Samsonite increases Hong Kong IPO by $46m to meet demand for stock July 10, 2011 SAMSONITE International, the world’s largest luggage maker, increased its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) by $46m (£28.6m) to nearly $1.3bn, after underwriters exercised an option to sell additional shares to meet demand for the stock. The company said late yesterday 24.66m shares were sold by its two largest shareholders at the IPO price of [...]
Water cooler firm lists on London’s AIM July 10, 2011 Shares in water cooler firm Waterlogic will begin trading for the first time today, as it completes a listing on London’s alternative investment market (AIM). The company, which supplies purifying water dispensers to offices, hotels and gyms, raised £41m to fund acquisitions in an initial public offering. The book for shares in the firm was [...]
Sports Direct staff set for bumper bonus July 10, 2011 Sports Direct staff look set for a bumper bonus when the 400-store chain announces its results on Thursday. Around 2,000 full-time staff would collect the second windfall from the bonus scheme if the firm reaches it £205m profit target. Based on an average salary of £20,000, the total bonus for two years would be worth [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 10, 2011 BNP Paribas Martin Egan has been appointed to the newly created role of UK head of fixed income at BNP Paribas Corporate & Investment Banking, based in London. Egan will continue his current responsibilities as global head of primary markets and origination, reporting to Ludovic de Montille, chairman of BNP Paribas Group in the UK [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 10, 2011 Bovis Simon Brown, analyst at Northland Capital, says shares in home builder Bovis are a “buy” due to higher margin land. The broker rates shares in the company at 449p per share. Since the downturn, Bovis has acquired more land and has succeeded in bringing land through planning, which has boosted the margin potential at [...]
Office Space July 10, 2011 Tall is beautiful: London’s towers Look west: three new Ealing developments as Crossrail improves its City connections
All the world buys into London July 10, 2011 Office Space CENTRAL London looks set to be the prime beneficiary of a renewed appetite for direct investment into UK commercial property. The capital already tops the league table of largest global property investment markets, netting close on £11bn in 2010, significantly more than closest rivals Tokyo, Paris and New York. And the prospects for [...]
Focus on Ealing: West is the best July 10, 2011 Office Space WITH the clamour and disruption of Crossrail making itself known across central London, investors can seek consolation in turning their thoughts to its profitable prospects in one of London’s most tranquil outposts. Ealing, dubbed “Queen of Suburbs” by no less an authority than Nikolaus Pevsner, will benefit from not one but two Crossrail [...]
The big picture: London property July 10, 2011 Office Space IT’S a game of two halves for central London’s commercial property market: an early trip to the showers for the office sector, while the retail sector is playing into extra time. Across London’s core office pitches, from the financial zones of Canary Wharf and the City, to the media and head office blocks [...]
The 9 projects that show the future of commercial space July 10, 2011 Office Space ACROSS the capital, thrilling new commercial buildings are springing up, from the City’s twenty-first century office towers to Europe’s largest urban shopping centre at Stratford. Andrew Deverell-Smith, managing director of property recruitment specialists Deverell Smith Recruitment, says “for those of us with so much at stake in the property industry, it is refreshing [...]