Monzo backer Passion Capital opens doors to retail investors March 10, 2021 One of the earliest backers of fintech favourite Monzo is opening its doors to crowd investors with the launch of its third fund. Passion Capital’s £45m fund will be open to any investors who self-certify as “high net worth” or “sophisticated” and are registered and qualified by the crowdfunding platform Seedrs. It will give retail [...]
Pandemic wipes almost £1bn off Covent Garden landlord Capco’s portfolio March 9, 2021 West End landlord Capital & Counties suffered a sharp drop in its property values last year, wiping almost £1bn of its portfolio. Capco, which owns Covent Garden, reported this morning that its total property value last year was £1.9bn, down from £2.8bn in 2019. The total property value of Covent Garden fell 27 per cent [...]
Marks & Spencer unveils plans to replace retail space with offices at Marble Arch store March 9, 2021 Marks & Spencer (M&S) has unveiled plans to redevelop its Marble Arch store, with some retail space set to be replaced by offices. Under proposals announced this afternoon, M&S said the lower levels of the West End store would remain as retail space offering its food and clothing and home ranges. However, the upper floors [...]
City office floorspace surges as developers back the Square Mile’s future March 9, 2021 The City of London Corporation has today (9 March) revealed that, so far this year, it has given planning consent for the equivalent of almost 80% of the total office floorspace it approved for the whole of last year; demonstrating the City office market remains resilient despite new ways of working being adopted throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The City [...]
Kingfisher shares jump on plans to launch B&Q stores in Saudi Arabia March 9, 2021 Shares in Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, jumped this morning after it announced plans to expand the DIY chain into the Middle East. Kingfisher said this morning that it has signed a franchise agreement with the Al-Futtaim Group, with the first Middle East stores to launch in Saudi Arabia. It marks a progression in the [...]
Exclusive: London pubs, restaurants and hotels to claim almost £200m in restart grants March 8, 2021 London pubs, restaurants and hotels are set to receive almost £200m in extra government grants to help them reopen after the latest coronavirus lockdown. Around 13,000 hospitality businesses across the capital will be eligible to claim £184.2m in the restart grants, City A.M. can reveal. Research by real estate adviser Altus Group showed 3,632 pubs [...]
Covid was the final lever for the creative destruction of the high street: it’s not gone, just changing March 8, 2021 If you believe some of the gloomier predictions, the high street is on life support and will breathe its last when the government eventually pulls the plug on the comprehensive Covid relief package that has kept it alive. Last week’s budget offers another lifeline but is, in effect, a stay of execution in a process [...]
Home REIT invests £48m in property portfolio expansion to house homeless people March 8, 2021 Home Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which funds the acquisition and development of accomodation for homeless people, has bought 11 property portfolios in a deal worth £48.1m. The acquisition completes the full investment of the net proceeds of the firm’s £240m public listing in October last year. Following the deal, Home REIT has added an [...]
The Week Ahead: ITV, Rolls Royce, Morrison, ECB and UK GDP data March 8, 2021 It’s Monday morning. City A.M. looks ahead at what this week has in store. China Trade for February This morning – The Chinese economy finished 2020 on a strong note, its surplus hitting a record high in December. Exports rose by 18.1 per cent, slightly down from November’s 21.1 per cent but still better than expected, [...]
The office must now sing for its supper: making the workplace about the individual, not the collective March 8, 2021 One striking feature of the pandemic has been the volume of ink spilled debating the future of the office. The huge and rapid shift to working from home for large sectors of the economy made not only individual employees but companies as well look around themselves and say, “This seems to work: should we have [...]