Platform for Scotland’s life sciences sector
The button has been pressed on an online platform that will showcase Scotland’s life sciences sector to the world.
Scottish Enterprise has partnered with the UK Healthcare Pavilion, an industry portal that allows overseas customers to connect with innovative healthcare and life sciences firms and organisations based in Scotland and the wider UK.
The ukhealthcarepavilion. com platform will provide a searchable directory of businesses that will enable buyers and healthcare providers to identify and engage with industry and health organisations.
The forum will also provide news, insights and interviews from a variety of “key opinion leaders and policy makers”.
Suzanne Sosna, interim director of global trade at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Scotland’s healthcare and life science sectors are highly regarded around the world due to our skilled workforce, the innovative companies located here and the collaborative environment created between the private sector and our public institutions.
“The pavilion will support our wider efforts to raise international awareness of the ground-breaking sectoral research taking place and showcase the innovative global healthcare solutions and technologies being developed in Scotland.”
Scotland is recognised as one of the top life science clusters in Europe, providing some 41,000 jobs across more than 750 diverse organisations. The sector is on course to achieve an economic contribution of £8 billion by 2025.
Within the platform, there is a specific Scottish pavilion that highlights some of the excellence the country has to offer.
Hampden & Co, the Edinburgh-based private bank, has further bolstered its board with the appointment of a director with more than 25 years’ global executive experience in the financial services sector.
Caroline Taylor, who has a background in investment management, including global markets, regulation and risk management, becomes a nonexecutive director and chair of the bank’s remuneration committee.
Taylor, who is also a non-executive director at Brewin Dolphin and Ecclesiastical Insurance Office, spent more than a decade with Goldman Sachs and was a director of The City Women’s Club between 2007 and 2009.
Hampden & Co has strengthened its board over the last 12 months, with recently retired Brewin Dolphin chairman Simon Miller taking up the role of chairman at the private bank in May 2020.
Miller, who helped found the bank under its original name, Scoban, in 2010, said: “Caroline brings a vast amount of experience to the board. I know how valuable she will be in guiding Hampden & Co through its next growth.”
Chief executive Graeme Hartop said: “As we continue to scale the bank in the UK from our offices in Edinburgh and London, it’s paramount that we have a strong, experienced board in place and Caroline brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise.”
Taylor added: “I look forward to working alongside Simon, Graeme and the rest of the board.”
In August, the bank said it had grown its deposits by £82 million in the first half, a year-on-year increase of 24%, while lending was up by £94m, a rise of 61%.
Sigma Capital Group, the Edinburgh-based residential development and urban regeneration specialist, has launched its first private rental development in Scotland.
The firm, which has already delivered thousands of new family homes for rent south of the Border, has kicked off the Scottish development in partnership with local housebuilder Springfield Properties.
The move also marks the launchofsigma’srentalbrand, Simple Life, in Scotland.
Sigma said the site will comprise 75 family rental homes with a combined estimated rental value of approximately £760,000 per annum, which equates to about £840 a month. It forms part of a substantial, new standalone “village” development of around 3,000 homes already well underway by Springfield at Bertha Park, on the outskirts of Perth.
The gross development cost of Sigma’s site is just under £12 million, including land acquisition. Construction on the site is expected to commence in late March.
Graham Barnet, chief executive of Sigma Capital Group, said: “We are delighted to be launching our first new-build rental homes in Scotland, with this development site at Bertha Park, as well as our Simple Life rental brand.
“Our strategic delivery partner,
Springfield Properties, is an award-winning housebuilder and demand for its village developments is increasing.
“Bertha Park Village offers larger homes with gardens, ample green space, and community facilities, all within commuting distance of cities, and we anticipate strong demand for our homes.”
He added: “There is a significant undersupply of quality rental homes in Scotland and we look forward to continuing
to deploy additional resource in order to help meet this need.”
The new village development is designed with “strong” transport links and community amenities, including a newly-built secondary school, Bertha Park High School.
Meanwhile, Springfield Properties posted first-half results, which revealed revenues of £94.4m in the six months to the end of November, up 18.3 per cent on the year before. Operating profits
jumped 42 per cent to £9.8m. An interim dividend of 1.3p per share was declared.
Chief executive Innes Smith said: “This has been an excellent six months for Springfield. We safely and efficiently resumed construction to complete the homes that had been scheduled for handover at the end of the previous financial year.
“Our sales offices re-opened to significant interest, reflecting pent-up demand and the increasing desirability for the type of housing Springfield provides with spacious homes with private gardens and easy access to plenty of green space.
“Springfield has a large, high-quality land bank across almost all the key geographies in Scotland, which we continued to develop and received planning approval for over 450 homes. We strengthened our operations by implementing a number of efficiency and rationalisation measures."