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February 14, 2020

Exeter set for 2,500 job-boost as developer buys historic park

Burrington Estates, commercial regeneration specialist and luxury homebuilder, has bought an historic estate to kick-start a major project and a huge 2,500 jobs-boost for the region.

Burrington Estates today announced the purchase of Winslade Park, in Clyst St Mary, which is set in 86 acres of parkland on the outskirts of Exeter.

The acquisition, which includes an 18th century Grade II-listed manor house, is the first step towards plans to provide 150 new homes and 125,000 ft of commercial office space at the heart of a new purpose-built community.

It will also be home to a £5m leisure complex with fitness studios, gym, spa facilities, beauty salons and a swimming pool.

Mark Edworthy, group managing director at Burrington Estates, said: “our company’s vision is To Create beautiful living and working environments, build enduring communities and to improve quality of lives. Winslade Park provides the perfect platform for us to express our vision as it is a development that will genuinely create an enduring community and improve quality of life of all people living and working in this stunning parkland setting.”

Burrington Estates’ purchase of the site, which has been unoccupied since 2015 and was previously owned by insurance giants Aviva, comes as a result of a major collaboration between key partners.

Former Exeter Chiefs and England international rugby player, Tom Johnson, will run his new personal coaching gym ‘Number 6’ in the manor house under the Tom Johnson Leisure brand and will be consulting on the leisure complex. Tom said: “We are delighted to be joining the Burrington Estates team to deliver a unique wellness and lifestyle offering at Winslade Park. Health and wellbeing has a hugely positive impact on all areas of life and our aim, together with Burrington Estates, is to ensure that It is as accessible and enjoyable for everyone to get the very best in health and fitness services. Be it fantastic personal coaching, a state of the art gym, a spin studio experience, fitness and holistic classes, superb family leisure, outdoor training facilities, health walks, team sports, lifestyle focused food and drink offerings and many other ways to improve both your body and mind.”

Real estate consultants Lambert Smith Hampton and corporate advisers James Lang LaSalle (JLL) brokered the sale and East Devon District Council provided crucial support for the plans.

Tony Fisher, head of Exeter Office at Lambert Smith Hampton said: “Winslade Park will be the only campus ‘Business Community’ throughout the South West, offering staff a truly unique environment in which to work. A country park setting offering 21st century facilities for businesses to attract and retain their employees within an environment which inspires creativity, increased productivity together with wellbeing and lifestyle.“

Andrew Pearce, director at JLL said: “Great to see this hidden jewel in Exeter’s and East Devon’s office stock brought back into use. Formerly a gated headquarters site it will be reopened as a placemaking smart office campus to cater for the unsatisfied demand for modern efficient workspace. Placemaking is the buzz word in the office sector, whether businesses are looking for WeWork space in London or Business Parks in the regions. Winslade Park ticks all the boxes. This former HQ campus is being restored and revamped and will provide full leisure and gym facilities spa and swimming pool, club restaurant and conferencing trim trails riverside walks and cricket ground and new pavilion for the local club. As well as the latest smart offices”.

Ritchie Watson, lending director at specialist financiers Together Money, who have provided £7m to assist the purchase of the mixed-use site said: “When we first saw the ambitious plans for this mixed-use campus development at Winslade Park we were impressed. It will provide fantastic new, luxury homes on the same site as high-quality offices and leisure facilities. In addition, the major project will bring new 2,500 jobs, having a great impact on the wider city and region, and we were delighted to have been able to provide finance to support the impressive scheme.”

Burrington Estates revealed its £80m vision to re-invigorate the historic site in October.

This includes buildings with the highest possible EPCA energy ratings and renewable energy generation throughout the development, including electric vehicle charging points.

Council planners have already granted permission for much of the proposed development, with further applications due to be submitted early next month.

The public consultation has completed with immensely positive feedback from local residents and reparation and refurbishment work is set to start at the end of March.

February 14, 2020

Senior appointment announcements at Paragon Group

Paragon Group, the leading provider of customer communications, identification and graphics services, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Shine as CEO. Mr Shine succeeds Patrick Crean (Paragon’s principal shareholder), who will now take on the role of executive chairman. John Rogers, currently head of corporate development, has also been promoted to executive director.

Sean joined Paragon as Group COO in 2016 from Accenture. Sean has led the creation of our three business divisions, new management structures and has driven our operational performance while also driving our exceptional growth. This year, Paragon expects to deliver revenues in excess of €1.2bn across the three divisions. Sean and his leadership team will continue to focus on the delivery of organic revenue growth allied to additional expansion through acquisitions while also driving operational profit through to the bottom line earnings performance of Paragon.

Patrick Crean: “Sean will continue with our Group’s ambitious and entrepreneurial style of leadership, whilst creating his own longer term plans for Paragon.”

Quote from Mr Shine: “During 2019 we continued to build strength and depth in each of our three businesses and delivered outstanding growth. We are now strong market leaders across these three businesses and are ready to grow to the next level alongside our clients.”

John Rogers becomes a member of the Paragon Group executive board of directors and will continue to lead the M&A activity. John is the chairperson of Paragon ID SA, a quoted company on the Euronext Paris.

John’s previous roles include senior executive at NASDAQ-listed Identiv, CEO of Sokymat Group (Assa Abloy) and a number of senior roles at Delphi Automotive.

Patrick Crean: “John is a welcome addition to the executive board of directors, his drive and knowledge of the business is a major asset to the Paragon Group”.

February 14, 2020

The UK’s productivity is in decline, could IT be the saviour?

Riverbed® today announced the results of a survey which found that over 70% of C-Suite decision makers believe business innovation and staff retention are driven by improved visibility into network and application performance. The survey findings unveiled in the ‘Rethink Possible: Visibility and Network Performance – The Pillars of Business Success’ report cites a positive correlation between effective technology and company health, a finding that is supported by the fact that 86% of C-Suite and IT decision makers (ITDMs), and 87% of business decision makers (BDMs), reveal that digital performance is increasingly critical to business growth.

Slow running systems and a lack of visibility
Three-quarters of all groups surveyed have felt frustrated by current network performance, with IT infrastructure being given as the key reason for the poor performance. This problem is exacerbated by a lack of full and consistent visibility, as one in three ITDMs report that they don’t have full visibility over applications, their networks and/or end-users. Furthermore, almost half of the C-Suite (49%) believe that slow running and outdated technology is directly impacting the growth of their businesses. This highlights the importance of implementing new technology to drive productivity, creativity and innovation.

Business priorities and challenges
Business priorities and challenges are evolving, so the technology they rely on needs to advance too. Over three quarters (76%) of ITDMs acknowledge that their IT infrastructure will have to change dramatically in the next five years to support new ways of doing business. A further 95% of all respondents recognise that innovation and breaking boundaries is crucial to business success, emphasising the need to embrace new technology. This may be why 80% of BDMs and 77% of the C-Suite say they believe that investing in next-generation technology is vital.

Commenting on the research findings, Colette Kitterhing, senior director UK&I at Riverbed Technology, said: “All leaders recognise that visibility, optimised network infrastructure, and the ability to accelerate cloud and SaaS performance are the next frontier in business success. Given this, it’s time the C-Suite, business decision leaders, and IT decision makers come together to invest in the right solutions, prioritise measurement, and place visibility and infrastructure at the top of their agenda.”

Kitterhing continued: “At Riverbed, we are helping businesses evolve their capabilities, whether it’s by monitoring networks and the apps that run on them, application performance, or updating the network infrastructure that underpins their digital services. We fundamentally believe this is the key to supporting our customers’ staff and their ambitions, driving innovation, creativity, and helping them Rethink what’s possible.”

Rethink Possible: Evolving the Digital Experience
With over 80% of all leaders (82% C-Suite, 84% BDMs and ITDMs) agreeing that businesses must rethink what’s possible to survive in today’s unpredictable world, technology needs to be an enabler in the process. Riverbed’s portfolio of next-generation solutions is giving customers across the globe the visibility, acceleration, optimisation and connectivity that maximises performance and visibility for networks and applications.

February 14, 2020

New chancellor urged to act on NAO tax relief concerns

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is urging new chancellor Rishi Sunak to do more to monitor and evaluate £155bn a year of the UK’s tax reliefs.

This follows the publication today of a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) examining the effectiveness of how the Treasury and HMRC use their resources with regards to tax expenditures. Tax expenditures mean non-structural tax reliefs where government opts to forego tax in order to pursue social or economic objectives, such as tax credits for companies’ R&D costs and income tax relief on pensions contributions.

John Cullinane, CIOT tax policy director, said:

“We strongly welcome the NAO’s intervention in the debate about the effectiveness of tax reliefs and support its recommendations. We hope the new chancellor takes heed of the NAO’s concerns, which are similar to those expressed in our Better Budgets report which called for proper and systematic review of tax changes including the growth in tax reliefs.

“HMRC’s monitoring of tax reliefs is not yet systematic or proportionate to their value or the risks they carry. There is a mismatch between the significant effort in government – and to an extent parliament – that rightly goes into new tax measures, and the relative lack of attention to how effective those measures have been. This is particularly the case with tax expenditures, which do not usually get the NAO scrutiny that traditional government spending does. Taxpayers deserve better, especially when the sum of the estimated costs of tax expenditures in 2018-19 was £155bn.”

The 2017 Better Budgets report – produced by CIOT in partnership with the Institute for Government and the Institute for Fiscal Studies – called on the government to institutionalise evaluation of tax measures – that is provide for systematic post-legislative review of whether measures are achieving their objectives at an acceptable cost, with parliament holding government to account for this. The report acknowledged that the political and technical nature of much of tax policy can inhibit effective upfront scrutiny. That places more weight on the importance of effective evaluation, but at the moment this is poorly done. The report identified a particular need for more effective evaluation of tax expenditures.

John Cullinane continued:

“Neither the Treasury nor HMRC keep track systematically of tax reliefs intended to change behaviour, or adequately report to parliament and the public on whether tax reliefs are expensive or even work as expected. Departments generally do not test whether their aims for the reliefs are being achieved.

“Unless they monitor the use and impact of tax reliefs, and act promptly to analyse increases in their costs, HMRC and the Treasury’s administration of tax reliefs cannot be assumed to be value for money.

“We hope the Public Accounts Committee, once it is up and running in this parliament, will take up this important issue.”

February 14, 2020

Consumer security hangs in the balance

In one month’s time, the UK will reach the Financial Conduct Authority’s  six-month delayed deadline for the implementation of PSD2, and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) will finally be enforced for online banking. SCA is applied in many different areas whilst transacting online.

More and more consumers value the convenience of online banking and payment platforms, which are now used by over two-thirds of British adults – with 48 percent using mobile banking. However, this has caused fraud to skyrocket – in 2019 one in five UK adults were impacted by online card fraud – calling for financial services institutions to seriously re-evaluate current identity verification methods.

Jason Tooley, chief revenue officer at Veridium, highlights that the huge growth in digital services means a re-definition of strong authentication is crucial. This should focus on mobile possession, multi-modal biometrics, combined with innovation including behavioural and location intelligence.

Jason comments: “A failure to implement SCA demonstrates a disregard for consumer protection. The ever-rising fraud levels are linked to the consumer preference of mobile e-commerce, and regulation must keep pace. Now that businesses have had an extended period of six months, in addition to the two years since the initial announcement, there is no excuse to not be compliant. SCA should have been prioritised long ago and viewed as a business differentiator.”

Jason continues: “Whilst it is true that consumers will see minor changes to their day-to-day user experience, the additional layer of security on payments will enable consumers to benefit from safer and more innovative electronic payment services. SCA will mean consumers are more confident when making payments – not act as an inhibitor as some have incorrectly suggested.”

Jason continues: “This regulation has meant financial institutions are now under pressure to implement the latest identity verification technologies to protect the abundance of sensitive customer data, whilst delivering a seamless user experience. In our increasingly digitalised world, and with the explosion in cybercrime, identity theft and fraud, online payments must look to set a standard that meets the expectations of the consumer.”

Jason concludes: “If banks are to meet the deadline in one month’s time, they should be turning to technologies in the market which have the potential to alleviate the challenges posed by the regulation. Multi factor authentication solutions can facilitate financial services institutions to enhance consumer confidence and create a secure experience, whilst ensuring the customer has a frictionless user journey. Basing the digital authentication process on combining the customer’s own technology with an open biometric approach and true step-up intelligence, will allow financial institutions to meet the regulatory requirements before it’s too late.”

February 14, 2020

SMEs more likely to predict sales growth than cost cutting

With 2019 being characterised by market uncertainty and static growth forecasts, it appears that small business leaders are starting the New Year with a different set of priorities. Over a third say they are looking to improve sales (38%) – but those looking to cut back on costs have significantly dropped from 35% to 20%.

The latest figures from Hitachi Capital Business Finance give a first indication that small businesses are starting 2020 with an expansionist mindset. The nationally representative poll of 1,196 business owners suggests there are three key factors powering the small business community’s ambitions for increased revenues and growth.

Diversification and innovation
Supporting a focus on sales growth, around one in four (24%) of business owners are keen to diversify their business in 2020, launching new services and products. To prepare for sales growth, 16% of small businesses plan to do more marketing in 2020 to raise brand awareness, with online advertising seen to be a key channel for reaching new customers. Further, 11% of business owners plan to invest more money to improve the digital capabilities of their business – this coming at a time when 10% say they want to expand into new geographical markets during the year ahead.

Investing in people
Talent management is high on the priority list for small business owners in 2020 – and the focus is to develop talent organically rather than to buy it in. While 6% of small businesses plan to hire senior people, 15% are placing greater emphasis on developing the skills of the staff they already have – with 10% of business owners saying they will invest more money in staff training and e-learning. When it comes to increasing headcount, small businesses are more likely to hire young people that they can train and develop over time (11%).

Prudent financial planning
After a year of unprecedented political and economic uncertainty, small businesses show signs of embracing the unknown and are factoring this into their financial planning for 2020. Overall, 15% of respondents say they are doing more forward-planning with their budgets, 11% are putting in place more far-ranging contingency plans to anticipate market uncertainty – with 5% building greater flexibility into their year-ahead forecasts to allow for greater seasonality. Overall, financial strength is a key issue for one in five businesses (21%) who say they are doing more to build up their financial reserves for the year ahead. Also, 10% of business owners are looking to make back-office efficiencies – this at a time when broadly the same proportion of businesses are investing more in online sales and marketing.

Looking at the findings by industry sector, manufacturing emerges as the sector where small businesses are most likely to predict sales growth (54%), whereas those enterprises in the retail sector are most likely to recognise the need to diversify their business – to broaden their product range and services (36%) in order to compete in a faster-placed, digitised landscape.

Gavin Wraith-Carter, managing director at Hitachi Capital Business Finance said: “Last year small businesses had to adapt to a period of protracted Brexit uncertainty and the economic ripple it delivered to sectors across the UK. We start 2020 with far greater certainty and our research suggests small businesses have switched from staying afloat through cost-cutting to a new era of planning for sales growth, investing in people and product diversification to boost bottom-line growth. While 10% of business leaders are investing in training, the remaining 90% should be giving this serious thought, and what options that are available to businesses.

“Our research also suggests that more small business owners recognise the need to adopt flexibility in their budgeting, whilst safeguarding their financial strength by building up their financial reserves. These factors point towards 2020 being a year when more small businesses will be looking for finance to help to realise their growth ambitions. We would encourage business owners to shop around, to look beyond the high street lenders and talk to specialists that can offer flexible solutions that are tailored to the needs of their business.”

February 14, 2020

Investec Aviation Finance partners with market leader

Investec arranged the financing for LCI of a Leonardo AW169 helicopter, which will be leased to a leading European provider of base-to-base helicopter services.

LCI is a leading helicopter lessor, which has developed a proven leasing platform that is today renowned for the ownership, management, and servicing of a global fleet of around 100 aircraft. Its fleet comprises of approximately US$1bn of assets in service, on order and under management, focused on the latest technology medium and super medium helicopters.

The helicopter will be used to support offshore oil and gas and offshore renewable energy contracts.

David Minty, head of Investec Aviation Finance, explains that the transaction follows several years of engagement with LCI. It also opens up a pipeline of potential transactions for the future he says.

“We were presented with this opportunity late last year and were able to turn it around quickly, allowing LCI to take delivery and place the helicopter with its client in a short period of time,” says Minty.

Minty says “Helicopter financing presents an opportunity to gain access to diverse underlying industries while backing stong lessor partners. Helicopter operators service specific industries that require specialised access to plant or facilities, such as oil & gas or utilities, as well as emergency access, such as EMS or air ambulance services” he says.

February 14, 2020

Monese announces next step in global expansion

Monese has announced the next step in its global expansion with the launch of Romanian currency accounts. The new RON account from Monese comes with a Romanian IBAN and Romanian language customer support, a first for a global fintech servicing customers in Romania.

With Monese, customers can open multicurrency accounts within minutes. Using their existing GBP or EUR account, customers can now create a RON account. Or customers can create a RON account and add EUR and GBP. Customers can make free and instant international transfers between Monese customers and their RON, GBP and EUR accounts; receive salaries; as well as make fast, secure local payments in RON, at no extra cost. Romanian citizens anywhere will be able to use their Monese RON card with Apple Pay, globally, wherever Apple Pay is accepted.

Romanian IBANs are provided by Libra Internet Bank, a key partner in the launch of Monese RON accounts. The Romanian IBAN is a huge benefit to customers in Romania. Users in Romania will be able to receive their salary, handle domestic payments, and make safe online purchases in the local currency. Monese’s RON account is an ideal choice for Romanians, international students, workers, travelers or retirees.

Monese accounts are available in three pricing plans, with tailored, fee-free, allowances for global ATM withdrawals and foreign currency spending – ideal for customers who love to travel and those who love contactless payments and Apple Pay. All accounts also come with a contactless Mastercard debit card in Monese’s vertical design.

Norris Koppel, founder and CEO of Monese, said: “We’re very excited to be launching Romanian accounts today, bringing our ambition to become a truly global banking service one step closer. Unlike many of our peers, Monese customers are using as a primary banking account, with 70% of incoming funds being salary payments. This new currency provision will enable customers to have a primary account in more countries, transfer money simply and securely, providing a truly localized banking experience, wherever they’re based. “

All Monese RON accounts provide customers with Romanian IBANs, along with:

Contactless Mastercard debit card (RON 19.95 standard delivery fee on the Simple Plan, or free delivery of the first card on the Classic plan and free delivery for any card on the Premium Plan)

  • Free and instant transfers between RON, EUR or GBP accounts
  • Free and instant transfers between Monese accounts globally (in any currency)
  • Free and instant debit card top-ups (in any currency)
  • Fee-free global ATM withdrawals (RON 1,000/month fee-free allowance on Monese’s Simple plan, as minimum)
  • Fee-free global foreign currency card allowance (RON 10,000/month fee-free allowance on Monese’s Simple plan, as minimum)
  • The Monese apps and the Customer Support team are accessible in 14 languages, including Romanian
  • Apple Pay
  • Recurring payments
  • The ability to lock and unlock cards from within the Monese app
  • Instant mobile notifications when spending or receiving money
  • On-demand statements that can be easily exported
  • Monese Pots for setting savings aside

Over 2 million people have signed up to Monese, with customer growth more than tripling in year to date, 100,000 – 200,000 people are now joining Monese every month. Unlike many of its peers, customers are also using Monese as a primary banking account, with 70% of incoming funds being salary payments.

February 14, 2020

Together launches its lowest ever second charge rate

Together has overhauled its second charge mortgages – introducing new fixed-term products and its lowest ever rate on some secured loans.

The lender has introduced cuts to its second charge Prime Plus range, with rates for residential borrowers starting at 5.19% at a maximum 65% loan-to-value (LTV).

It announced today that it is introducing new maximum borrowing limits as well as adding new two and five year fixed rate second charge mortgage products on its Prime Plus plans, for near prime borrowers, following feedback from brokers.

Richard Tugwell, intermediary relationship director at Together, said: “We’re delighted to be able to offer our brokers’ clients larger second charge mortgages, some at our lowest ever rates and believe this shake-up of our Prime Plus range will make us even more competitive in the market.

“We’re constantly working with our partners to launch new products and improve those we already have and many brokers we’ve worked with had said that the new fixed-rate second charge products would be a great addition to our second charge range.”

He added: “Although a second charge isn’t always the right solution, in some cases it can be, so brokers should be looking at this type of lending as a viable option to remortgaging when advising their clients.”
Together’s new two year fixed products will start at 5.89% and five year fixed at 6.39%.

Meanwhile, the lender is doubling its maximum Prime Plus second charge loan sizes to £150,000 at 77.5% LTV and to £200,000 at 75% LTV.

Andy Pelley, director at The Loan Partnership, a leading second charge mortgage broker, said: “Over the last few years, we’ve seen a rising demand for second charge borrowing as people begin to better understand the flexibility of these kinds of products.

“We believe Together’s amendments will make second charge mortgages even more attractive for our clients.”

The latest figures published by the Finance and Leasing Association revealed a 17% rise in value – and 13% in the volume – of second charge mortgage business in November, compared to the same month in 2018.

There were 2,594 new loan agreements that month, totalling £116m in value, according to the data released last month (January).

February 13, 2020

PPS approved to become Visa issuer and processor

PPS, formerly PrePay Solutions, and subsidiary of Edenred, the everyday companion for people at work, has today been approved to become an issuer and processor of Visa.

Through the partnership, PPS will be able to offer its customers, including fintech providers and challenger banks, full access to Visa’s products, including issuing Visa branded cards. Incorporating Visa’s product range into PPS’ award-winning payment platform further enhances its ability to power fintechs and in general, financial institutions who wish to partner with Visa. Following the certification, PPS’ innovative processing platform will facilitate issuer and programme manager integrations with Visa across Europe.

Ray Brash, CEO and chairman of PPS, said: “The digital payments market is growing exponentially, and Visa is investing heavily in the fintech sector. PPS is already a leader in providing a full Bank out of a Box service with issuing, card and bank processing and core banking services all from one provider both in the UK and in the EU. That’s why we’re delighted to start our collaboration which will offer more choice to the market and look forward to becoming a fully certified Visa issuer and processor in the coming months.”

The news comes just after PPS’ rebrand, marking the company’s shift from supporting not just prepaid solutions but also to working with the broader fintech market.

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