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ICE FACTOR ACQUIRES SNO!ZONE BRAEHEAD
Ice Factor International Ltd, the Scottish based Adventure Sports operator, is delighted to announce the acquisition of Snozone Braehead Ltd which was a subsidiary of specialist retail property company, Capital & Regional plc. The deal also involved a further investment by the existing investors of Ice Factor International Ltd, members of the Highland Venture Capital investment syndicate and Scottish Investment Bank’s Co-investment Fund.
SNO!zone Braehead operates Scotland’s only indoor real snow ski & boarding facility located within Xscape Braehead , Scotland’s premier urban leisure venue. It is jointly owned by Capital & Regional and Capital Shopping Centres, co-owners of the adjacent Braehead Shopping Centre. As part of the acquisition, a new 25 year lease has been entered into and the landlords will undertake a significant capital investment refurbishing and upgrading of the facilities.
Charles Staveley, Group Finance Director, Capital & Regional plc commented:
“We are delighted to have attracted such an experienced and professional operator as Ice Factor to Xscape Braehead and have high expectations of their positive influence on the overall offer.
“Capital & Regional remains committed to both SNO!zones at Milton Keynes and Castleford“.
Jamie Smith, Founder & Managing Director of Ice Factor commented:
“We’re absolutely delighted to add SNO!zone Braehead to our group. Having proven the huge demand for adventure and high quality family activities, we have been seeking expansion for some time and the Xscape Braehead site is perfect. It’s an iconic destination.
“We are excited about the prospect of embedding all we’ve learned from the mountains and ski-industry to a facility right in the central belt. Our model is predicated on attracting people who’ve never tried winter sports before, and making it really easy for them to ‘simply have a go’. With this acquisition, we have an unrivalled range of Adventure Sports, all under one banner allied with a strong commercial pedigree focussed on delivering outstanding customer experiences. We have other sites in various stages of negotiation, particularly Inverness and Burlington Vermont USA, which we hope to advance imminently.”
Funding for the investment came from Highland Venture Capital and its partner the Scottish Investment Bank’s Co-Investment Fund.
Iain Scott, Gatekeeper of Highland Venture Capital Ltd, commented:
“This is our second round of investment into the Ice Factor; the plan to broaden the offering and take the business to a major conurbation is both transformational and compelling.”
Ian Sykes, chairman of the Ice Factor Group, added: “Within the next few years it is our intention to open a new ice climbing centre in Inverness and plans are already in an advanced state for a similar facility at Burlington, Vermont, in the USA.”
For more details about Ice Factor please visit www.ice-factor.co.uk.
Actual Analytics Secures £900,000 Investment
Actual Analytics, a recent spin-out from the University of Edinburgh, has announced the completion of a funding round, securing over £900,000 of investment to develop and take to market their first product.
The consortium of investors is led by Discovery Investment Fund and includes Highland Venture Capital, TriCap and the Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund. Scott Carnegie, Chairman of Discovery Investment Fund, said “Discovery are delighted to be leading the investment in this exciting business, along with our fellow Scottish Co-Investment Partners, TriCap and Highland Ventures.”
Actual Analytics use cutting-edge video analysis technology to automatically analyse behaviour – a crucial step in the development of new drugs treating diseases of the Central Nervous System (CNS), such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Disorders of the nervous system affect 1 in 3 people during their lives, account for the largest single burden on the NHS and are often long-term disabling illnesses for the patient, their friends and family. At an estimated cost of over US$800m to take a new drug to market, Actual Analytics’ product will help customers cut costs and remove a significant bottleneck in the drug discovery pipeline.
James Heward, Actual Analytics CEO, said “This is an exciting milestone for the company, it allows us to commercialise this groundbreaking research, creating a product that will make a significant difference to organisations around the world working hard to develop revolutionary drugs.”
The technology has been validated with some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories across North America, Asia and Europe, and it is expected that these organisations will become early customers.
The product is the culmination of over 5 years of research within Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics, Europe’s largest and most highly rated computer science department. Funding for the project to date has included a two year Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept award and significant in-kind assistance from Informatics Ventures.
Dr Douglas Armstrong, Actual Analytics CSO, said “The financial and mentoring support we have been given by the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept and University of Edinburgh ProsPeKT programmes have been invaluable in enabling us to translate our research into this high potential business.”
Comments are off for this postSuccessful 2009 for Syntropharma
18 December 2009, Newtown St. Boswells, Scottish Borders:
Syntropharma, an emerging pharmaceutical company focussed on drug reformulation utilising transdermal delivery systems, announces a positive end to its year.
The company has just raised a further £400k from a rights issue with existing investors at Tricap, Highland Venture Capital, Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund and Chimaerabio. This takes the total investment in the company to £2.1m.
In 2009 the company has also successfully completed the clinical development of a transdermal patch for its lead compound that can be used for the treatment of depression and potentially Parkinsons Disease. The company is in the late stages of negotiation with a major distributor for the product in the US and when that is completed the application for the use of the patch for depression will be made to the FDA.
This deal and the further development of at least 4 other products should create revenue for the business within the next 12 months and greatly increase shareholder value.
Andrew Gardiner, CEO of Syntropharma said: “We are delighted with the company’s performance in this financial year and feel that we making excellent progress toward achieving our vision for the company, of developing a stream of first and second to market transdermal products with strong IP that will be out-licensed to pharmaceutical company partners. We would like to thank all of our investors for their continued support, and look forward to driving further commercialisation in 2010
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