Business News Round Up (21/11/2023)
Q3 sees just £330 million invested into Scottish CRE as headwinds continue
Investment into Scottish commercial property reached £330 million in Q3, around 33% below the five-year quarterly average of £500 million according to Colliers’ latest Scottish Snapshot. When looking back across the year, the Q1-Q3 investment volumes reached £1.1 billion, down 47% on the Q1-Q3 2022 figure. Cross border capital accounted for around 32% of all activity by value so far in 2023, well below the 2022 share of 45%. The largest transaction in Q3 was the £62 million sale of Craigleith Retail Park to Realty Income Corporation. This pushed retail investment to rise from £110 million in Q2 to £180 million in Q3. In the year to date, retail investment volumes stand at £390 million, 40% lower than the corresponding 2022 figure. Eight assets traded during the quarter including Patron Capital acquiring Livingston Designer Outlet for £57m, and Capital & Regional PLC purchasing Gyle Shopping Centre for £40m.
£128m Levelling Up boost and Investment Zone tweaks will benefit North West
The Government has announced two initiatives that will benefit the region, including new Levelling Up funding, and an extension to the Investment Zones project. The third round of the Levelling Up Fund has awarded £1bn to 55 transformational projects, including eight across the North West which will receive a £128m fillip. The Chancellor is also confirming that the Investment Zones programme in England will be extended from five to 10 years, with the envelope of government funding and tax reliefs on offer now doubled to £160m. This can be used flexibly between spending on interventions such as skills, research and development and local infrastructure, dependent on local need, and tax incentives. Alongside this, the window to claim Freeport tax reliefs in England will be extended from five to 10 years until September 2031, providing greater certainty to businesses looking to invest, delivering growth and jobs, and levelling up the economy.
Venture capital investment rebounds across Scotland
The value of venture capital (VC) invested into Scotland’s start-ups rebounded significantly in the third quarter of 2023, due to a handful of high value deals. This comes despite the overall market continuing to experience a slowdown, according to KPMG’s latest Venture Pulse report. During the third quarter of this year, 28 deals worth a combined £202m took place – the highest value quarter in Scotland since the second quarter of 2022 – when £325m was recorded over 45 deals. Despite the spike in values of late, 2023 is set to be significantly quieter than previous years for Scottish VC investment. The value of the first three quarters of this year stands at £335m, significantly lower than the same totals for 2021 (£529m) and 2022 (£623m), when the market was extraordinarily busy following the pandemic.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/venture-capital-investment-rebounds-across-31489121
University’s high growth programme endorsed by Scaleup Institute
Edge Hill University’s SME Productivity & Innovation Centre (SME PIC) has had its High Growth Innovation Sprint programme endorsed by the ScaleUp Institute. The ScaleUp Institute is a private sector not-for-profit company which collaborates with policymakers, corporate partners, and educational institutions to identify opportunities that will support scaleup business. In recognition of its success in boosting growth and creating jobs, Edge Hill becomes the first university in the North West to earn such a distinction. Its programme supports businesses with scaleup potential by developing their strategic growth plans, focusing on business performance, leadership, and workforce capabilities. Since 2017, it has helped over 240 high-growth potential businesses achieve an average 29 per cent increase in turnover and has created 517 new jobs.