Red Sky company being taken over

27 July 2011 Last updated at 10:35 GMT The sale of Red Sky's Bel-Air company has saved 60 jobs. A company within the troubled Red Sky construction group has been taken over.

Bel-Air Refrigeration, bought by Red Sky a few years ago, has been run by administrators since the whole group went into administration in April.

The acquisition by Belfast-based BI Electrical Services will safeguard 60 jobs within Bel-Air.

The Housing Executive terminated all its maintenance contracts with Red Sky amid allegations over the company's work practices.

BI Electrical Services (NI) Ltd, a specialist in commercial and industrial electrical installation contracts and maintenance, acquired the trade and assets of Bel-Air for an undisclosed sum

Managing director Ian Humphreys said the company intended to build on the 60 jobs saved.

He said Bel-Air had increased its order book in the past two months "in excess of ?1m with new works".

"Whilst Bel-Air has been acquired by new owners it will continue trading as normal.

"The acquisition of Bel-Air provides a strategic fit with our existing business, providing electrical services to the public and private sector across Northern Ireland.

He said the two companies would continue to trade independently.

Mark Montgomery of Bel-Air Services, who has worked for the company for over 20 years, said the acquisition provides a solid foundation for continued growth.

He said: "The acquisition secures the future of Bel-Air given that BI Electrical Services is a very well established business and there will be new opportunities that will arise as a result."

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Property company owed banks £83m

28 July 2011 Last updated at 11:03 GMT The Carvill Group was behind a planned redevelopment of the Sirocco Works site in Belfast One of Northern Ireland's leading property firms owed banks around ?83m when it was placed into administration in May.

The details are contained in a report by the administrators of the Carvill Group.

The report said the Ulster Bank and Northern Bank can expect "a significant shortfall" because of the fall in the value of the firm's assets.

Smaller unsecured creditors are unlikely to get any of what they are owed.

They are owed a total of ?2.3m.

They include a County Antrim plastering firm owed ?80,000 and a Belfast architect who is owed ?94,000. The transport company Translink is owed ?118,000.

The administrator said Carvill had seen "unprecedented" growth between 1995 and 2007, but that the business came under increasing pressure from 2007 when the property price bubble burst.

The collapse in house sales reduced Carvill's income while interest payments on the firm's loans continued to mount.

Cost cutting

The administrator singled out the cost of the Sirocco site in Belfast as being particularly significant. The firm bought it in 2006 for a reported ?40m.

The report laid out how the Carvill directors fought to cut costs through redundancies and three rounds of pay cuts.

However, in the months before the administration the business was operating at the limit of its ?10m Northern Bank overdraft with no prospect of the limit being increased.

Northern Bank had also provided the loans for the Embankment apartment development at Stranmillis in south Belfast and a small site in the Donegall Road area.

Ulster Bank funded the Sirocco deal and the development of the Woodbrook 'eco village' near Lisburn.

Carvill also had other significant properties in Dundonald, Dunmurry and Portadown.

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Teenage record company wins award

13 July 2011 Last updated at 05:33 GMT Aaron Callaghan is the managing director of Generations. A record company set up by a group of 17-year-olds from Lisburn has won the Northern Ireland Young Enterprise company of the year.

The company, called Generations, promotes local musicians.

The teenagers have been showcasing their business model in the national finals at London's Savoy Hotel.

Managing director Aaron Callaghan said they "really didn't expect" to win.

The company began in September 2010 after the group of 17-year-olds held a talent show to raise money.

After witnessing the quality of the acts, they decided to start a record label.

Aaron said the music acts are recorded in the school studio and are mastered by sound engineers.

"We take the tracks and burn them onto disk, print them and take them to trade fairs to sell," he said.

The company has a total of eight people of the same age. They have sold 250 CDs so far and Aaron says they "plan to sell a lot more".

When asked what his hopes were for the future, he said the company wanted "to get more artists from further afield" and hoped to "create music videos".

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