10 June 2016 | Jamie Harris Mitie has won a three-year contract with FTI Consulting to provide a number of document management services. Through its Total Document Management division, Mitie is to deliver on-site print, mail and porterage services to the business advisory firm’s office in the City of London. It will also be responsible for procuring office equipment and couriers. Mitie is providing ‘track and trace’ technology, which it says can provide auditable tracking of the movement of incoming accountable items. The win follows yesterday’s contract award at the Institute of Directors, where Mitie is to provide facilities management services for the next three years. Last month, the service provider reported a 1.8 per cent decrease in group revenues for the 12 months to 31 March 2016. However, operating profit more than doubled when compared to the previous year. Source link

The FTSE 250 housebuilder Bellway has moved to boost its dividend by a higher than expected 40 per cent as it reported annual results seemingly untouched by the UK’s vote to leave the EU. The UK’s fourth-largest housebuilder by output on Tuesday said reservations since the June 23 referendum had been higher than during the same period last year. The Brexit vote prompted a large drop in the share prices of construction groups, as investors fretted over the impact of the result on the property sector. Bellway is recommending a final dividend of 74p a share, bringing the total for the year to 108p, 40 per cent higher than a year ago. Ted Ayres, chief executive, said: “Post-Brexit, particularly with the share price activity and with memories of 2008, we thought ‘Are we in for a rough ride here?’ But I’m pleased to say it’s been quite robust. “Our sales rates overall have been up post-Brexit and the market has been strong. The buying public seem to be carrying on with life as normal.” Reservations between the June 23 vote and July 31, the end of Bellway’s financial year, rose 13 per cent compared with 2015, with cancellations factored in, the group said. In the year to the end of July, Bellway increased operating profit by 36.5 per cent to £492m, on revenues of £2.2bn — 26.9 per cent up on a year earlier. The Newcastle-based group sold a record 8,721 homes during the year, a 12.5 per cent increase on 2015, while its average selling price rose 12.9 per cent to £252,793. “We’ve still got to be cautious moving forward — leading economists are suggesting there will be a ‘bite’ to Brexit,” Mr Ayres said. But he added that it was likely the company would increase output further in this financial year. Related article Average price was £219,000 in August, £17,000 higher than a year ago Reservations between the June 23 Brexit vote and July 31 rose 13 per cent year on year Bellway held back from buying large tranches of land over the summer as it waited to see the referendum’s impact but has now resumed land buying, Mr Ayres said. The housebuilder is “well placed to deliver volume growth over the coming years, which could offset weaker trading conditions that may emerge if the rate of growth in the economy slows”, said Charlie Campbell, analyst at Liberum. Across the UK, mortgage approvals hit an 18-month low in August, suggesting a slowdown in the broader housing market, which has been especially evident in London. But that does not so far appear to have affected most housebuilders, which receive government support through the Help to Buy equity loan scheme. Bellway’s shares closed up 6 per cent in London trading at £23.86, but remain 15.9 per cent below the pre-referendum price. Sample the FT’s top stories for a week You select the topic, we deliver the news. Source link

Severn Trent Water has begun trialling new water treatment technologies to reduce phosphorus from its sewage treatment works, in order to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. The water company is evaluating six technologies – two of which are world firsts – at its Packington sewage treatment works in Leicestershire. The new stricter rules in the Water Framework Directive limit the amount of phosphorus allowed at sewage treatment works to 0.5 milligrammes per litre or, in some cases, as low as 0.2mg/l. Severn Trent said existing UK technologies are unlikely to be capable of meeting the new limits, meaning the firm will have to upgrade around 100 works – many of which are being upgraded to reduce phosphorus for the first time. Phosphorus is required by all living organisms for cell growth. It is a non-renewable resource, non-substitutable for food production, essential for agriculture and directly linked to food security. Domestic sewage contains phosphorus, and standard sewage treatment processes will only provide a low-level of phosphorus removal. The six technologies Severn Trent is evaluating are: pile cloth media filtration; membrane filtration; ballasted coagulation; nano-particle embedded ion exchange; immobilised algal bioreactor; and absorption media reed beds. Severn Trent technical lead for innovation Pete Vale said: “Two of the technologies – the ion exchange, and the algal bioreactor – have been developed specially by Cranfield University and put into practical application for the first time. “It’s relatively early days but we’ve seen some encouraging results from all of the technologies which is heartening given that some of them are genuine world first designs. “Each of the technologies have their advantages, and their disadvantages, which is why we’re running the trials. “And the right solution for a large sewage treatment works might not be the same for a small sewage treatment works but, by looking at six such innovative solutions, we’re not only putting ourselves at the forefront of the phosphorus issue in the UK, we’re also making sure we’re making the right decision for our customers.” Source link

Production from UK oil and gasfields in 2015 increased for the first time in 15 years but investment in exploration hit a record low as companies cut spending in response to low energy prices. The 10.4 per cent rise in output compared with the previous year was the result of a spate of new North Sea developments as well as technological innovations to maximise extraction from existing fields. However, industry leaders cautioned that the increase stemmed from investment decisions made during the boom years of $100-a-barrel oil and warned that exploration had almost ground to a halt since then. This meant North Sea production risked resuming the sharp declines of the past decade unless the investment drought was broken. “As an industry we are producing at four times the rate we are discovering new reserves. This is unsustainable,” said Deirdre Michie, chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, in the trade group’s annual report on the state of the industry. She called for the UK and Scottish governments to spur fresh investment with fiscal stimulus and other measures that put oil and gas at the heart of industrial strategy, alongside other industries such as aerospace and car manufacturing. Trumpeting the industry’s efforts to maintain competitiveness in a protracted era of low oil and gas prices, Ms Michie said operating costs for offshore producers had fallen by 45 per cent in the past two years. This had lowered the average cost of extracting a barrel of oil or gas equivalent from more than $29 in 2014 to $16 this year. Companies were no longer holding out for a return to $100 a barrel prices, Ms Michie said, but instead “positioning themselves to survive and succeed in the long term at $50 per barrel, with the ability to tolerate the possibility of even lower prices”. However, while efficiency gains were improving the outlook for existing UK fields, new investment was desperately needed to prolong the life of the North Sea basin, Ms Michie added. Investment is expected to fall to about £9bn this year, from a record £14.8bn in 2014. The North Sea has been especially badly hit by the slump in capital expenditure across the oil and gas industry over the past two years because, even after the recent productivity improvements, it remains one of the world’s highest cost offshore basins. Spending cuts have caused a 30 per cent fall in revenues for oilfield service companies and other parts of the UK supply chain since 2014 — with the brunt of the impact felt in Aberdeen, capital of the UK oil and gas industry. About 120,000 jobs are expected to have been lost across the sector by the end of this year compared with the level before the collapse in crude prices. “In light of this I am calling on governments to vigorously champion the UK’s oil and gas industry, by providing certainty in our fiscal regime, encouraging new entrants to the market and recognising our supply chain as vitally important to the economy,” said Ms Michie. Her comments came as Philip Hammond, the UK chancellor, prepares to set out his policy blueprint in November’s Autumn Statement. FT Series Further coverage of the far-reaching implications of the protracted slump in oil prices In particular, she urged Mr Hammond to reaffirm the Treasury’s commitment to tax breaks introduced by his predecessor, George Osborne, and to push ahead with planned measures to enable buyers of offshore assets to benefit from tax relief on decommissioning costs when production ends. Decommissioning liabilities have been one of the biggest obstacles to investment in the North Sea, complicating efforts by several large producers, including Royal Dutch Shell, to sell UK offshore assets. Mark Andrews, UK head of oil and gas at KPMG, the consultancy, said clearing the blockage in asset sales was crucial to unleashing fresh capital into the North Sea. More than 43bn barrels of oil and gas have been recovered since the first UK production in 1967 and a further 10bn-20bn barrels remain to be recovered, according to Oil & Gas UK. Sample the FT’s top stories for a week You select the topic, we deliver the news. Source link