City Moves who’s switching jobs June 7, 2009 HansteenThe property investment firm has hired Mark Ovens and James Havery to its team. Ovens started his career with Arlington Securities in 1987 and joined Ashtenne in 1995, while Havery joined DTZ Debenham Thorpe in 1995 and moved to Ashtenne in 2002. After the sale of the firm to Warner Estate in 2005, both continued [...]
Debenhams in call June 4, 2009 High street retailer Debenhams yesterday announced plans for a £323m fundraising to fulfill chief executive Rob Templeman’s plan to take its debt “off the agenda.” Debenham’s £900m debt mountain has cast a long shadow over the group’s trading ever since private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and CVC Capital Partners floated the business on the [...]
Indebted Debenhams to raise up to 400m in rights issue June 3, 2009 BRITAIN’S second biggest high street retailer Debenhams is expected to announce today that it is raising up to £400m through a placing and open offer. The high street bellwether is hoping to raise between £300m and £400m to cut its £1bn debt pile. Debenhams was controversially floated in 2006 by private equity firms IPG and [...]
Q & A : CVC’S ROYAL MAIL BID May 31, 2009 Q.WHAT IS CVC CAPITAL PARTNERS?A.CVC is one of the world’s biggest private equity houses with 19 offices across Europe, Asia and the US. Since its founding in 1981 it has snapped up stakes in department store chain Debenhams and Formula One Group among over 250 others. It is in line to buy Barclays’ iShares asset [...]
Top summer looks for the little people May 31, 2009 WHETHER you are holidaying in Blackpool or the Bahamas this summer, your little ones should look effortlessly cool and comfortable as they run riot on the beach. With this season’s fabulously colourful children’s collections offering everything from kaftans to khakis, there is no reason why your little darlings shouldn’t look as stylish as the grown-ups. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 17, 2009 CARPHONE WAREHOUSEMorgan Stanley upgrades its price target for Carphone Warehouse to 185p from 173p citing its decision to buy Tiscali’s UK operations. It sees Carphone as an “attractive” investment, which remains one of the only retailers (alongside Debenhams) that it believes is undervalued by the market. It notes demerger plans are also now well advanced. [...]
Caution urged over Peacocks buy-out November 1, 2005 Broker Numis warned Peacocks shareholders to scrutinise the budget retailer’s performance at the half year as the recent run of strong trading could make the proposed £404m take-out price look “conservative”. The Peacocks management team, backed by Goldman Sachs, Debenhams chairman John Lovering and American hedge funds Och-Ziff Capital Management Group and Perry Capital LLC, [...]
On top of the world October 21, 2005 Retail may be struggling, but Philip Green has just taken a £1bn dividend. Is he embarrassed? Not much. Displaying the timing for which he has become famous, retail entrepreneur Philip Green paid himself a whopping £1.2bn dividend from his retail chain Arcadia. At a time when retailers nationwide are struggling, Arcadia announced a 10.1 per [...]
Violet Hue October 18, 2005 Tchenguiz is the last man standing in the race for Somerfield. Another one bites the dust. Amid talk of a high-street bloodbath in the run-up to Christmas, Somerfield has joined the lengthening list of retailers opting to leave the glare of the stock market. Of course, the announcement surprised no one. Somerfield has been on [...]