Business News Round Up (16/02/2021)
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SME trade a hidden jewel for UK’s export sector
According to new research, export trade among small and mid-sized enterprises could prove to be highly lucrative in the future and inject an extra £290 billion to the UK each year. The UK’s economy shrank by a record 9.9% in 2020, with continued coronavirus restrictions hampering much of the economic recovery many experts had hoped for in the apparent ‘post-pandemic’ landscape of the year’s final quarter. Despite this, and the UK’s final withdrawal from the European Union, however, the UK’s exports market still managed to grow by £0.7 billion. According to a new study from Sage and Capital Economics – part of FTI Consulting – as Britain looks to redefine its economy in the wake of the pandemic and Brexit, under-used exports from small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) could play a key role.
https://www.consultancy.uk/news/26979/sme-trade-a-hidden-jewel-for-uks-export-sector
Office investment remains high in Manchester and Birmingham
Manchester and Birmingham are two of the UK’s most active business and commercial sectors. During 2020, both cities saw the strongest office investment volume levels outside of the capital. Avison Young’s Big Nine report revealed how the nine regional city’s office space markets fared throughout 2020. Investment volumes across the nine core cities amounted to £580m during Q4 2020 alone. This is up 2% on the ten-year average and was the busiest quarter of the year. During the past year, Manchester led office investment activity at £325m, while Birmingham followed with £278m. Leeds, Bristol and Edinburgh tied for third with £200m transactions each. These cities saw a particularly strong end to the year. In the last quarter, four deals valued between £85m and £120m completed. This includes two in Manchester, one in Birmingham and one in Leeds, showing the north and Midlands are seeing particular resilience in office investment.
SMEs increasingly turn to private debt investors to support business growth
Private debt has become a valuable source of finance for smaller businesses across the UK since the 2008 economic crisis, reveals British Business Bank, with £18.4billion of lending in 2018 and 2019. Private debt, direct lending and private credit refers to loans made by non-bank lenders to companies. With banks retreating from making loans to SMEs, the private debt market has flourished. It is often the only or most viable funding solution for smaller businesses and mid-cap firms with bespoke needs and a desire for greater flexibility in terms of financing structure. More than £1billion of growth finance – through 563 deals – was provided to UK firms scaling up in 2018 and 2019, reveals a new report from British Business Bank.
More than half of UK’s largest cities experiencing property boom
More than half of the UK’s largest cities are continuing to experience a property selling boom, according to UK-wide letting firm Apropos. The firm has analysed year-on-year data and found that the number of properties advertised for sale has risen by between 1% and 67% year on year in 11 of the country’s 20 largest cities with the remaining nine cities experiencing a reduced number of property’s advertised falling between -1% to -25%. The figures compare the number of properties advertised for sale in January 2020 with January 2021 and found that Edinburgh has had the largest increase with 67% more homes available last month than the same period the year before.