Hitachi launches £1bn retail fund
Japanese-backed Hitachi Capital has launched a £1bn fund to prop up the UK retail industry. The firm’s consumer finance division is ready to implement a plan that will invest the cash into the furniture, white goods, jewellery and other retail sectors in order to stimulate growth in sales. Consumer finance divisional managing director Gerald Grimes said that putting the money back into the economy through consumer purchases in retail will pave the way to retail recovery. The fund will also back Look4aProperty.com, a website part-owned by Dragons’ Den entrepreneur James Caan, that will offer homebuyers interest-free loans to cover stamp duty and solicitors’ fees in a bid to heat up the housing market.