Liberty sells flagship store March 15, 2010 Upmarket British retailer Liberty is selling its distinctive mock Tudor department store building in London’s West End for £41.5m to pay off debt, it said yesterday. The 135-year-old firm, 68-per cent owned by property group MWB Holdings, said it had exchanged contracts to sell the freehold interest in the 125,000-square-foot store to Sirosa Liberty, a [...]
High street sales bounce back after sterling falls March 14, 2010 RETAIL sales in London rebounded in February with a like-for-like surge of almost ten per cent fuelled by a drop in the value of sterling. The rise came after a dismal start to the year as freezing conditions kept shoppers at home. Across the UK sales were only up an average of 2.2 per cent [...]
Acquisitions are back on the agenda this year March 14, 2010 M&A teams in investment banks all over London must be salivating at the prospect of a wave of new deals. Acquisitions are back on the agenda. In many ways it makes sense. Last year many companies re-trenched, rebuilt their balance sheets and hoped for the best. They have been hoarding cash but now wonder if [...]
City mourns Sir Brian Pitman March 11, 2010 SIR Brian Pitman, one of the most respected bankers of his generation, has died aged 78. Pitman, who was latterly chairman of Virgin Money, led Lloyds Bank for 18 years before retiring almost a decade ago. In his time as chief executive and then chairman of Lloyds, Pitman built the bank from a £1bn business [...]
Liberty unveils demerger as profits tumble March 9, 2010 LIBERTY International will split its retail and commercial property businesses in a bid to “achieve greater value for shareholders.” The shopping centres arm of the business will become a real estate investment trust (REIT) called Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) with a market cap of around £2bn. And its London based portfolio will become Capital & [...]
Alternative exchanges give traders an edge March 8, 2010 ANOTHER shake-up of London’s trading landscape is underway after the London Stock Exchange (LSE) announced on Monday that it would sell 9 per cent of Turquoise, its European trading facility, to three investment banks. Barclays, JP Morgan Cazenove and Nomura each bought a 3 per cent stake of Turquoise for £1m. The multiple owners of [...]
Andrew Jones to list new firm March 7, 2010 Former British Land retail boss and board director Andrew Jones is planning to list new property company Metric Property on the London Stock Exchange with an estimated fundraising of more than £150m.
London’s new power couple March 4, 2010 THE day I meet Carolina Herrera and her business partner and daughter, also called Carolina Herrera, I am foolishly wearing trainers. It is the wrong choice. Not because they are in any way snooty, but because I forgot when getting dressed this morning that I am meeting two of the most elegant women alive today. [...]
Mandelson slams Volcker March 3, 2010 BUSINESS secretary Lord Mandelson yesterday dismissed US President Barack Obama’s plan to separate retail banking from riskier trading as “too difficult” to implement. Suggesting a Labour government would not follow Obama’s so-called Volcker rule, Mandelson called for global coordination on regulation. He said: “Trying to apply sweeping rules about the structure, content and range of [...]
Hiscox profits surge as storm claims fall March 1, 2010 HISCOX yesterday reported a surge in pre-tax profits after the insurance group saw its figures sky rocket to £320.6m, quadrupling last year’s outcome. The Bermuda based insurer said profits climbed after the company made a series of investments during the year. The diminished number of global catastrophes also affected its figures. “Our catastrophe reinsurance underwriting [...]