West End ranks as the world’s priciest offices January 24, 2013 LONDON’S West End has leapfrogged Hong Kong to regain its spot as the world’s most expensive location to rent office space after rents declined in the Asian city. Property specialists DTZ’s annual Global Occupancy Costs survey published today shows that occupiers in London’s West End had to pay US$23,500 (£14,900) per workstation per annum at [...]
After a three-year wait … the Walbrook secures its first tenants January 24, 2013 THE WALBROOK Building opposite Cannon Street station has finally clinched its first two tenants, nearly three years since it was first built. Property developer Minerva, said it has secured the first deal with insurance broker, Arthur J Gallagher, which has taken offices on the ground floor and the whole of the seventh floor amounting to [...]
Tech and media demand for office space soars in the City January 24, 2013 TECHNOLOGY, media and telecoms (TMT) firms are piling into the City office market and taking up some of the slack left by a downsizing of financial services companies. Research by property experts Colliers International shows in 2012 TMT firms accounted for 30 per cent of take-up in the City market and 26 per cent in [...]
Microsoft profit dips in spite of new Windows 8 January 24, 2013 COMPUTING giant Microsoft yesterday posted a quarterly drop in profits, as slow sales of its Office software dragged down a positive start for its freshly minted Windows 8 system. Sales rose three per cent overall to $21.5bn (£13.6bn) for the three months ending December 2012, the company said last night, but profits slid to $6.4bn, [...]
Obama picks tough ex-New York attorney as next chair of the SEC January 24, 2013 PRESIDENT Obama yesterday nominated a politically independent ex-New York attorney as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US financial watchdog that monitors the country’s securities markets. Mary Jo White, currently head of law firm Debevoise & Plimpton’s litigation team, will succeed Elisse Walter, who stepped up last December when Mary [...]
Fund manager calls for reform of IPO market January 24, 2013 BANKING fees for new company share issues should be aligned with a floated group’s share price several months after the first day of dealings, Sacha Sadan, director of corporate governance at Legal & General, said yesterday. Sadan, whose firm manages £391bn of assets, said yesterday: “How come day one of the flotation is the day [...]
Empty offices look bleak now but are also a sign of optimism January 24, 2013 THE City is changing, and not just because of the skyscrapers about to reinvent its skyline. The firms that are taking office space are changing as well. The trend for insurers to cluster in EC3 around the Lloyd’s building is well-established. Equally striking has been the lack of demand in Cannon Place and the Walbrook, [...]
Eurozone recession deepens as output in France plunges January 24, 2013 THE EUROZONE recession is getting deeper in most countries, with private sector output plunging in France, Spain’s unemployment soaring further and Italian retail sales dropping again, according to a raft of data published yesterday. But Germany is defying the trend, with businesses reporting strong growth in January, bouncing back from a weak December and raising [...]
Barclays staff in Libor probe named in court January 24, 2013 EMAILS from Barclays’ former top bosses including Bob Diamond were passed to regulators as part of the Libor fixing investigation, a court revealed yesterday, after a bid by those listed to remain anonymous failed. A total of 106 staff and former employees had wanted to go un-named, including 25 people identified in the regulatory filing. [...]
London Stock Exchange boosts data business as trading dips January 24, 2013 LONDON Stock Exchange (LSE) managed to boost its profits in the final three months of 2012, despite low trading volumes hitting its core capital markets business. Income from fees on UK share trades dropped by 13 per cent, while earnings from post-trade services – such as clearing – slumped from £58m to £49.6m. However total group income was up [...]
