Ingenious is pleased to have been involved in the production of The Frankenstein Chronicles: Series 2, which will air today, Wednesday 1 November 2017 on ITV Encore at 10pm.

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s novel, The Frankenstein Chronicles: Series 2 centres around war veteran Marlott, who in pursuit of a terrifying killer, finds himself in the grimiest, most chilling corners of Georgian London.

The new series stars, Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) once again, in the lead role of John Marlott, Richie Campbell (Waterloo Road) and Laurence Fox (Becoming Jane, Lewis).

The drama is produced by Pen and Raincloud Television, an investee company of Ingenious Broadcasting.

Watch the trailer here.

We are delighted to announce that the Ingenious Real Estate team has completed its two largest deals to date. The team has provided a £32 million bridging facility to part fund the acquisition of the former Honey Monster Factory in Southall for future development, and an £18 million facility to fund the acquisition and construction of a premier waterside site in Bristol.

Ingenious Real Estate has provided over £220 million in UK residential and commercial loan facilities, firmly cementing the business as a leading investor in the UK property market.

Acquisition of the Honey Monster Factory: Ingenious Real Estate has provided a bridging facility to a consortium led by Galliard Homes one of the UK’s largest residential developers, to assist with the purchase of the 16 acre West London site. Galliard will work closely with Ealing Council to design and to deliver the regeneration of the landmark site over the coming years.

The project is linked to the wider development of Southall, which is set to benefit from the opening of a new Crossrail station, bringing with it much reduced journey times to the West End and the City.

Development of Brandon Yard Bristol: The team has also provided an £18 million development facility to leading national developers Acorn Property, who will utilise the facility  to fund the construction  of a one-acre plot bordering the River Avon. The project will comprise 56 bespoke designed modern apartments and two townhouses and will incorporate listed features. Over 20% of units were reserved prior to construction commencing which can be attributed to the ongoing demand for attractive and affordable residential property in the area. The facility took only four weeks to complete from the issuance of heads of terms.

Commenting on the deals, Tom Brown, Head of Ingenious Real Estate, said: “The size of these facilities represents a significant milestone for the Ingenious team as we further realise and deliver our growth ambitions in UK property markets. The quality of these projects and the developers we have partnered with underline our credentials and reputation in the sector.”

We are delighted to announce that the Ingenious-backed Battle of the Sexes will be screened at the coveted American Express Gala during this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

Battle of the Sexes is the second film to be announced by the organisers of the Festival, which will mark its 61st anniversary this October. The comedy-drama will have its European premiere at the festival on October 7th at London’s Odeon Leicester Square Theatre, following its world premiere in Toronto in September.

Starring Oscar winner Emma Stone (La La Land) and Steve Carell (The 40 Year Old Virgin), the biopic recounts the legendary tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs and tells the story of the two tennis Grand Slammers during the 1973 challenge match which generated significant media attention and became the most watched television sports event of all time.

Stone, plus co-stars Andrea Riseborough (Nocturnal Animals) and Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas), are expected to attend the London red-carpet premiere accompanied by Little Miss Sunshine directors, Valeria Faris and Jonathan Dayton and even tennis superstar, King.

Battle of the Sexes was produced by Manigot Productions Limited, an Ingenious Pathé Plus EIS Fund investee company in association with Cloud Eight Films’ Christian Colsons and Decibal Films’ Danny Boyle, the team behind Oscar winning films Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Steve Jobs.

Watch the trailer here.

Ingenious Infrastructure is delighted to announce that our joint venture partnership with Australian solar developer, Stellata Energy (Stellata), has successfully secured planning permission for a 120MW large-scale solar PV farm in Merredin, Australia, the largest solar PV farm in Western Australia.

The granting of planning firmly cements Stellata as one of the leading solar developers in Western Australia. The news swiftly follows the recent announcement of the launch of the partnership. The partnership has committed to funding a pipeline of solar farms across the country, with a value in excess of AUD $200 million.

The Merredin Solar Farm spans 400 hectares in Western Australia’s central Wheatbelt and, once developed,  is expected to generate an annual output of 260GWh of electricity, powering around 42,000 houses per annum and delivering clean energy into the South West Interconnected System (SWIS).

With construction scheduled to commence in the first half of 2018 and target for commissioning in Q1 2019, the project, which has a projected 30 year life, will be the largest solar farm to have received planning permission in Western Australia. The project is also the only grid connected solar farm to include planning approval for batteries and is designed to be battery ready.

The construction and operational phases of the Merredin Solar Farm will provide local employment opportunities and stimulus to local businesses, with an expected 200 people working on site during the construction period and further permanent and temporary staff to be employed during ongoing operations and maintenance.

Commenting on the venture, Troy Santen, Director, Stellata said: “Securing planning permission for the Merredin Solar Farm is another breakthrough for Stellata and Ingenious as we continue our efforts to bring large-scale solar energy to Western Australia. The Merredin Solar Farm will bring clean energy to thousands of homes across the Perth area, as well as the creation of hundreds of jobs in local communities. We look forward to replicating this achievement across our pipeline of solar projects.”

We are pleased to announce the launch of a joint venture with Stellata Energy (‘Stellata’), the Australian solar energy developer, with the shared ambition of bolstering solar energy generation across Australia. The partnership commits to funding a pipeline of solar farms across the country, with a value in excess of AUD $200 million, including a flagship 120MW ground-mounted project.  

The funding is timely as the Australian Government’s federal renewable energy target seeks to double the current capacity of large-scale renewable energy to 33,000 GWh by 2020; in-turn fuelling the potential for privately supported investment opportunities in this sector.

The team at Stellata is well placed to succeed in bringing large-scale solar energy to Western Australia, having successfully developed over 600MW of ground-mounted and rooftop solar across Europe. Through the partnership, Stellata’s resource and capacity will be boosted by Ingenious’ dedicated team of investment professionals, which has raised and deployed over £9 billion, including £500 million in renewables projects across the UK and Ireland.

Commenting on the venture, Troy Santen, Director, Stellata said: “As a West Australian company, we are very excited to be partnering with Ingenious in our quest to bring utility scale solar power to our state. Our collaboration will drive forward the development of solar PV projects, as well as the creation of jobs in local communities.”

Sebastian Speight, Managing Director, Ingenious Infrastructure agreed: “Ingenious has worked closely with the team at Stellata on previous ventures and their track record of delivering high quality solar projects is testament to their knowledge and expertise in this sector. Australia has huge potential to benefit from solar energy, due to its geographical positioning and high levels of irradiation, and we are confident that Stellata can fully capture the rewards this technology can offer.”

Ingenious is delighted to announce that the film Battle of the Sexes is due to hit U.S theatres on 22 September 2017, with an international release following thereafter. The comedy-drama, backed by the Ingenious Pathé Plus EIS Fund, chronicles the legendary tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

Starring Oscar winner Emma Stone (La La Land) and Steve Carell (The 40 Year Old Virgin), the biopic tells the story of the two tennis Grand Slammers during the infamous 1973 challenge match in which King, a well-known woman’s rights activist, defeated a publically sexist Riggs. The match generated significant media attention and became the most watched televised sports event of all time.

Battle of the Sexes is directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, both of whom directed the highly acclaimed film Little Miss Sunshine.

Watch the trailer here.

Ingenious, the leading independent investor in the creative industries and backer of hit movies including Avatar and Life of Pi, is to appeal against the judgement of the First-tier Tax Tribunal in its long-running dispute with HMRC over the tax status of its historic film production partnerships which date back as far as 2002.

This follows a recent supplementary decision handed down by Judge Charles Hellier in which he clarified a technical point from his original August 2016 judgement. In this clarification, the judge ruled “with misgivings and reluctance” that the film production costs were capital costs and therefore not tax deductible.

This decision was deliberately mischaracterised in press reports as a failed bid by Ingenious to overturn the August 2016 Tribunal decision. In fact, this latest development was triggered after the Tribunal, having found in favour of the Ingenious partnerships on the Tribunal’s basis of assessment, instructed the parties to agree a common approach in applying the judgement.

Ingenious believes this further decision compounds the errors made by the First-tier Tax Tribunal which simply reinforces the need to take this matter to a higher court. The appeal to the Upper Tribunal is likely to be heard during 2018 and Ingenious are confident of victory.

The Tribunal’s clarification of a technical matter has been presented in the media in a wholly-biased manner which misrepresents the facts and misleads the reader.

We strongly disagree with the Tribunal’s clarification and find it wholly unsatisfactory that the Tribunal reached this decision with “misgivings and reluctance”. We will be appealing the entire decision of the Tribunal.

This follows a recent successful appeal brought by Ingenious against HMRC which led to the judges of the Supreme Court unanimously ruling in favour of Ingenious that HMRC had acted unlawfully in a briefing to the press.

Neil Forster

CEO

Halifax, this month reported the first quarterly decline in UK house prices (0.2%) since November 2012, annual house price growth however, remained at 3.8%. It would seem that warnings prior to last year’s EU Referendum that Brexit could lead to a 10% fall in house prices have so far, at least, proved unfounded.

Fast forward almost a year from the referendum and Theresa May has triggered Article 50 and called a general election that she looks set to win with an increased Conservative Party majority. Despite all the related economic uncertainty property prices and their relationship to income ratios remain at an all-time high. Despite signs the market may be cooling especially in Central London, there are good reasons to remain positive about prospects for long term price growth and market stability:-

The reality is that Brexit has not happened yet, formal negotiations are yet to begin and the current period of uncertainty looks set to continue, at least until the UK’s relationship with Europe is finally decided although this shows no sign of being resolved anytime soon.

Ingenious Real Estate remains very much open for business; we continue to expand both our team and our product range. Despite the ongoing uncertainty, we are winning mandates, have a growing pipeline from both new and existing clients, drawing on our experience, contacts and flexibility.

If you have any opportunities you would like to discuss with us or would like to know more about any aspect of what we do, feel free to get in touch. We can normally provide an indicative response within 48 hours.

Ingenious Real Estate is thrilled to announce the completion of a £4m bridging facility to assist an existing customer finalise planning for a scheme of 32 flats in central Gerrards Cross.

Gerrards Cross has remained one of England’s most sought after villages outside of London thanks to its excellent selection of local schools and direct commuter links.

Tom Brown, Head of Real Estate Finance comments “A second deal to one of our best developers in a short period demonstrates our commitment to building genuine and lasting relationships with our partners. As we can also provide the development finance, this saves our customer’s time and duplicating costs whilst giving the Developer reassurance funding when they need it”.

We continue to seek new opportunities to deploy capital and give an indicative response within 48 hours – please give us a call on 020 7319 4253.

Ingenious Infrastructure, the infrastructure investment division of Ingenious, the alternative investment manager, has added a 7.6MW wind farm in Scotland to its Ingenious Estate Planning (IEP) Service portfolio. St John’s Hill wind farm in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, was bought from Renewable Energy Ventures Ltd., a Scottish wind asset developer.

Ingenious’ advisers on the deal were Dentons on the legal side and K2 on the technical side. The seller was supported by Pinsent Mason and Greencat respectively. Accountancy firm Greenbank advised the seller on financial matters. The asset will be managed by Stirling-based energy project management firm, Becon Consultancy. The total value of the acquisition is approximately £18 million.

This is the first wind asset to be added to the IEP portfolio. Following the successful acquisition of a portfolio of 15MW of solar farms in 2016 from Spanish EPC contractor, Solarig, the purchase of St John’s Hill wind farm follows the team’s strategy to grow and diversify its £100m portfolio across a broad range of renewable energy assets, in order to mitigate revenues fluctuations caused by the sea-sonality of solar assets. Another 13MW of wind assets are expected to be acquired by the end of June 2017, taking the total to 23MW. The team is also seeking further deals in the secondary wind and solar markets.

Commenting on the acquisition, Roberto Castiglioni, Investment Director, Ingenious Infrastructure said “As Ingenious continues to expand its presence in the global renewable energy sector; St John’s Hill is certainly a strategic addition to the IEP portfolio. Diversification is at the core of our strategy, in order to mitigate risks and enhance returns, and the team’s expertise and previous experience in managing wind assets will prove beneficial in maximising the benefits of the asset for our investors”.