News

Our team has summarised the key developments for NI businesses in the news this week.

Business News

Royal Mail has blamed strike action for helping send it slumping to a full-year loss of more than £1 billion. (Source - Independent) 

Record high for EIS & SEIS investments - Investment in Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) growth companies has reached an all-time high, according to new research from HMRC, with total investment last year amounting to more than £2.5bn. In data for 2021 - 22, the figures show that the total EIS investment was £2.3bn, an increase of 39 per cent compared to the previous year, while SEIS investments reached £205m, a 16 per cent rise. (Source - InsiderMedia) 

US law firm Ogletree Deakins acquires Belfast office - Ogletree Deakins, one of the world’s largest labour and employment legal companies and the newest entrant to Belfast’s international law firm cohort, is relocating its global solutions centre to the Cylinder Building at the Gasworks site. (Source - Irish News)

 

Deals

Family-owned Co Antrim quarry firm bought by the Breedon Group - The construction materials giant has acquired Robinson Quarry Masters Ltd in Glenwherry.  According to Companies House, the concrete block and quarrying business, which dates back more than 50 years, was acquired by Whitemountain Quarries Ltd on Tuesday.  Whitemountain was last year rebranded as Breedon Ireland, which also incorporates the Lagan Asphalt and Lagan Materials businesses. Breedon bought the Lagan Group in a 2018 deal worth £445 million. (Source - Irish News) 

Purplebricks agrees sale to rival strike for nominal £1 - Troubled online estate agent Purplebricks, whose founders hail from Larne and which was once valued at close to £1 billion, has agreed a deal to sell its business and assets for a nominal £1 to a rival backed by Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk founder Sir Charles Dunstone. (Source - Evening Standard) 

 

Economy

NI housing market 'cooling off' as home-buying falls by almost a third - House prices in Northern Ireland continued to fall in the first three months of 2023, new analysis from Ulster University shows. The university’s quarterly house price index, produced with the NI Housing Executive and Progressive Building Society, detected a ‘cooling’ in the market, with house buying down 31 per cent on the same period last year. (Source - Ulster University) 

The average wage in Northern Ireland fell back slightly last month, new official data shows - Median monthly pay dipped by 2.6 per cent (£56) to £2,062 between March and April, according to the latest labour market report from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra). The average monthly wage is still 6.6 per cent (£128) up over the year, but that’s still well below the UK’s official rate of inflation, which stood at 10.1 per cent in the year to March. (Source - Irish News) 

 

Workplace & Employment

Galgorm Collection checks out as a Great Place to Work – Luxury hotels and restaurants group Galgorm Collection has become the first hospitality group on the island of Ireland to achieve official Great Place to Work certification across its entire portfolio of award-winning operations. (Source - Newsletter)

More than three quarters of so-called Gen Zs and millennials in the UK say they would consider looking for a new job if their employer asked them to go into their workplace full-time - And in survey for business advisers Deloitte, the cost-of-living crisis remains the single top concern for respondents. (Source - Irish News) 

Staff at the Seagate factory in Derry have been informed of major job losses, it has emerged - It is understood 116 jobs, over 7% of the workforce, will be cut. Consultations are said to be ongoing and it is believed people will be offered voluntary redundancy. (Source - Belfast Telegraph)