Hotel No 2.

Newton Aycliffe-based MMP Group has started work on a new 50-bedroom hotel, which is to be built next to the Bannatyne Fitness Centre at Belmont, Durham.

The new hotel, owned by entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, will be the second Bannatyne Hotel. The pounds 2.3m development is due for completion in October, 2006.

IT's good

RM, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, which supplies IT services and software to schools, announced a good performance for the half year to March 31. Revenues were up 5pc to pounds 114.2m while pre-tax profits were pounds 2m compared with losses of pounds 900,000 a year earlier.

Speedy move

RENTAL group Speedy Hire has acquired temporary power systems firm LCH Generators in a pounds 59m deal.

LCH employs 196 staff at directly operated sites in Glasgow, Wigan, Coventry, London and Portsmouth, plus an agency agreement based in Aberdeen that provides services to the offshore market.

CBI nominee

BRITISH Airways chairman Martin Broughton has been nominated for the position of deputy president of the CBI. Mr Broughton is due to be elected at the CBI's annual general meeting on June 13.

Loans boost

LONDON-based mortgage lender Kensington said it had seen strong and profitable growth ahead of the overall UK mortgage market in the first five months of its financial year.

Costs blow

GEARBOX designer Torotrak, based in Leyland, Lancashire, reported a fourfold increase in revenues but said pre-tax losses rose to pounds 6.2m for the year ended 31 March compared with pounds 6.1m last year as administrative costs increased.

Media sale

MEDIA group United Business Media announced that its UK and European professional media business CMPi has sold a number of publications, including the Trader and Industrial Equipment Market, to Metropolis International for pounds 14.6m.

New chief

LONDON-based civil engineering firm John Laing said it is continuing to perform to expectations and announced that Andy Friend has stepped down as chief executive and will be replaced by current finance director Adrian Ewer.

Heard news?

LOGISTICS company John Menzies announced Menzies Distribution, its newspaper and magazine distribution business, is to acquire newspaper wholesaler North West Wholesale News. North West News' reported gross assets at April 30 were pounds 4.5m.