firm Greggs has won a initial ruling in its £150m case against insurer Zurich over compensation claims during the pandemic.
Greggs lodged the claim in the High Court for the sum it claims it is owed as compensation for when its network of 2,000-plus stores was forced to close during Government lockdowns. Zurich had contended Greggs could only claim for a single occurrence of business interruption compensation under its policy, putting a £2.5m limit on all of its business insurance losses as a result of the Covid lockdown.
But lawyers for Greggs argued that the firm was entitled to a separate limit of £2.5m each time the UK and devolved governments enforced new Covid restrictions which affected its business. Mr Justice Butcher has now handed down his judgement in which he says: “In substantial measure I have accepted what was put forward at the hearing as Greggs’ primary case, based on the different Governmental announcements/regulations.”
Subject to appeal, the case now moves to its second phase in which the two parties will calculate the value of the business interruption loss recoverable. Greggs initially claimed £100m but it upped the claim against Zurich last June to £150m.
A Redcar clean tech business has landed £5.25m funding from a group of investors including the continued backing of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.
Nova Pangaea Technologies' patented process converts discarded biomass material into products that are used in the production of sustainable aviation fuel and biochemicals. The Wilton-based firm's method also produces a material called biochar which is used to improve soil quality.
It is the latest of several funding rounds from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund via NPIF - Mercia Equity Finance and Par Equity. The recent investment was led by Mercia Asset Management Plc, Par Equity and NPIF - Mercia Equity Finance, and included private investors. Now the firm is planning to build its first commercial plant at Wilton, which it says will create a number of local jobs.
READ NEXT
- Bazaar Group gears up to double workforce
- Chamber and automotive group tasked to develop North East skills plans
Tanfield Group receives £3.97m settlement from US law firm amid Snorkel legal battle
North East deals of the week: key acquisitions, contracts and investments
- Read more North East business news here
