Law firm merger will create a giant
5 things we learned yesterday
1 Newcastle’s biggest law firm Bond Dickinson is merging with its US ally to create one of the biggest firms in the UK with a combined turnover of £340m.
The national firm signed a strategic alliance with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in June 2016, in an attempt to boost its offering in the US. A year on, the strategic alliance has progressed well with the two firms agreeing to merge, creating a new business called Womble Bond Dickinson.
The merger will go live in October 2017. 2 A mum who launched yoga classes especially for babies after finding the exercise helped her son is now looking to roll out the business.
Rebecca Riley launched Kalma Baby just over a year ago, teaching baby and parent yoga classes, after finding similar sessions helped her son Tyler, now seven, who was born prematurely. The Sunderland entrepreneur has since launched a series of franchises across the region after parents and their children took to the classes, and she is now looking to expand her business outside of the North East. 3 The Newcastle developer which will create the city centre’s £40m skyscraping housing scheme has secured deals to create similar plush apartments outside of the region.
All Saints Living will develop the landmark 26-storey apartment building in Newcastle’s Rutherford Street, changing the skyline of the city forever while creating 162 apartments for the growing private rented sector.
The scheme, involving a range of North East companies, was approved in February.
Now All Saints Living is extending its work outside the North East after completing a land deal in Cheshire which will pave the way for the creation of a £51m apartment scheme. It is also working on a project to convert offices into apartments in Milton Keynes.
4 A Newcastle entrepreneur has launched a new card game designed to help start-up businesses improve the way they work.
James Rutherford has developed Kick Cards, a game which involves a deck of over 40 cards that each contain a question or exercise designed to get business owners thinking about how they work.
The game, created by Mr Rutherford in his spare time over the last four years, is designed to act as an “innovation tool” for small businesses and he recently showcased the cards at Newcastle Start-up Week before launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to print the cards.
The Kickstarter campaign reached its £1,200 target within 18 hours and the total raised now stands at £1,813 with 21 days remaining.
5 A takeover tussle which could have affected more than 1,000 jobs in the North East has come to an end after a US firm abandoned its bid for paint manufacturer AkzoNobel.
US chemicals giant PPG Industries has pulled out of its £23.3bn pursuit of Dulux owner AkzoNobel, a major North East employer with a plant at Felling, Gateshead, and a new factory set to open soon at Ashington, Northumberland.
PPG, which has a plant at Shildon, County Durham, had made several informal attempts to take AkzoNobel over but was continuously rebuffed by the group’s board, which favours its own strategy to accelerate growth.