Half-term holidays give a boost to Gatwick’s passenger figures December 10, 2012 HALF-TERM getaways helped Gatwick Airport post a 4.2 per cent rise in traffic during November, Britain’s second-busiest airport said yesterday. Gatwick credited the earlier autumn half-term break this year for some of the uptick, which took its passengers for the month to 2.23m. In the year to the end of November, traffic has risen 2.8 [...]
Savills fund focusing on prime London with first investment December 10, 2012 ESTATE agent Savills has made the first two purchases through its prime London residential fund, betting on adjacent Chelsea properties as demand for high-end living space in the capital continues to grow. Cordea Savills, the international property fund manager owned by Savills, has paid around £40m for a former chapel and a former college building between [...]
Great Portland street looks South December 10, 2012 PROPERTY developer Great Portland Estates (GPE) yesterday spent £60m to snap up office and residential building Minerva House, on the South Bank. The acquisition is the first since it raised £140.6m in a share placing last month. The six-storey block is leased to Ipsos Mori and Winkworth Sherwood. Rent totals £3.4m a year, with contracts [...]
Gold surprise at hedge fund Christmas bash December 10, 2012 TIS the season for the annual office Christmas party. Never an event to miss, and especially so for the employees of one particular City hedge fund, who will be pleasantly surprised when they sit down to their Christmas lunch this year. The founder of online bullion delivery company Bullion By Post, Rob Halliday Stein, tells [...]
Bubbles and bankruptcy at the British Museum December 10, 2012 THE LATEST offering from the money team at the British Museum, Bubbles and Bankruptcy, is a exhibitional journey through financial crises in Britain since the first stock bubbles of 1700 to the fiscal woes of present. The exhibition aims to “explore the fertile history of satire and protest about financial crises, represented by historic prints, [...]
UK Coal split in two as mines face reckoning December 10, 2012 UK COAL is giving its mining business, once the bedrock of British industry, a “final chance” of survival, after completing a radical restructure of the company yesterday saving it from imminent bankruptcy. The former state-owned behemoth yesterday completed plans to split into a privately owned property company called Harworth Estates Property Group Ltd and a [...]
Advisers PWC December 10, 2012 Ian Green led the innovative deal for UK Coal. Green joined PwC 25 years ago, has been a partner for over ten years, and is now the regional chairman for PwC’s operations in Yorkshire and the North East. This includes overseeing more than 1,000 members of staff at key offices, including Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and [...]
Regulators delay Glenstrata merger until the new year December 10, 2012 LENGTHY antitrust regulatory processes in China and South Africa have forced commodities trader Glencore to delay the date for completion of its tie-up with miner Xstrata until the end of January. Glencore was expected to defend its case for the tie-up this week after South African power utility Eskom raised concerns the deal could affect [...]
London helps Winkworth December 10, 2012 REAL estate agency Winkworth warned yesterday that rising stamp duty on the priciest homes has quelled demand for properties worth more than £2m. The firm said in a trading update that it will meet forecasts, in spite of a sales drought at the very top of the market. The rest of London is doing well, [...]
Shanks inks smashing deal with Heineken December 10, 2012 Waste manager Shanks has won a contract with Heineken to recycle about 9m brown beer bottles, some 15,000 tons of glass, for an undisclosed sum. The brewer has traditionally sold its beers in both green and brown bottles, but the latter will now be phased out.