Business News Round Up (13/03/2025)
‘Northern Arc’ linked by a Liverpool-Manchester Railway could match Oxford-Cambridge growth potential
A New railway connecting Liverpool and Manchester is the missing link in plans to boost jobs, deliver new homes and grow international trade. The line would connect two growth locations – spanning from the Mersey to the Pennines – creating an economic supercluster say Mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram as they bring together investors at MIPIM to explore massive, internationally significant regeneration opportunities. A ‘Northern Arc’, the stretch from the Mersey to the Pennines, is already home to two investment zones, 5.4 million people, and creates an annual GVA of £150 billion and £23.5 billion in exports. The Liverpool-Manchester Railway is the missing piece of the North’s transport infrastructure, with studies showing it would add £7 billion GVA to the UK economy, support delivery of around 300,000 new homes over 20 years and help create more than 40,000 high-quality jobs by 2050.
Savills volumes driven by return of office workers
Real estate consultant Savills posted better than expected profits and expects a continued drift back to the office to boost transactions this year. Underlying profit before tax surged 38% to £130.4 million in 2024, compared with average analysts’ estimate of £129.6m. Group chief executive Mark Ridley said: “Savills’ improved performance in 2024 reflects the robust earnings provided by our less transactional businesses together with the effect of our inherent operating leverage in the early recovery of transactional markets. An interim dividend of 7.1p per share (2023: 6.9p), amounting to £9.7m was paid on 30 September 2024, and a final ordinary dividend of 14.5p per share (2023: 13.9p) is recommended, making the ordinary dividend 21.6p per share for the year (2023: 20.8p). A 330% increase in the supplemental interim dividend to 8.6p per share (2023: 2.0p) is declared, taking into account the improved underlying performance of the Global Transaction Advisory business.
British manufacturers warn Trump’s metal tariffs ‘will create severe problems’
British manufacturers have said Donald Trump’s fresh trade tariffs on metals will create “severe problems” and are a “big concern”. Liam Bates, president of long products at Marcegaglia, a steel maker in Sheffield, said the tariffs are “very unhelpful”. Between 15% and 20% of what Marcegaglia melts in Sheffield is sent to the US, across both semi-finished and finished steel products, he told PA news agency. Some of those products are “already burdened”, with UK producers facing issues including global competition, high energy costs and the shift to cleaner technologies. Trump imposed global tariffs on steel and aluminium on Tuesday night, while raising a flat duty on steel and aluminium entering America to 25%. The move has prompted warnings of job losses in the already beleaguered UK steel industry, which counts the US as its second largest export market behind the European Union.
Proposed ‘ocean cluster’ could treble industry value
The chief executive of Seafood Scotland has called on industry partners to back the creation of a Scottish ‘ocean cluster’, which it claims could unlock three times more value from Scotland’s seafood industry. Seafood Scotland has partnered with IBioIC, Zero Waste Scotland, Opportunity North East and Aberdeenshire Council, to drive producers, processors, investors, researchers, retailers, government and biotech companies to unlock the full potential of seafood ‘side stream’ products, over and above the actual fish protein. The initiative is inspired by the pioneering Iceland Ocean Cluster, which has driven value-creation from under-utilised marine resources. In just a decade, Iceland has witnessed the production of its first biotech ‘unicorn’, which utilises fish side streams. Subject to funding, the would-be cluster’s first area of focus will be to increase the value of fish side streams, harnessing biotech expertise to create – for example – added value nutritional supplements.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/proposed-ocean-cluster-could-treble-34847228