RAC scotches imminent market float with debt refinancing November 13, 2013 THE OWNER of UK breakdown service RAC has ruled out floating the company on the stock market after refinancing some of its debt instead. Carlyle Group, the US buyout giant, is taking out a new £86m loan to help fund a so-called dividend recapitalisation, which allows buyout groups to extract money from a company they [...]
British Land is upbeat after it outpaces rival November 13, 2013 BRITISH Land outshone its biggest rival Land Securities yesterday after the property giant reported a strong rise in rents and values across both its office and retail empire. The owner of the Cheesegrater skyscraper in the City said its net asset value (NAV) per share – a key industry measure of performance – rose 4.5 [...]
Rental bill for New Bond St soars November 12, 2013 RENTS in London’s New Bond Street have surged by more than 15 per cent over the past year as the location climbed from sixth to the world’s fourth most expensive shopping thoroughfare for retailers. Retailers on Britain’s prized shopping street paid an average rent of $1,047 (£657) per square foot over the last twelve months, [...]
Amazon plans Sunday deliveries in London as part of new service November 12, 2013 AMAZON will roll out Sunday deliveries across London by the end of November using its own trucks to complete the so-called last mile to customer’s doors, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project was announced as part of a US trial starting this week in which Amazon Prime customers can use their free two-day [...]
Fund manager Tritax launches £200m float to buy big boxes November 12, 2013 COMMERCIAL property fund manager Tritax yesterday announced a £200m flotation to launch the first listed pure “big box” UK real estate investment trust (REIT). “Big boxes” are massive warehouses – typically bigger than 500,000 square feet – and Tritax said it would let them to “institutional-grade tenants” on long-term leases of up to 25 years. [...]
Good jobs: On that key measure, London is the world’s top city November 11, 2013 LONDON is a global city, and together with a handful of other ultra-successful urban centres worldwide, the closest we have today to the ancient Phoenician and Greek city-states. Successful, open-minded, commercial cities have always attracted the best and brightest, something that was just as true in the Mediterranean in 600BC as it was in early [...]
Experian boss defends his drive for expansion November 10, 2013 Don Robert has steered the credit checking firm into fast-growing new businesses AS THE boss of a company best known for its credit checks, Don Robert is at home talking about hazardous spending decisions. “Arguably if every investment we made was brilliant we’d have to ask ourselves the question: are we taking the right amount [...]
Card Factory recruits advisers November 10, 2013 The Card Factory, the high street retailer started by a husband and wife duo in 1997, has appointed UBS and Morgan Stanley to help float the company. The business, which is owned by buyout firm Charterhouse, could be floated in London next year with a price tag of up to £1bn. The company was started [...]
London Report: Carney likely to bear good news about inflation November 10, 2013 GOVERNOR of the Bank of England Mark Carney is likely to be the bearer of good news when he presents his inflation report on Wednesday, with the growth rate heading up and the unemployment rate coming down. Carney pledged in August not to raise rates until unemployment fell to at least seven per cent, a [...]
Tech powerhouse who wants to save our ailing high street November 10, 2013 Annabel Palmer meets Dan Wagner, back in the limelight with latest venture Powa Technologies HE may be one of Britain’s most prominent tech entrepreneurs, but Dan Wagner has had more than his share of career ups and downs and scathing headlines. In the 1980s, he was subject to criticism from the financial community for his [...]