The Covid pandemic, and with it the collapse of the global cruise industry, wiped £85 million off sales at Newry-based MJM Marine in 2020, the firm's latest accounts showed. Revenues nose-dived by 73 per cent from £116.6 million in 2019 to just £31.7 million. But the family-owned firm, which has interests from ship fit-outs to property and glass, still posted a bottom line profit of £6.5m (down from £15.1m) and ended 2020 with assets of £36 million.
Research from agents CBRE showed that 2021 was the strongest 12 months for the north's commercial property sector since 2017. The record-breaking £87 million purchase of Merchant Square in Belfast city centre by Albilad Capital of Saudi Arabia brought the annual spend to £290m, more than double the £136m in 2020 and the highest since the £316m recorded in 2017. But just 30 transactions were recorded in 2021 compared to 43, 36 and 32 deals recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Former BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons (72) is appointed to conduct an independent review of the efficiency and effectiveness of the north's economic development agency Invest NI. The review aligns with the New Decade, New Approach commitment for various Stormont departments to review their arm’s-length bodies, and it will also look at Invest NI's capacity to strategically align with - and deliver on - the much-vaunted 10X Economic Vision. Sir Michael previously chaired the Belfast Innovation and Inclusive Growth Commission.
A deal was done to save the Banbridge Chronicle (first published in 1870) from closure, with new owners Bann Media Ltd taking over the the publishing of the popular title. The previous October the Chronicle said it would be forced to stop close if a buyer could not be found. DNG Media, an independent publisher with a stable of four titles in Dumfries and Galloway, successfully acquired the newspaper from its owners the Hodgett family, and Bann Media managing director Peter Laidlaw said he was looking forward to the continued publication of the heritage title.
Queen’s University announced a £5.4 million research and development project with Nasdaq-listed Californian tech giant Nvidia. The initiative, which will seek to accelerate artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber security research, is to receive £1.7m in grant support from Invest NI. Ten new specialist engineering and research roles will be created at Nvidia’s Belfast base, which is to be re-designated as an R&D hub for advanced network intelligence.
Constructing platforms over the top of sections of the Westlink to create new space for play parks and greenways forms parts of an ambitious vision to radically reimagine Belfast city centre. The idea was set out by Belfast Chamber as part of its contribution to a ‘Bolder Vision for Belfast’ consultation opened by the City Council and the Departments for Infrastructure and Communities. Its other ideas including creating a ‘university park’ connecting the Ulster and Queen’s campuses, ‘boulevarding’ Belfast’s inner ring, and building a river walk along both banks of the Lagan connecting the Titanic Quarter out as far as Belvoir Forest and the Lagan Meadows.
A global leader in semiconductor technology said it plans to set up a base in Belfast. New York Stock Exchange-listed Wolfspeed, which in 2021 had revenues of £500 million, plans to establish a global capabilities centre in Belfast which will create 40 jobs by 2025. Based at Durham in North Carolina, the company is the market in the worldwide adoption of silicon carbide, a synthetically produced crystalline compound of silicon and carbon material used for sandpapers, grinding wheels, and cutting tools.
Swiss-headquartered construction materials giant Holcim sold its Lafarge cement business in Northern Ireland to the newly-established Cookstown Cement group for £56 million. Cookstown Cement is co-owned by David Millar, a former executive with Lafarge, who has 38 years’ experience in the cement and construction industries, and is backed by the Loughran family, who own the Lissan Coal Company and franchise of GO petrol stations. The new company acquired all of the business of Lafarge Ireland from Aggregate Industries, part of Holcim Group, and commit to investing £12 million in the facilities to upgrade environmental capabilities and processes and improve efficiency.
