The Summary: week ending 5 January 2024

Anderson Strathern advises on more that £46m worth of deals

Law firm Anderson Strathern’s corporate investment team has been involved with more than 30 investment with a value in excess of £46 million in 2023.

Max Scharbert is a senior director in Anderson Strathern’s corporate investment team.

Euan Tripp is a partner at Anderson Strathern.

Strong trading year for Crerar Hotels sees 31% increase in turnover to £19 million

Crerar Hotels has reported a 31% increase in turnover from £14.5m to £19m in its latest financial year.

Gross profit rose from £12.6m to £16.4m but the group also reported pre-tax loss of £2.3m.

Chris Wayne-Wills is CEO of Crerar Hotels.

Archangels invested more that £13.8m during 2023

Archangels the Edinburgh-based investment syndicate, increased its investments in 2023 to £13.8m compared to £13.4 in 2022.

Two new investments were made in Bioliberty and 1nhaler who received £2.2m and £2m respectively.

Follow on investments were also made in Cytomos, Calcivis, Administrate and BioCaptiva.

Aldi confirms £56m Scottish expansion

The discount retailer plans to invest £56m over the next two years with three new store openings in Brought Ferry, Straiton and CastleDouglas.

Aldi is now Scotland’s third biggest biggest supermarket by volume.

Thai O & G firm buys 25% of Scotland’s biggest wind farm

Thailand’s national oil and gas company PTTEP has bought a 25.5% stake in the Seagreen offshore wind farm from TotalEnergies for £522m.

This leaves SSE Renewables with 49$ and TotalEnergies with 25.5% and values the wind farm at $4.3bn.

The 114 turbines can provide enough energy to power 1.6 million homes or 2/3 of all homes in Scotland.

Glasgow partnership aims to create Europe’s largest smart things and IoT innovation hub

The UK Government, Glasgow City Council and the Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC) have created a partnership to transform Glasgow into Europe’s largest smart things and IoT innovation hub based around £2.5 million private and public sector funding.

Paul Wilson is CEO and co-founder of STAC.

Mackie’s turnover up to £20.8m

Mackie’s of Scotland has recorded a 15% increase in turnover from the £17.7m recorded in 2021 to £20.8 m in the last financial year.

UK market share in premium ice cream rose to 13% and export sales grew by 27%.

Stuart Common is the MD of Mackie’s.

The Artisanal Spirits Company buys US bottling company

Edinburgh-based The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) has bought US bottling firm Single Cask Nation with an upfront committed payment and $500,000 earn out based on performance criteria.

ASC owns the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and the CEO is Andrew Dane.

Scottish IT firm acquired by Aspire Technology Solutions

Glasgow-based Cloud Cover IT has been acquired by Aspire Technology Solutions and will be rebranded as Flyte.

Lance Gauld is MD of Cloud Cover IT and Chris Fraser is founder and chief executive of Aspire.

LDC invests in Kick ICT for future growth

LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Groups has invested in Kick ICT to help accelerate expansion and allows an exit for BGF.

Kick ICT turned over £18.9m in 2022 and Tom O’Hara is chief executive with its latest acquisition being C2 Software.

The winners of the 16th Scottish Asian & Business Awards 2023 can be seen here.

Aberdeen FC has appointed Robbie Hedderman as their new commercial director.

Inverclyde-based Ardgowan Distillery has appointed David Kerr as Sales & Marketing Director as the firm start construction on its £20m ‘cathedral if whisky’.

Martin McAdam is Ardgowan Distillery Chief Executive.