L&G buys Waitrose warehouse May 27, 2014 The property arm of insurance firm Legal & General has agreed to forward fund a new distribution warehouse for Waitrose in Milton Keynes, in a deal worth £114m. The 100,000 square feet warehouse in Milton Keynes’ Magna Park is being built by logistics developer Gazeley and has been pre-let to Waitrose on a 30-year term. [...]
UK property debt market thaws May 27, 2014 The commercial property debt market is showing signs of improving, according to research out yesterday, revealing rising confidence in financing availability. According to data from Laxfield Capital, the UK commercial mortgage investment firm, loan-to-value ratios have increased to 58 per cent in the last two quarters, compared to 51.8 per cent in the first three [...]
Armour finance chief to leave May 27, 2014 Consumer electronics firm Armour Group yesterday announced its finance director John Harris will leave the company at the end of this week to be replaced by Mark Wilson. Harris’s departure follows the sale of Armour’s automotive arm at the end of March for £10.9m. The company had previously said it will continue to be unprofitable [...]
City Moves for 28 May 2014 | Who’s switching jobs May 27, 2014 Alvarez & Marsal The professional services firm has appointed Jeremy Heales as a senior director in its UK regulatory advisory services practice. He joins from the FCA, where he was most recently head of retail banks. Heales has also held senior roles at the Bank of England and the FCA. BlueBay Asset Management Victoria Muir [...]
Best of the Brokers for 28 May 2014 May 27, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com GREAT PORTLAND ESTATES Peel Hunt has upgraded its recommendation for the property firm to “buy” from “hold”, while increasing its target price to 720p from 620p. This broker thinks Great Portland’s pipeline in Central London is likely to increase as rents rise and [...]
London Report: Strong Arm gains and IHG takeover rumours lift FTSE May 27, 2014 THE UK’S main equity index climbed yesterday, lifted by gains in chip designer Arm and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which pushed the market back to within reach of its record high. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up 29.19 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 6,844.94 points. Arm was the best-performing FTSE stock in percentage [...]
New York Report: S&P reaches a record high May 27, 2014 US STOCKS rose yesterday as the S&P 500 scored a second straight record close, buoyed by the latest round of merger activity and as expectations for rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB) stoked investors’ appetite for equities. ECB chief Mario Draghi said on Monday the bank must be “particularly watchful” for any negative [...]
South African miners’ strikes are boosting platinum ETF inflows May 27, 2014 The labour tensions between the unions and South Africa’s three largest platinum miners have raged on for months now with no resolution in sight. A number of employees have been killed trying to return to work, amid reports of threatening behaviour from the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), which represents the majority [...]
Student loans, uranium, and six other things on the Shareholder Executive’s to-do list May 27, 2014 The government’s Shareholder Executive announced today that it has picked Robert Swannell as its new chair. Swannell, who is also chairman of Marks & Spencer, has been on the board of the group since January, giving him some experience of the group's various portfolio companies. Here are some of the projects that are [...]
John Lewis reveals the five brand new technologies it’s investing in May 27, 2014 John Lewis today crowned the five technology startups that have won a place in the retailer’s technology incubator, called JLAB. The winners were chosen from a shortlist of 30 companies that were given five minutes last week to pitch a product that will help ensure John Lewis’s stores and website remain at the forefront [...]