The Business Magazine Thames Valley December 15/January 16

10 news Shareleague Thames Valley Presented by in association with Business T H E M A G A Z I N E

RWS Holdings, one of the world's leading patent translation and patent search companies, saw its share price surge in October after it provided an update on trading for the past year showing sales for the full year likely to be above market expectation.

Chairman Andrew Brode said he was delighted by the Chalfont St Peter-based group's improved performance in the second half of the year. “We expect the current financial year to benefit from increasing sales from previous client wins, a healthy pipeline of new client opportunities and further benefits accruing from the full integration of inovia, which has now been completed.”

In the second six months, sales were up almost 10% to £49.7million, giving a full year

total of £95.1m, representing an increase of 2% over 2014.

Sopheon, the Surrey-based international provider of software, expertise, and best practices for enterprise innovation performance, produced the star performance of the region’s quoted companies with a 40% hike. It recently announced the latest version of its Accolade Enterprise Innovation Management solution.

C&W Business, part of Cable & Wireless Communicatiions, announced it has completed the development of a portfolio of disaster recovery plans for each of the platforms on which it delivers disaster recovery as a service. It helped push up shares to a point where C&W topped the table for the region’s large companies.

Large (over £1 billion) Closing price

CABLE & WIRELESS COMMS. ICTL.HTLS.GP.

GLAXOSMITHKLINE SHIRE

BG GROUP CENTRICA SPECTRIS

ULTRA ELECTRONICS HDG. GALLIFORD TRY SERCO GROUP

30/09/15 55.4

2,284.0 1,266.0 4,504.0 951.0 229.2

1,691.0 1,713.0 1,586.0 101.9

Closing price 31/10/15 73.6

2,601.0 1,405.0 4,925.0 1,025.0 226.1

1,667.0 1,683.0 1,497.0 93.7

Medium (£250 million to £1 billion) Closing price

RWS HOLDINGS SDL

ELECTROCOMP. FIDESSA GROUP DAIRY CREST INTERSERVE DE LA RUE VERNALIS

XP POWER (DI) OXFORD INSTRUMENTS

30/09/15 140.0 325.0 179.1

1,794.0 608.5 574.0 481.8 78.0

1,600.0 582.0

KBC ADVANCED TECHS. ECKOH

LATHAM(JAMES)

REAL ESTATE INVESTORS MICHELMERSH BRICK HDG. OXFORD BIOMEDICA NANOCO GROUP

30/09/15 117.0 41.1

ACCESSO TECHNOLOGY GROUP 765.0 LOK'N STORE GROUP OMG

294.0 41.3

692.5 69.5

101.0 8.1

62.8

Sub £50 million Closing price

SOPHEON PIPEHAWK

JOHN LEWIS OF HUNGERFORD PETARDS GROUP

EGDON RESOURCES FUTURA MEDICAL TP GROUP

MILESTONE GROUP NORTHAMBER

ENV.RCYC.TECHNOLOGIES www.businessmag.co.uk

30/09/15 59.5 5.1 1.0

12.5 9.3

25.0 3.9 0.4

43.0 0.2

Closing price 31/10/15 172.0 388.0 205.1

1,959.0 644.0 556.5 463.0 71.5

1,450.0 519.5

Small (£50 million to £250 million) Closing price

Closing price 31/10/15 128.5 44.5

825.0 312.5 43.8

660.0 65.0 92.0 6.3

48.3

Closing price 31/10/15 83.5 6.9 1.2

13.9 10.1 23.0 3.5 0.4

36.5 0.2

Change in share price 33% 14% 11% 9% 8%

-1% -1% -2% -6% -8%

Change in share price 23% 19% 15% 9% 6%

-3% -4% -8% -9%

-11%

Change in share price 10% 8% 8% 6% 6%

-5% -6% -9%

-22% -23%

Change in share price 40% 34% 15% 11% 10% -8%

-10% -13% -15% -22%

Reading retains top spot as UK’s most successful economic city

A national measure of economic success, the Good Growth for Cities Index 2015, launched by PwC and Demos, has ranked Reading and Bracknell as the UK’s top place to live and work for the third consecutive year.

The report’s author, Nick Jones, director of PwC’s Public Sector Research Centre, presented the first analysis of Reading’s strong performance at an economic forum at Reading Town Hall to a local business audience, hosted by Reading UK CIC.

'Reading continues to outperform all the core cities in the UK as a successful economy'

The Good Growth Index 2015 measures the current performance of 39 cities on a range of measures wider than just economic output, and captures the characteristics of cities which the UK public consider important for judging medium to long-term economic success. The Index scores show that the Reading and Bracknell area retains the top spot with particular strengths in job creation, salaries, health, owner occupation, skills and environment (levels of pollution).

Miles Saunders, office senior partner, PwC Reading said: “Reading is a high-income, high-skilled and investment- friendly city with one of the highest employment rates and average earnings in the UK, making it a great place to do business. It also has an

entrepreneurial culture and high number of innovators.

“The challenges around transport and housing remain and while the investment in transport has increased, there is a continued impact on housing affordability. The public and private sector need to continue to collaborate and raise some of these barriers to future growth.”

The scores for the majority of cities have improved compared to 2014. Stephanie Hyde, head of regions at PwC, says the recent index improvements are welcome, but there is no room for complacency: “The Good Growth index sends a clear message to government and city leaders that there’s more to life than GDP. Growing the UK economy and creating sustainable employment relies on a vibrant and confident private sector investing in cities and regions offering high-level skills, competitive operating costs and a world- class infrastructure that attracts and retains workers and their families.”

The Good Growth for Cities Index concentrates on 10 key elements of economic wellbeing and success:

• Access to jobs

• Good health (so as to be able to work and earn a living)

• Income • Skills • Work-life balance • Housing

• Sectoral balance of the economy

• Income distribution • Transport • Environment.

Details: www.pwc.co.uk/ goodgrowth

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 15/JANUARY 16

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