North East deals of the week: key contracts, investments and acquisitions

Virtual reality training firm Luminous XR is to create jobs following a significant contract win with a Middle Eastern oil company.

The Newcastle firm will move out of its Ouseburn Toffee Factory base, where it has traded for the past 11 years, and into new premises at Upper Steenbergs. And it will grow its workforce of 28 - recruiting 10 jobs - mainly across its development function.

It follows fresh investment into the 20-year-old business from backers Mercia Ventures who put £1m into Luminous last year, from the North East Venture Fund. Mercia first invested in 2017 to help it develop the platform.

CEO Ben Bennett said: “This is a very exciting time for everyone at Luminous XR as we prepare to grow our talented team further, creating 10 new jobs as we build our customer portfolio across the world. Our passion for learning and growth fuels our innovative approach to XR training and we are keen to develop further robust solutions ensuring unparalleled quality and reliability."

A Newcastle student accommodation building changed hands in a £28.75m deal between two investors. UK-based asset manager Curation Capital has acquired the 416-bed Mansion Tyne scheme built on the site former Tyne Tees TV site on City Road from Hong Kong and Singapore-based IP Investment Management (IPIM). The building, which is made up of en-suite and studio rooms and features a cinema room, laundry facilities and bike storage, was first acquired by IPIM in 2018.

The firm, which has more than £233m ($300m) of assets under management including other student schemes across the UK, added 30 beds to the scheme and replaced the operator. It also owns the Duresme Court student development in Durham and is said to have acquired or developed more than £315m of institutional quality student accommodation assets in the UK to date.

London-based Curation Capital, which is part of the Steyn Group, has a joint venture with Patron Capital through which it has been buying up student schemes in London, Manchester, Nottingham and most recently in Birmingham.

A newly created Alnwick-based start-up was acquired by a US defence company that specialises in the tracking of space objects. California's ExoAnalytic Solutions says it has entered an agreement with 3S Northumbria to acquire the business - a move it says will enhance the availability of space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities to the UK Government and its allies. The US firm, which describes itself as global leader in space domain awareness, expects to complete the acquisition in the second half of this year, with the North East firm set to be established as wholly owned subsidiary.

3S Northumbria was founded by retired RAF officer Ralph Dinsley who successfully sold another of his companies, Northern Space and Security Ltd (NORSS), to US defence giant Raytheon in 2022. NORSS developed mapping software that allows satellites to evade fast-moving debris and other satellites.

Meanwhile, 3S Northumbria, incorporated only earlier this year, specialises in space technology and data integration and is already said to have become recognised for its cutting edge approach to space security and space travel.

ExoAnalytic says the integration of 3S Northumbria into its business will allow it to offer more commercial space situational awareness services tailored to the needs of UK space initiatives. It said the move will support data sharing and coordination to boost effectiveness of such systems and also "supercharge" the development of skills needed to realise the UK's space ambitions.

Paint company AkzoNobel has opened a testing centre for wind turbine coatings at its site in Gateshead in a £1.4m investment. The Rain Erosion Test (RET) facility at the Felling site is the first purpose-built and designed facility of its kind in the UK. The facility - which is fitted with sound insulation, a laboratory and a water recycling tank - aims so simulate real-life, harsh weather conditions to test new paint and coatings products specially designed for wind turbine blades.

The equipment can run at up to176 metres per second, and can simulate weather conditions from different regions around the world, including rain and air temperatures. Its installation means that AkzoNobel’s International Paints division can accelerate product development in the potentially lucrative offshore sector as it has the potential capacity to triple the number of tests the company can run every week.

The company said the investment reaffirms its commitment to the Felling site, and increases job security for its workforce.

Ralph Slikkerveer, R&D director for AkzoNobel’s marine, protective and yacht divisions, said: “Bringing this type of world-class testing in-house, where we can immediately generate the data, analyse results and prolong testing periods, will transform our contributions to innovation in the wind energy sector."

Video surveillance specialists Petards announced a deal to buy a Midlands firm as it issued its final results. The Gateshead firm, which creates products for the rail, defence and traffic markets, has issued final results which saw its revenues fall from £10.9m a year earlier to £9.4m.

Petards also said that it was making “significant progress” on its acquisition strategy, and in a separate announcement it outlined a deal to take over Midlands firm Affini Technology Group. The Derby firm provides communication technology to the transport, blue light, energy, defence and construction sectors.

Petards said that the £2.8m deal was subject to the release of bank security given by Affini by June 27. It will fund the deal with £1.7m from its cash resources and £800,000 from its overdraft facilities.

Life sciences firm LightOx secured a £1.5m investment to help develop a new treatment for patients suffering from early stage oral cancer. LightOx, which is based in Newcastle city centre, has secured the funding from the GMC Life Sciences Fund – a fund managed by Praetura Ventures and made up of Bruntwood SciTech, Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership and Greater Manchester Combined Authority - as well as existing investors including Newcastle’s Northstar Ventures.

The investment will be used to help the company develop an oral gel that is activated by a light device to targets a serious pre-cancerous condition called oral epithelial dysplasia (OED). LightOx, which has been developed with expertise from Newcastle and Durham universities, is also planning to add an office in Manchester and launch the next phase of its clinical trials in the North West.

The company was founded by Prof Carrie Ambler and Dr Sam Whitehouse, with the aim of developing a treatment that will replace painful and highly invasive surgery or radiotherapy, which are commonly used on patients. It is also exploring other uses of its technology within healthcare, including bacterial infections and wound care.

Prof Ambler, chief ecientific officer at LightOx, said: “The new investment from the GMC Life Sciences Fund managed by Praetura and Northstar Ventures will enable us to finalise the pre-clinical data package over the next 12 months needed for us to advance our lead drug into clinical trials. We are thrilled to have new investment partners to support LightOx."

Sunderland construction sector consultancy Identity Consult (IC) acquired a Midlands firm to move into a new market.

IC - which provides project management, cost consultancy, design and digital construction services - has acquired Carl Dean Associates, a surveying and project management company based in the West Midlands. The deal allows IC, which has added offices in York, Preston and Salford to its Sunderland HQ in recent years, to establish a fifth location in Sutton Coldfield.

Carl Dean Associates was established in 1993 and provides services including quantity surveying, cost and project management in projects worth up to £20m. It has worked primarily in the primary care and mental health sectors, as well as in the automotive and car dealership industry.

Founder Carl Dean said: “This marks an incredibly exciting chapter for our firm as we join forces with IC, expanding both our portfolio and our expertise. The exceptional quality of IC’s services greatly appealed to us, and I am eager to enhance the level of service we can provide to our clients.”