Bermans is proud to be supporting Bruntwood SciTech’s ‘Manchester’s Female Founders Incubator programme’.
Who are Bruntwood SciTech?
Bruntwood SciTech is the UK’s leading developer of innovation districts, creating the specialist environments and innovation ecosystems for science and technology businesses to form, scale and grow.
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The last month has seen two prominent North West brands, Pets at Home and Franchise Brands, announcing share buy-back programmes (see references below).
There are many benefits in undertaking this activity, including returning value to shareholders or providing an exit route. We do urge caution as, whilst the law and procedure for carrying out a share buyback is quite clear and straightforward, we have dealt with a number of instances where the validity of a share buyback has been questioned and further action required to be taken in order to rectify or ratify the validity of a buyback transaction.
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Palma Percze
In the budget in March 2021, it was announced that Corporation Tax would be increased incrementally to 25%. After some uncertainty in the past year, as to whether this would proceed, the first increase took effect from 1 April 2023.
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In May 2021, the white paper, ‘Scaling Up Institutional Investment For Place-Based Impact’ (the “White Paper”) was published by The Good Economy, Impact Investing Institution and Pensions for Purpose. The White Paper outlined how a ‘place-based’ approach of investing (as already favoured by public and social investors), could be extended to institutional investors who currently invest in mainstream global capital markets. The focus of the research was on investments made by Local Government Pension Schemes (“LGPS”), which have assets with a combined value of £326 million, and how the funds could be used to develop explicit place-based strategies while creating positive financial returns.
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In February 2022, the Chartered Institute of Taxation (“CIT”) received clarification from HMRC in relation to their position on legislation relating to a company’s purchase of its own shares under section 1033 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 (“CTA 2010”). In particular, HMRC have outlined their interpretation of the word ‘possesses’ in section 1062(2) CTA 2010 in instances where the purchase has multiple completion dates.
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Becky Tsang
The National Security and Investment Act 2021 (the “Act”) came into force on 4 January 2022, giving the UK government an additional screening process on the grounds of national security.
The Act covers a broad range of transactions, requiring mandatory notification if it is connected to one of 17 key sectors.
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Robin Hastings (pictured below), qualified as a solicitor in 2011 having trained in London and after a spell at a large regional firm in Manchester joined Bermans in December 2015. He is now a Senior Associate in the Corporate department.
Robin Hastings
Some of you may be aware that Jon Davage is head of our corporate team but did you know he has also contributed a chapter to a book?
Working with our clients, Guy Remond and Ian Brookes from The Start Up Factory, they developed an idea to share their experience of the journey from founder to exit in a tech-based business. They are also involved in Manchester’s first potential “unicorn” business Bankifi.
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Jon Davage
Many business owners are re-evaluating their future plans as a result of the pandemic. Some are finding that their thoughts on retirement planning are somewhat different now than they were back in 2019. Some owners have enjoyed more free time as their businesses have been forced to shut during the lockdowns and others have enjoyed more time at home as travel and office working has been discouraged.
In some cases exit plans have accelerated and business owners are looking at what options there are to achieve a sooner than expected exit. We consider some possible solutions in this article.
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Jon Davage
As we await the Budget, still scheduled for 3 March 2021, speculation continues in the press as to whether it will bring a rise in tax and in particular Capital Gains Tax (CGT).
CGT is currently paid at a rate of 20% by higher rate taxpayers on most gains but can be reduced by various reliefs such as Entrepreneurs Relief (which allows business owners to take the first £1 million of gains at a CGT rate of 10%). A recent Treasury report recommended aligning the CGT rates with the Income Tax rates including top rates of 40-45%, a shift that would take us back to the position in early 2000s when the rates were much more closely aligned.
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