Glenveagh Properties, the fledgling Irish housebuilder backed by US private equity firm Oaktree capital, said on Tuesday it has invested almost €300 million of the money raised from its initial public offering last year.

It comes as the company announced that it has acquired two land portfolios for a combined €106 million, which are capable of delivering 2,235 homes across seven development sites. These include Tallaght and Donabate in Co Dublin, Bray in Co Wicklow, Dunboyne and Stamullen in Co Meath and in Galway city.

The company, created by combining property accumulated by Oaktree in Ireland following the property crash and the assets of Maynooth-based builder Bridgedale, raised up to €550 million through an IPO in October. It is led by: executive chairman John Mulcahy, who is a former senior Nama executive; chief executive Justin Bickle, a one-time Oaktree employee; and chief operating officer Stephen Garvey, who led Bridgedale.

Glenveagh said on Tuesday as it unveiled its maiden set of results that it now owns a diversified landbank capable of delivering over 7,340 units and which has doubled in size since the IPO. The company will have 700 units under construction this year, with a separate pipeline of over 1,200 units being developed for rental communities by its Glenveagh Living brand.

The company said that it has secured a €250 million three-year working capital facility from HSBC, AIB and Barclays.

Glenveagh reported a pre-exceptional loss of €3.3 million last year. It also booked a €47.5 million non-cash exceptional cost in relation to an expense relating to founder shares issued at the time of the IPO. The founder shares incentive scheme entitle the company’s to three executives to receive up to 20 per cent of total shareholder returns over a five-year period.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/glenveagh-properties-invests-almost-300m-of-ipo-money-1.3425174

The Carillion rail contracts to Amey looks to be the best option for the railway industry. It is said that this is going to be the best outcome and that it would help to ensure a positive outcome for the supply chain. Matthew Steele from the Network Rail commercial has stated that it is in the best interests of everyone to take over the multi-million deal that came from Carillion's collapse.

Mr. Steele then went on to say that Amey was in fact the best offer and that in order to ensure the continuity of the project. The option was to try and secure jobs and the skills that came with them. This is done on the basis that things would move forward with Amey in the future. Those who work in construction or those who have an interest in construction jobs will know that this is huge, and that this could have a serious impact on things as we know it. The deal was agreed that Carillion managers would see Amey take on every contract other than two. This would in fact include the North West electrification packages and even the Midland Mainline Civils as well. This would also include the upgrade contract and this is very exciting news given the fact that the West Old Oak Common and even the Paddington project is fast approaching.

Mr. Steele has stated that Network Rail have the strictest policies when it comes to the finances that Amey has and that they are confident that they are in a good place financially to be able to support this move. The last couple of weeks have been used to facilitate this move and this was also done to make sure that everyone was happy with Amey and what it has to offer.

Cumbria experienced their biggest flood on record two years ago and that all happened as the result of Storm Desmond. Swathes of infrastructure were damaged and now Lucy Alderson is working hard to find out how work has progressed since. The rebuild has now reached its halfway point and now is a great time to look back to see what has been done.

The biggest flood in Cumbria's history happened in December 2015 and the storm itself went on and on, raging through the North-West. It is said that 1.15 tons of rain fell in around 6 days and this is enough to fill Wembley Stadium over 300 times. That's a shocking figure to think about and it is also said that nearly 8,000 families were evacuated. 2,000 businesses experienced the effects of the storm and the whole area was in a sense of limbo as to what damages were done and even if anything could be
done to save the buildings that were present.

Flooding in this region is rather common, and there are strategies in place to try and help the county if a flood does occur. The problem is that the area was not prepared in how to handle the damages of a flood as serious as Storm Desmond and no response plan was present either. Those who work in construction jobs will understand more than anyone how much rain can affect buildings, and with a huge range of broken infrastructures, there was no real way of telling how much the local area would have been affected. Making sure that the county was reconnected with neighbouring towns was essential and over 123.6m was given as emergency funding so that Cumbria County could try and repair any of the broken bridges and even the highways.

Something well and truly incredible has happened in London. The launch party of the Inspire Me campaign was a huge success and this is great news if you happen to work in construction jobs. This wasn't your typical event and there wasn't a sea of suits. With men accounting for over 87% of the industry, this is very surprising. But by the looks of things, women actually made up 50% of the event.

Could this be an insight as to what the construction industry has in store? Female crane operators are turning the perception of the construction industry right on its head and this is a stunning sight to see. Female leadership is now more popular than ever and it was amazing to see all of this in one room. Guests at the party included Willmott Dixon, Maybe Group, Osborne, CITB and more. Willmott Dixon HR officer, none other than Rick Lee stated that he believes that gender diversity makes sense and that it is great to see companies weighing in behind the Inspire Me campaign.

Katie Kelleher's influence for promoting construction as a suitable career for everyone really stood out and she even had the chance to speak to a national audience as well.Women have often stated that they feel out of place in the construction industry, and Katie Kelleher has even said that she felt like an alien when she arrived on-site because she was the only woman there. The amount of success that she has achieved since has really helped her to stand out as being one of the most iconic women out there and she proves to be an inspiration for absolutely anyone who wants to defy any of the gender boundaries that are present in the construction industry.

Wireless charging stations for mobile phones have been around for quite some time now and it really is nothing new, but for those who work in engineering jobs, that's all about to change. The main problem with wireless charging docks is that you can't charge the phone unless you are close to a power socket. The engineers at the University of Washington however have now devised a way that could change all of this forever, because they are sending power to a device via a laser beam and this can be done from across the room.

The system was actually developed by Shyam Gollakota and they have devised an invisible beam. The smartphone that they have been using has been altered and adjusted so that it can receive the beam, but there is no saying that this could not be changed so that normal mobile phones can be used. This could essentially mean that laptops, cameras and more could be charged via wireless systems over very long distances.

A paper has since been published and they have designed the laser beam so that it can be installed with a safety system. It also has a very rapid response as well and this helps to ensure that the laser that has been emitted will actually terminate the beam before someone happens to walk in front of it.

The team have mounted a very thin cell on the back of the phone and this delivers a charge to the phone near a beam. The beam is very high-powered and it has the ability to deliver a 2W charge in a 15" squared area from a distance of over 4m. The best thing about this is that it can be adapted and changed to meet the needs of the user or even the technology that it needs to charge.

A software is in development to try and help robots enter unknown territory. They are also being used to enter any unknown sites so that the people who can control them are safer and not faced with unknown danger. Createc opened up some engineering jobs and it was established in Cumbria and it is their job to try and develop imaging technology. The project is currently standing at £1.5m and it is designed to fund the idea of using robots to deal with radioactive material. The team have the belief that the future of nuclear work and decommissioning is all down to using smaller and even cheaper materials so that robots that are the size of humans can actually be deployed to plans that have not been mapped yet. The robots there would then be able to explore the entire plant and they would also be able to use their sensors to try and find out what needs to be done.

The idea is that robots need to be able to perceive what is around them and if this perception can be fed to a human operator then this can be used for really positive things. Information from the 3D sensors can then be used to create a map and this computer image process is what helps the data to be planned out properly. It all then fits together into one large 3D image and this can then work out the rest based on the location of the sensors.

When it is planned out in this way, the algorithm can then work out where the robot is and it can also be used to control the robot itself as well. This combined with virtual reality is just one of the many reasons why this type of technology is really taking off.