City round up: Norcros; Genedrive; Together
Bathroom and kitchen supply business Norcros plc has agreed to provide extra funding for its pension scheme, which will cut the actuarial deficit of its pension scheme from April 2021 of £36.0m to £11.7m on a technical provision basis, representing a funding level of 96%.
A schedule of cash contributions to June 2027 of £3.8m per annum and after that to be less than c.£1m.
The valuation outcomes will now be submitted to the Pensions Regulator.
James Eyre, Norcros Chief Financial Officer, commented: “We are pleased that the Company and Trustee’s strong and constructive relationship has produced a further positive outcome to the triennial valuation process and, importantly, that the Company’s cash contribution materially decreases from June 2027. The agreement will mean that the Scheme should remain in a healthy funding position and we look forward to continuing to work positively with the Trustee.”
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Genedrive
Kit from AIM-listed pharma testing business Genedrive is being used at the Hyperacute and Acute Stroke Units of Peterborough City Hospital Acute Stroke Centre for routine clinical use.
The hospital provides care to approximately 900 stroke patients a year and Genedrive described the deal as a milestone in its commercialisation strategy.
Dr Gino Miele, CEO of Genedrive plc, said: “This represents a further milestone in our commercialisation strategy, which continues to strengthen our rapid pharmacogenetic positioning strategy in emergency care more broadly. We look forward to growing implementation of our CYP2C19 test in the UK NHS and internationally, enabling significant improvement of patient outcomes whilst also offering substantial resource savings to pressured healthcare systems.”
Professor Radim Licenik, Consultant Stroke Physician, Clinical Lead for Stroke Service and President of the Society of Czech & Slovak Doctors in the United Kingdom, said: “The implementation will help us to formulate a personalised optimal treatment plan for our stroke patients, that we hope will prevent future strokes and save lives.”
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Together HQ
Together Financial Services has priced its fifth public small balance commercial real estate mortgage-backed securitisation.
Gary Beckett, Group Managing Director and Chief Treasury Officer at Together, commented: “The £522.2 million will further increase our support for UK SMEs. Issuing two public MBS transaction and two private transactions in the space of two months Together will have raised or refinanced £2.4bn since the start of the calendar year, highlighting the quality of our loan book and the ongoing support from our investors.”
Citibank acted as Arranger and Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank and Lloyds acted as Joint Lead Managers.
