Liberty mulling sale and leaseback of flagship store March 1, 2010 LIBERTY is considering a sale and leaseback of its flagship store in the West End as UK commercial property prices continue to rebound. The company – which is 68 per cent owned by MWB Group – said it has been examining and assessing a range of options and initiatives over the past six month. British [...]
NewRiver seals property joint venture in UK March 1, 2010 PROPERTY investor NewRiver and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing have created a joint venture (JV) to acquire UK retail property which has bought its first portfolio for £49m. The NewRiver Retail Investments deal capacity is more than £250m under the JV. Both NewRiver and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing have committed equity capital, and the [...]
Metronet failures have cost public £410m, say MPs March 1, 2010 ChairmEn of large listed companies in the UK were warned to justify executive pay packets by one of the country’s biggest fund managers, it emerged yesterday. Aviva’s fund management arm, Aviva Investors, wrote to over 800 firms telling them it expected salaries and bonuses to be “prudent [and] aligned to business strategy and performance over [...]
Aviva warns firms over executive pay March 1, 2010 ChairmEn of large listed companies in the UK were warned to justify executive pay packets by one of the country’s biggest fund managers, it emerged yesterday. Aviva’s fund management arm, Aviva Investors, wrote to over 800 firms telling them it expected salaries and bonuses to be “prudent [and] aligned to business strategy and performance over [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK MORE CHIEF EXECUTIVES WILL DONATE THEIR BONUS TO CHARITY? March 1, 2010 DOUGLAS HELLER | HERBERT SMITH “Hopefully this will be the beginning of a trend but I suspect that if it is, the amount they will donate in the future will start to decrease. They’re doing it to get the government on their side. Less pressure from the public means more support from the government.” DICKIE [...]
Goals cheers after annual sales shoot up March 1, 2010 FIVE-a-side football pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres posted a seven per cent rise in profits yesterday, and said it planned to open seven new arenas this year. Sales for 2009 were up 10 per cent at £26m while profits jumped to £8.8m. The company said it was set to open the seven UK centres in [...]
Weak pound offers lifeline to factories March 1, 2010 RECOVERY in Britain’s hard-hit manufacturing sector is continuing apace, boosted by record growth in new exports and the strongest output growth since September 1996, a leading survey revealed yesterday. The CIPS/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) recorded a reading of 56.6 in February, unchanged from January’s fifteen-year high and well above the 50 mark that [...]
Mortgage approvals plummet March 1, 2010 LENDING to firms and households showed little sign of picking up in January from historically weak levels, in spite of a year of quantitative easing, Bank of England data showed yesterday. The Bank’s preferred measure of broad money growth M4, which excludes activity between intermediate financial institutions, stagnated in January. The annualised quarterly rate of [...]
Lending to households and firms was flat in January March 1, 2010 LENDING to firms and households showed little sign of picking up in January from historically weak levels, in spite of a year of quantitative easing, Bank of England data showed yesterday. The Bank’s preferred measure of broad money growth M4, which excludes activity between intermediate financial institutions, stagnated in January. The annualised quarterly rate of [...]
US consumer spending jumps by more than expected as manufacturing grows March 1, 2010 US consumer spending increased slightly faster than expected in January while the US manufacturing sector grew, adding credence to the view that the economic recovery is in full swing. The Commerce Department said yesterday that spending rose 0.5 per cent, increasing for a fourth straight month, after advancing by an upwardly-revised 0.3 per cent in [...]