Boris gives green light to 4,500 London homes April 1, 2014 BORIS Johnson has given the go-ahead to over 4,500 new homes over the past two days after approving schemes in Islington and at Convoys Wharf in the Docklands. The London Mayor has overruled Islington Council’s decision to block Berkeley Homes’ plans for two new residential towers on City Road and granted planning permission yesterday. The [...]
Home shopping group Findel to deliver jump in full-year profits April 1, 2014 HOME shopping group Findel said yesterday that it expects a “substantial” boost in profits thanks to a strong performance from its two largest businesses – Express Gifts and Findel Education. Revenues increased by five per cent in the year to 28 March compared with the previous year, driven by Express Gifts which accounts for more [...]
GKN’s shares climb as firm buys Williams’ hybrid power division April 1, 2014 GKN’S share price surged over two per cent yesterday, after the engineering group said it had agreed to buy a hybrid power unit from Formula One team Williams Grand Prix Engineering. The FTSE 100 firm is acquiring Williams Hybrid Power (WHP) for an initial payment of £8m. Further payments may be made depending on future [...]
Coffee chain Apostrophe bought by the Tower of London’s caterer April 1, 2014 COFFEE chain Apostrophe has been bought out by commercial caterer CH&Co for an undisclosed sum, the buyer announced yesterday. CH&Co has snapped up the remaining 50 per cent of the business, having paid a reported £4m to £5m for half of Apostrophe in January 2012. The coffee company launched in Shoreditch in 2001 and now [...]
Capita buys IT networks firm in £80m deal April 1, 2014 OUTSOURCING firm Capita yesterday said it has bought IT network services provider Updata Infrastructure for £80m, to strengthen its network capability across the UK. FTSE 100-listed Capita has had a strategic alliance with Updata in Scotland since 2011, working together on contracts for local authorities and on a framework to deliver the Scottish Wide Area [...]
Henderson TIAA-CREF merger sealed April 1, 2014 Henderson Global Investors, the fund giant behind Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, has completed its merger with US Teachers’ asset manager TIAA-CREF to create one of the world’s biggest property investment management firms. The new company TIAA Henderson Real Estate, which launched yesterday combines Henderson’s £11bn European and Asia Pacific property business with TIAA-CREF’s European [...]
LondonMetric signs Primark pre-let April 1, 2014 Property developer LondonMetric has signed a deal to build a huge distribution centre in Northamptonshire for a “top 25 retailer” understood to be Primark. The warehouse on the A16 in Islip will span 1.06m square feet – the size of around 38 football pitches – and has been pre-let to Primark on a 25 year [...]
Graphene firm upbeat after float April 1, 2014 Applied Graphene Minerals yesterday posted wider losses in its first results since listing on London’s junior stock market but was upbeat about its future. The firm, which is researching commercial uses of graphene, said it lost £1.2m before tax, though the recent float has left it with nearly £10m in the bank. Chief executive Jon [...]
City Moves for 02 April 2014 | Who’s switching jobs April 1, 2014 Baringa Partners The management consultancy has announced the appointment of Simon Anderson as a partner in its markets and trading team. He joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was a director and senior business architect in its corporate banking and securities division. Coutts The bank has appointed Sophie Chapuisat as head of products and services [...]
Best of the Brokers for 02 April 2014 April 1, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com TESCO Espirito Santo sticks to its “sell” rating for the retailer ahead of full-year results on 16 April, and cuts its fair value from 315p to 265p. The broker thinks that while Tesco’s operational problems are fixable, it reckons the firm could fail [...]
