Guy Hands’ Terra Firma mulls sale of Wyevale Garden Centres February 14, 2016 Guy Hands’ Terra Firma is considering a sale of its garden centre business Wyevale after four years of ownership. The private equity house has already been approached by several suitors and has also held talks with advisers to work on the sale including Goldman Sachs, according to The Sunday Times, citing a price tag of [...]
Hungry suitors circle Pizza Hut as owners put the restaurant chain up for sale February 14, 2016 The Private equity owner of Pizza Hut has put the restaurant chain up for sale after hiring advisers at PwC to find a buyer. Rutland Partners bought Pizza Hut’s UK franchise business from US firm Yum! brands in 2012 and set out on a £60m revamp of its 285-plus outlets to boost trading. Efforts have [...]
Sales of £10m-plus London homes drop by a third as George Osborne’s stamp duty tax changes bite February 12, 2016 Sales of London's priciest homes slumped by a third last year as even the wealthiest investors balked at paying the higher rate of stamp duty introduced by George Osborne's tax reforms. The number of super prime properties – those costing £10m or more – fell from 195 in 2014 to 130 last year, down 32 per cent, according to [...]
Residential landlord Grainger posts jump in rents as it taps into UK rental boom February 11, 2016 Grainger has posted a jump in rents as the residential landlord presses ahead with its expansion into the UK's booming private rental sector. Grainger has two main divisions – its portfolio of private rental homes and its regulated tenancy business where it buys properties subject to regulated rents at a discount before eventually selling them at [...]
Business landlord Workspace sells five London buildings for £64m February 11, 2016 Small business landlord Workspace has sold off five industrial buildings across London for £64m as it looks to raise cash to invest back into new schemes. The FTSE 250-listed group, which owns and manages 80 properties let to 4,000 growing companies, said the industrial estates had an average rent of £9.07 per sq ft and were sold at a [...]
Estate agent Countrywide appoints former Tui boss as chairman February 11, 2016 Britain's largest estate agent Countrywide has appointed the former chief executive of travel operator Tui as chairman. Peter Long, who was co-chief executive of Tui until last week, has joined the board as a non-executive director with immediate effect and will take up the role of chairman on 27 April following Countrywide's annual general meeting, the company announced [...]
Music industry body IFPI moves into The Crown Estate’s Regent Street scheme February 11, 2016 The Crown Estate has secured another letting at its newly refurbished Grade II listed building at the south end of Regent Street. The world’s recording industry body, the IFPI, has agreed to move its London headquarters from 10 Piccadilly to 7 Air Street, taking the entire third floor spanning 9,000 square feet. It is understood to be paying in [...]
Sainsbury’s to phase out Bogof and other multi-buy grocery deals from August February 11, 2016 Sainsbury's has become the latest supermarket to announce it is phasing out multi-buy deals in favour of lower everyday prices instead. The move, which will see the end of buy one get one free (bogof) and other such deals comes after Tesco announced similar plans last month, bring both chains closer in line with practices of the discounters Aldi and [...]
UK house prices: Buy-to-let rush sparks surge in mortgage lending February 11, 2016 Buy-to-let landlords rushing to secure a property before April’s stamp duty hike has driven mortgage lending to its highest level in nine years, according to UK chartered surveyor e.surv. House purchase lending approvals reached 85,432 in January, an increase of 20.6 per cent since December 2015 and the highest number of monthly approvals since October [...]
UK property prices are rising at twice the pace of wages as housing activity picks up February 11, 2016 House prices are now rising at twice the pace of earnings after a resurgence in demand at the start of the year, new research today shows. Prices rose 0.2 per cent – or £688 – in January, taking the average value of a property in England and Wales above £290,000, according to estate agents Reeds Rains [...]
