Business Briefs - June 17

Union Street BDP has today published proposals of the 49 projects planned for the multi-million pound regeneration of Aberdeen city centre.

The 20-year plan includes the pedestrianisation of Union Street, the expansion of Union Terrace Gardens and the redevelopment or demolition of the Trinity Centre shopping mall.

The Castlegate would become the city’s civic heart and the St Nicholas centre would be revamped under the 95-page masterplan.

Funeral firm agrees £26m RBS facility

Funeral firm Dignity - the UK’s only listed funeral parlour - has agreed a new £26m debt facility with RBS.

The deal comes as the company also acquired almost half of the sites run by a rival for £38 million.

Dignity will buy 36 of the 83 locations run by Laurel Funerals.

The RBS facility is not needed to fund the cash deal but will be partly secured against the assets being bought.

Payment app firm eyes world domination with £550k funding

Edinburgh-based Intelligent Point of Sale, a technology company that develops software for bars and retailers has raised £550,000 to fund its global expansion.

The firm cofounded in 2012 by Robin Knox and Paul Walton, will also use the cash injection – from angel syndicate 24Haymarket and the East of Scotland Investment Fund – to appoint a chief operating officer and sales and marketing director.

The firm is relocating to larger premises to accommodate its growth, and is developing franchise plans to take the business model abroad.

Ian Gray, director at 24Haymarket – which invested £500,000 in the company – said the system is attractive “not only with small businesses but also with large commercial operators looking to stay ahead of the market”.

Quest Corporate, the Edinburgh-based finance boutique, advised on the investment deal.

Work starts on Edinburgh commercial data hub

Construction has started on cloud hosting solutions firm Pulsant’s South Gyle site in Edinburgh – the largest commercial data centre in Scotland.

The expansion will see the addition of two secure data halls to the Tier 3 facility, featuring autonomous mechanical services to ensure complete redundancy and increased efficiency and a boost to capacity with over 150 new racks being installed.

The project also includes the addition of new build and configuration rooms, along with secure storage areas.

Once complete, the new data centre will be ISO27001, 14001 and PCI-DSS compliant, as well as part of the G-Cloud and Scottish Government frameworks.