Demand for commercial property “subdued” and could hit rents, says Land Securities July 21, 2016 Land Securities' chief executive has warned today that occupier demand for commercial property is likely to be "subdued" – and that rental values could be hit as a results. CEO Rob Noel released a statement ahead of Land Securities' annual general meeting today saying the company expects uncertainty to continue while the UK negotiates its Brexit [...]
Peter Thiel’s just plunged more cash into this fintech startup July 20, 2016 Renowned investor Peter Thiel is ploughing more cash into a fintech startup he first invested in earlier this year. Retail banking platform Deposit Solutions has raised €15m in a new funding round from top investors, valuing the firm at €110m. In addition to Thiel, the Hamburg-founded fintech firm landed investment from another prior investor, FinLab, [...]
City Moves for 20 July 2016 | Who’s switching jobs July 20, 2016 Coople Coople, the on-demand staffing platform, has appointed Jacques de la Bouillerie as its new UK managing director. Jacques joins Coople with over 15 years’ extensive experience with business transformation and leadership in companies at various stages of development, ranging from very early stage through to fast growing to maturity. He was previously heading up [...]
Shot in the Arm for the City as £24bn mega-deal is agreed July 19, 2016 British tech giant Arm Holdings yesterday agreed to a £24.3bn takeover by telecoms group Softbank, in a move that would go down as the second largest outbound Japanese deal on record. Softbank has pounced for the Cambridge-based chip-maker following a sharp drop in the value of the pound, largely prompted by last month’s vote to leave [...]
Commercial property rents in London are facing a potential freeze as negotiating power passes to tenants post the Brexit vote July 18, 2016 COMMERCIAL property rents in London could be frozen for the next five years as Brexit uncertainty puts negotiating power in the hands of those tenants whose rent reviews fall this year. “Frozen”, or even falling, rents would put more pressure on commercial property funds that have already seen high levels of redemptions since the referendum. [...]
As SoftBank swoops for Arm Holdings – is the weak sterling making British firms more attractive to foreign buyers? July 18, 2016 The deal between Japan's SoftBank and London-listed Arm Holdings announced this morning could be just the first of many foreign transactions kicked off by the recent referendum. SoftBank's £24.3bn swoop for Arm, which is said to be the biggest ever technology acquisition in Europe, was probably helped by the fact that sterling is significantly weaker in [...]
British Land says investors will be cautious after the Brexit vote July 18, 2016 FTSE 100-listed commercial property giant British Land said this morning it expects investors and occupiers to take a cautious approach to property in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. The figures Since the EU referendum vote, British Land has secured the sale of Debenhams' Oxford Street store for £400m and the company has made 17 long-term retail leases totaling 58,000 sq ft, for [...]
Irvine Sellar’s £1bn “Shard of West London” skyscraper just lost 51 storeys – it’s now the Cube of West London July 15, 2016 Remember the so-called "Shard of West London", the £1bn, 65-storey tower in Paddington planned by Shard developer Irvine Sellar? That's just received a bit of a downgrade, after the company behind it unveiled new plans for an office block – which is 51 storeys smaller. The newly-styled, 14-storey Paddington Cube, on the site of a former Royal Mail [...]
Why Brexit will be no problem for London’s IPO market in the long term July 15, 2016 The UK has a new captain. In the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote David Cameron said he was not the captain to steer the ship. In among the volatility in the markets and with sterling, some said HMS UK was listing. Many also thought it meant the backlog of IPOs, which had been held [...]
At the close: FTSE 100 gives up its gains after Bank of England puts rate rise on hold until August July 14, 2016 The Bank of England dashed market hopes of a further rate cut for at least another month today, sending the FTSE 100 off its 11-month highs. Having rallied to a peak of 6,743.42 before the Bank of England's decision, the FTSE 100 crashed to earth, closing down 0.2 per cent at 6,654.47 points. Most analysts thought the Bank would [...]