Want to buy multi-million pound AstraZeneca site for £1?

Would you like to buy a multi-million pound state-of-the-art drugs research centre for just £1?

It sounds too good to be true, but apparently that's the going rate for AstraZeneca's 69-acre complex in Loughborough.

The company, which ceases operations at the site on November 30, would not confirm the figure, but admitted it was looking at a "flexible approach" to offloading the Bakewell Road plant.

However, people familiar with the situation say £1 could be enough to take ownership of the site.

The problem is the new occupier would have to fork out many millions of pounds a year to run the plant, including £2 million in business rates.

That is why AstraZeneca has found it so difficult to find a buyer in the 18 months since it announced it would be pulling out of Loughborough with the loss of 1,100 jobs.

Bosses say they have been talking to a consortium of business people for the past few months and the consortium has attracted the attention of potential Chinese investors. But a deal is no closer to fruition.

AstraZeneca is advertising the property with a major agency with the hope of attracting wider interest from other industries.

Whatever happens, business leaders and town residents will hope the site will be used for employment and not houses.

Legal merry-go-round

Another rotation of the partners merry-go-round among law firms in Leicester is set to begin soon.

I've heard a law firm in the city is planning to poach a partner from one of its rivals in the local area.

Such moves have in the past resulted in the firm the partner leaves poaching someone themselves to fill the vacant role - and so starting a bit of a merry-go-round.

No names so far - although I know the law firm looking to do the poaching. Keep an eye on the Mercury business pages over the next few weeks for more details.

Next boss: 'I'm no Luddite'

I was glad to hear Next boss Lord Simon Wolfson declare he is not a Luddite during a parliamentary debate about a planned rail link.

It was an interesting statement for a man who has taken advantage of socio-economic and technological progress to make the Enderby fashion group one of the best performing UK businesses of the past few years.

The chief executive of Next made the comment yesterday during a meeting of the House of Commons Transport Committee.

He wanted to make it clear his opposition to the proposed £32 billion HS2 rail link from London to the North of England, via the East Midlands, had "nothing to do with ludditism or nimbyism", but was the result of reasoned economic argument.

The millionaire Tory peer is hardly the type of man to go around smashing up hi-tech knitting machines, as the Luddites famously did in Loughborough more than 150 years ago, forcing pioneering industrialist John Heathcoat to relocate his lace-making business to Devon.

Of course these days he'd have to travel a lot further afield (ie, southern and eastern Europe, the Far East and North Africa) if he wanted to find a significant number of knitwear machines to attack.

Given the bumper bonuses Next has paid its hundreds of head office staff after two years of record profits, most people living in and around Enderby will be glad the company is based in their back yard.

(Picture depicts Luddites attacking John Heathcoats' factory in Loughborough in 1816)

Pretty in Pink

An appearance in the Financial Times - widely known as the 'Pink'un' - carries a lot of weight across the world.

Leicester Tigers' front page coverage in the FT in April about them raising £4.4 million from investors certainly seems to have turned a few heads.

One of the team's players was pictured ball in hand charging forward in the main front page picture.

Club chairman Peter Tom told me last week the prominent position in the prestigious publication - seen as the bible of the business world for many - has led to a huge amount of positive feedback and opened many doors commercially. (In the same conversation Tom also joked he had considered making the club's third strip for next season pink).

However, some questioned the high-profile coverage given to the deal, as it only involved a few million pounds, while multi-billion pound deals appeared throughout the rest of the newspaper.

It seems the journalist who wrote the story - leisure industries correspondent Roger Blitz - is a big Tigers fan. He obviously lobbied hard for the story to go front and helped to give the club's profile a big boost.

It is a something the club's 10,000 shareholders will want to see more of when Tigers eventually float on the London Stock Exchange, something which is expected within the next six months.

Can Andrew bring home the bacon?

Yesterday, we revealed in the Mercury's the Business that Andrew Bacon, interim chairman of the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), had been given the role permanently.

It followed a long drawn out search for someone to head the county's economic development agency, which involved two rounds of advertising and a row between the city and county councils.

Whether Stephen Woolfe, the senior partner at Harvey Ingram, who had been put forward for the unpaid, part-time role by the city council and business leaders - but whose appointment was blocked by county council leader David Parsons - decided to bow out is not known.

What we do know is that Mr Bacon (pictured), who will retain his role as director of business development at British Gas Community Energy, is a man who is used to dealing with big businesses and politicians. This will certainly form a key part of his role in the coming months and years.

The focus of Mr Bacon and his 14-person board will now be on drawing up a list of key priorities for the city and county. Here is a rough list of what I think they should be;

- Securing enterprise zone status for MIRA near Hinckley

- Ensuring the innovation centre at Leicester Science Park is built

- Ensuring Coalville hi-tech firm Zeeko relocates to the science park

- Ensuring the Eastern Gateway scheme close to Loughborough Railway Station is completed on time and attracts the private sector investment needed to make it work

- A clear plan to tackle the skills shortage which is holding back many growing county firms

- A clear plan for the second phase of the new business quarter, close to Leicester Railway Station, and moves to sign up private sector partners.

Please feel free to suggest your own below ...

UPDATE: July 6, 2011: I've since found out Stephen Woolfe was interviewed along with Andrew Bacon and Andrew was selected because he was felt to have better experience because of his previous role as a board member of Prospect Leicestershire. Only those two were interviewed.

Right or wrong turn?

The Leicestershire Business Voice forum held this week on the future of travel in the city and county was well attended.

At the event, called 'Right Turns', experts from the city and county councils, as well as De Montfort University and Loughborough University, talked about the need to encourage businesses to use cars more wisely.

But when I turned up to the event - admittedly 10 minutes late - the first thing I noticed was how full the car park was.

Why? Perhaps because the meeting was being held at the National Space Centre, which was only realistically accessible by car to the 100 or so business and public sector attendees, including myself.

Surely somewhere more central within the city, where most of the attendees were based, would have been more appropriate given the topic being discussed.

However, I nearly found myself walking down Abbey Lane after my car broke down. Luckily, I was able to limp back to Mercury towers and replace it. Hence why I was late.

Perhaps I should cycle or jog next time. I know I could do with the exercise.

Public Image

In March, one of Leicestershire's most senior female executives was forced to step down as a board member at the business where she worked.

Louise George (pictured), chief executive of scanning equipment maker Image Scan, of Barrow-upon-Soar, had to give up her position on the board after losing a vote at the firm's annual general meeting.

Three shareholders were able to defeat Ms George's bid to be re-elected to the board because of the lack of investors at the meeting. It meant she was forced to step down, but her role as chief executive was unaffected.

The irony was that a few weeks before I'd talked about the county's leading companies having a higher proportion of women on their boards than top businesses nationally - 13.6 per cent compared to 12.5 per cent.

It was revealed this week Ms George, the only female chief executive of a Leicestershire stock market-listed business, is set to be re-appointed to the board at a meeting on June 21.

There's nothing to suggest the three shareholders voted against Ms George's re-appointment for nothing other than business reasons, but it's interesting to note the vast majority of investors seem to have no problem with her performance.

It has been an unfortunate episode at a time when the Government is encouraging firms to increase the number of women in their board rooms.