The fall in wholesale gas and power prices has accelerated Centrica’s pivot towards its customer facing activities, according to a report from ratings agency Moody’s. Last July the British Gas owner announced a major strategic shift away from its loss-making upstream gas and power businesses and towards its more profitable
19 April 2016 | Jamie Harris The procurement process in FM has become a hindrance to public sector outsourcing, according to Bellrock’s Martin Holt. Speaking at the Future of FM in the Public Sector conference, organised by the University of Salford and held in London, Holt noted that there is
11 June 2016 – by David Hatcher Insurance companies have further increased their presence in UK real estate lending and now account for nine of the 28 big-ticket lenders active in the market. According to Savills’ 2016 Financing Property report, AIG, Aviva, ING, Legal & General, M&G Investments, MetLife, Pricoa,
SES Engineering Services, owned by Wates, has secured a £43 million contract on the £300 million Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre at the Stanford Hall estate, near to Loughborough. SES will work alongside main contractor Interserve to provide a full range of electrical and mechanical services to deliver a purpose
An energy expert told delegates at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that any potential gains from domestic demand side response (DSR) are “limited.” Domestic consumers are not able to shift their demand in the same way as industrial energy users and therefore the savings on offer are relatively small.
House building and development firm MJ Gleeson has reported a strong rise in profits and turnover for the last year. For the year up to June 30, 2016, MJ Gleeson posted a £28.2 million profit before tax, which is a 63% rise on the previous year’s £17.3 million, on revenue
On October 3 2016, the Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, Mike Robinson, will meet with the management of Hargreaves Industrial Services in Hong Kong to discuss the upcoming best practice health and safety audit of the Hong Kong Power Station, which is operated by Hargreaves. The charity, campaigning
A vibrant new, high quality office building overlooking the Grade II listed Wandsworth Park with views of the River Thames on the corner of Putney Bridge and Deodar Road has been granted planning permission by Wandsworth Council. Developed by Landid and designed by dn-a architects, The Parklife Building will transform
Five teams of architects have been shortlisted to enter a design competition for the construction of new bridges in Ipswich. Suffolk County Council is seeking to improve connections between the town centre and the waterfront and ease traffic congestion in the town. Its solution is the £77 million Orwell Crossings
The fall in wholesale gas and power prices has accelerated Centrica’s pivot towards its customer facing activities, according to a report from ratings agency Moody’s. Last July the British Gas owner announced a major strategic shift away from its loss-making upstream gas and power businesses and towards its more profitable downstream businesses – energy retail, services and technology. It said it would invest £1.5 billion in its customer focused operations over the following five years. The report from Moody’s said falling commodity prices have quickened the pace of the transition. It said the company is “reducing investment in oil and gas production, selling generating assets, and investing organically and through small acquisitions in technology and services, which we expect to reduce Centrica’s commodity exposure”. It noted the sharp decline in wholesale gas prices, which fell by around 50 per cent between early 2014 and mid-January this year, in turn pushing down wholesale power prices by around 40 per cent. According to Moody’s Centrica was heavily exposed to the price falls through its generation businesses and exploration and production (E&P) operations. It said the decline in earnings from E&P was largely responsible for its 2015 operating profits coming in 11 per cent lower than the previous year, and 46 per cent lower than the year before that. Centrica expects to cut oil and gas production to 40-50 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) per year – down from 78.7 mmboe in 2015 – by scaling back investment in the North Sea and exiting positions in Canada and Trinidad and Tobago. “We estimate E&P will account for about 26 per cent of the company’s EBITDA in 2016, down from 48 per cent in 2014,” the report said. As part of its refocus on downstream activities, in April Centrica announced it was buying Danish energy trading and management company Neas Energy for £170 million, saying it would invest a further £30 million in the company. Several weeks later it revealed the purchase of combined heat and power business Ener-G Cogen for £145 million. The supplier unexpectedly sold off £700 million of new shares to fund the acquisitions as well as to pay down its debts. Last month Moody’s confirmed Centrica’s long term credit rating as unchanged at Baa1. Lead analyst Graham Taylor said the rating reflected its “demonstrated commitment to reducing leverage”, its “leading market position” and its “consistently strong performance” in the UK retail market. Source link
19 April 2016 | Jamie Harris The procurement process in FM has become a hindrance to public sector outsourcing, according to Bellrock’s Martin Holt. Speaking at the Future of FM in the Public Sector conference, organised by the University of Salford and held in London, Holt noted that there is often a lack of transparency in the FM industry, which hinders the flexibility of facilities and estates teams. He said: “The whole procurement process gets in the way. From a public sector practitioner’s perspective, OJEU can be helpful and it can be very unhelpful. “If you’re facing a challenge where you need to be more flexible over who you can contract with, OJEU gets in the way, and if I’m being perfectly candid, I don’t think the CCS [Crown Commercial Service] framework has really helped. It’s channelling down into set boxes that don’t really help [the FM provider].” Holt referred to a quote from Steve Jobs, explaining that “it’s impossible to join the dots looking forward”. Holt encouraged delegates to consider what FM teams should have been doing five years ago to make services as efficient as they can be today. Other speakers at the conference noted that public sector FM teams can learn from each other. Peter Bright, head of strategy at the University of Salford, pointed to the similarities between a university estate and a local authority. Both Bright and Holt said that the future of public sector facilities management would be centred around place making, and ensuring that estates are using information to effectively create a flexible space for its users. The conference continues this afternoon. Source link
11 June 2016 – by David Hatcher Insurance companies have further increased their presence in UK real estate lending and now account for nine of the 28 big-ticket lenders active in the market. According to Savills’ 2016 Financing Property report, AIG, Aviva, ING, Legal & General, M&G Investments, MetLife, Pricoa, Rothesay Life and TIAA Henderson all originated and held two or more real estate loans of £100m or more during the year to 31 March. By number, insurers now eclipse German banks (six), UK clearing banks (four), US investment banks (four), alternative lenders (three) and other international lenders (two) in the big-ticket lending market. All the content from this weekís magazine, including this article, is available in the new app. The activities of insurance companies in the UK real estate market have increased markedly during the past four years, with £8.6bn lent by them last year, a 58.5% rise on the year before and a 238.2% increase on 2012. Insurers have become more active in the real estate market in order to match their annuity liabilities with interest paid by landlords, generally through longer-term deals, and have gained market share from traditional bank lenders, which have reined in their lending since the financial crisis. Last year William Newsom, Savills’ senior director and author of the report, said that the UK real estate lending market was in a “Goldilocks period” in which it was “not too hot and not too cold”. But he added that in the final quarter of last year margins started to increase and LTV ratios started to decrease. Click here to read the full story and a Q&A with William Newsom Source link
SES Engineering Services, owned by Wates, has secured a £43 million contract on the £300 million Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre at the Stanford Hall estate, near to Loughborough. SES will work alongside main contractor Interserve to provide a full range of electrical and mechanical services to deliver a purpose built clinical facility for the Armed Forces when it becomes operational in 2018. The BS Stanford project will see the construction of a new 380,000 sq ft specialist clinical facility along with the refurbishment and alteration of the Grade II listed Stanford Hall. SES Executive Business Director, David Mason, commented: “We have delivered numerous projects with Interserve over many years and have formed an inclusive and collaborative working relationship with them to ensure the delivery of a truly world-class facility. “The project involves highly complex site logistics, based around the refurbishment of the grade 2* listed Stanford Hall with over 20 separate new builds in close proximity and up to 1,000 workers on site at any given time.” SES is also working with the Career Transition Partnership, which helps to resettle ex-military personnel into new employment roles, to provide employment opportunities to former servicemen and women during the project. SSE has also secured an MEP contract worth £18.6 million on Barts Square Phase One, which is a £110 million residential development by Helical next to St Bart’s Hospital in Farringdon. The main contractor for both projects will be Carillion. Offsite construction is playing a major role on both projects as logistics is a primary consideration in city centres, particularly in London. Before being acquired by Wates last year, SES was formerly Shepherd Engineering Services and Wates said that the two contract awards represented a significant milestone for SES’ operations in London and the South East. The company put the King’s Cross contract win down to its digital engineering expertise, in response to the client’s requirement for building information modelling (BIM).
An energy expert told delegates at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that any potential gains from domestic demand side response (DSR) are “limited.” Domestic consumers are not able to shift their demand in the same way as industrial energy users and therefore the savings on offer are relatively small. Richard Howard, Policy Exchange Head of Energy and Environment, said that their ability to actually shift their demand is not that good as most of the time in a household when you need energy, you need energy. He added: “There are a few things that you could shift; you could set your dishwasher to run at a different time and things like that, but you can’t set your lights to run at a different time because actually you need them to see.” Even when domestic customers are offered time of use tariffs and do their best to play around with their energy usage “over the whole year they might save £50”. “That’s not a level of saving a lot of households would find attractive for that amount of effort.” He said the “big opportunities” could instead be found in managing the demand of large industrial energy users. Lucy Symons, Head of Policy at Open Energi, said that they started out in fridges, so they started making fridges demand responsive, but they were making three pounds per fridge per year which is not a business case. Nevertheless, she said the economics had “gotten better” and that domestic demand management is still worth pursuing in the long run: “I think we can stagger this. We don’t have to take on this challenge immediately.” Last week the Science and Technology Committee called on the government to be clearer on the benefits its hopes to secure from the smart meter rollout. The government lists 11 different objectives for the project, including saving customers’ money on energy bills.
House building and development firm MJ Gleeson has reported a strong rise in profits and turnover for the last year. For the year up to June 30, 2016, MJ Gleeson posted a £28.2 million profit before tax, which is a 63% rise on the previous year’s £17.3 million, on revenue up 21% to £142.1 million (from £117.6 million last year). The Gleeson group is made up of two businesses: strategic land trading, mainly in the south of England and housebuilding on brownfield land in the north of England. The operating profit at Gleeson Homes rose to £19.5 million (up from £17.4 million last year) and the average selling price was £125,700 (from £123,750 in 2015). During the year, Gleeson sold 904 new homes (751 in 2015) which has put its 1,000 a year target firmly in sight. The board said: “We expect to reach this target, on an annualised run rate basis, during the financial year ending 30th June 2017. Once this milestone is reached, we will outline new medium term growth targets.” The division’s land pipeline rose to a record high of 117 sites (97 in 2015), made up of 9,284 plots owned or conditionally purchased (7,496 in 2015). The board said that Gleeson Homes intends to start building low cost homes on every site as soon as planning permission has been obtained. Chairman Dermot Gleeson said: “Our twin track strategy – the development of low cost homes for open market sale in the north of England and strategic land sales in the south – goes from strength to strength, delivering increased margins, profits and cash. “We are in a strong position to deliver further growth. Market demand remains strong and Gleeson Homes’ growing land pipeline provides the opportunity to open new sites in both existing and new regions in the north of England and the Midlands.”
On October 3 2016, the Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, Mike Robinson, will meet with the management of Hargreaves Industrial Services in Hong Kong to discuss the upcoming best practice health and safety audit of the Hong Kong Power Station, which is operated by Hargreaves. The charity, campaigning body and membership organisation, The British Safety Council, was founded 60 years ago and has a vision that no one should be made ill or injured at work. The group has been working with businesses in the Far East, including Hong Kong, to improve health, safety and environmental management to benefit both workers and the whole organisation. A subsidiary of the Hargreaves Services Plc, Hargreaves Industrial Services is a leading provider of operational, maintenance and facility management services to customers in the waste, energy, steel and transport sectors. The company employs more than 2,000 staff and has annual revenues of £340 million, delivering key projects and services in the property, energy and infrastructure sectors. Head of Audit at the British Safety Council, David Parr, commented on Mike Robinson’s meeting with Hargreaves in Hong Kong: “Hargreaves have been using the British Safety Council’s five-star audit process across its Industrial Services to benchmark the company’s current occupational health and safety management systems against best practice and to ensure continual improvement in this area of their business.” During his time in Hong Kong, Robinson will also meet with other local business leaders to discuss the many aspects of future co-operation, such as professional education and training, of which the British Safety Council is the leading provider. He will also explore the benefits of consultancy and audit for the management of operational risks and the continuous improvement of standards in health and safety. Mr Robinson will also speak at the 8thInternational Forum on Work and Safety, taking place in Beijing, China, on the 27-29 September 2016, where he will present the business case for managing health and safety and explore the nature of leadership in the industry.
A vibrant new, high quality office building overlooking the Grade II listed Wandsworth Park with views of the River Thames on the corner of Putney Bridge and Deodar Road has been granted planning permission by Wandsworth Council. Developed by Landid and designed by dn-a architects, The Parklife Building will transform the current site, a c. 40,000 sq ft empty office building, into an 80,000 sq ft, user-focused and design-led urban workplace. It will provide the much needed commercial floorspace to the area and will set new standards of quality and character for businesses in Putney. The building will have a focus on creating a connected community and will provide 7,000 sq ft of flexible public retail space fronting onto the park, along with occupier amenities such as multiple cafes, on-site yoga lessons and cycle and shower facilities. The office building extends to five storeys and boasts a terrace on each floor, which makes the most of the wonderful park setting. Development Director at Landid, Claire Hammond, commented: “Landid is thrilled to be involved in this exciting development opportunity in Putney. Putney has lost a significant amount of commercial space as a result of permitted development rights, and there is a lack of Grade A floorspace. The Parklife Building will have everything we look for in a workspace – including excellent connectivity, amenity, and character within a very special setting.” Meanwhile, dn-a director, Nick Troullides said that their architectural approach is to deliver a high quality design that will create a much improved office building to attract occupiers and enhance the current streetscape. He added: “The architecture is sympathetic and respectful to its surroundings, yet contemporary in its execution. High quality architectural detailing and materials and sustainable design are intrinsic to our proposal to create a highly desirable workplace.” The Parklife Building will start on site in early 2017, with an 18-month build period and expected completion date of June 2018.
Five teams of architects have been shortlisted to enter a design competition for the construction of new bridges in Ipswich. Suffolk County Council is seeking to improve connections between the town centre and the waterfront and ease traffic congestion in the town. Its solution is the £77 million Orwell Crossings Project, which will see the construction of two new crossings near the waterfront area of the town, along with the refurbishment of an existing swing bridge across the lock that provides access to the Wet Dock and its marina facilities. The new crossings should also pave the way for a wider regeneration of the waterfront area of Ipswich. A design competition for the project is being run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Competitions, which has now produced this shortlist of applicants: – Adamson Associates (Toronto) with William Matthews Associates and Ney & Partners – Foster & Partners (London) – Knight Architects (High Wycombe) – Marc Mimram (Paris) – Wilkinson Eyre (London) with consulting engineers Fhecor Ingenieros Consultores (civil) and Eadon Consulting (mechanical) During the shortlist selection, the evaluation panel looked for architectural teams that showed experience of collaborating on big infrastructure schemes, working within a multi-disciplinary team environment, and designing projects of architectural distinction with a complexity, scale and/or budget similar to that required on the Upper Orwell Crossings scheme. The final winner will join an existing project team led by WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, which will be responsible for providing structural and civil engineering input to the project. The evaluation panel was made up of Suffolk County Council’s project manager and planning consents manager, along with WSP associate director Kevin Drain and Matter Architecture director Jonathan McDowell acting as the RIBA architect adviser. The five short-listed teams will be invited to present their design concepts to the judging panel, chaired by architect Sir Michael Hopkins, in mid-December 2016. A winner is scheduled to be announced in early 2017.
