Workspace grabs slice of London tech market with Clerkenwell buy November 12, 2013 SMALL business landlord Workspace has snapped up an office block near Farringdon for £18.1m as it looks to tap into booming demand for space in the area from technology firms. Chief executive Jamie Hopkins said yesterday that the acquisition of Verulam House on Gray’s Inn Road, whose tenants include Tesco’s Blinkbox, marked its first major [...]
BP signs a key oil trade deal with Rosneft November 12, 2013 RUSSIAN oil behemoth Rosneft said yesterday is plans to sell about $6bn (£3.7bn) worth of refined products to BP, establishing the British firm among its biggest buyers after years without any such deal. The latest transaction comes on top of a $5.3bn deal for BP to buy crude, agreed earlier this year. Both came only [...]
Innocent staff share £19m bonus pot after Coca-Cola takeover October 28, 2013 HUNDREDS of Innocent Staff have been awarded bonuses worth a combined £19m after the smoothie maker was snapped up by Coca-Cola earlier this year. Around 250 employees shared in the payout – equivalent to around £76,000 each – from Innocent’s share-based payment schemes, according to recent accounts filed at Companies House. Coca-Cola took control of [...]
Irish bank puts Royal Exchange up for sale with £75m price tag October 17, 2013 THE ROYAL Exchange looks set to change hands after its Irish owners put it up for sale with a £75m price tag. The iconic site above Bank station is being sold off by The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which said yesterday it has hired property advisers CBRE to market the 450-year-old building. The Royal Exchange [...]
Letters to the Editor – 13/11 – Listing rules, Greenbelt, Best of Twitter November 12, 2013 Listing rules [Re: New listing rules protect investors and safeguard London’s open markets, yesterday] Elements of the new listing rules may help to prevent scandals involving poor corporate governance. But there is a danger that, by singling out companies controlled by majority shareholders for added scrutiny, we drive away future flotations. Many of the world’s [...]
Q & A October 24, 2013 DIRECTOR, DOUGLAS & GORDON Figures in the press give me the impression I’ve missed the buying boat. Have I? The trouble with statistics is they can be interpreted in different ways. The only sure-fire stat is offered by the Land Registry, which values a range of properties and tells us that, while UK average house [...]
Virgin Money is the fourth lender to join Help to Buy October 7, 2013 VIRGIN Money yesterday became the fourth bank to sign up for the Help to Buy Scheme, which from today will offer state guarantees to homebuyers. It joins RBS, Lloyds’ Halifax brand and challenger bank Aldermore in offering mortgages with deposits worth as little as five per cent of the home’s value. However, new figures on [...]
Family homes in the suburbs perfect for broody millionaires September 12, 2013 Leafy homes near the District Line in Southfields, south west London, break million-pound mark this year, by Melissa York FAMILY-SIZED homes with space for the children to run around have always been an expensive luxury in London. Southfields was always at the more affordable end of the scale; but not any more. A host of [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 21 November 2013 November 20, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Obama snubs Fannie-Freddie plan The White House came out against a proposal by a group of hedge funds to take over and recapitalise the core operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US mortgage finance giants, saying it risked creating two new “too big to fail” institutions. Gene Sperling, the White House [...]
CNBC Comment: Watch out for the IPO boom froth November 25, 2013 CHEER has returned to London’s initial public offering (IPO) market. By the end of October, over $24bn (£14.8bn) had been raised in European IPOs in 2013, more than double the corresponding amount at the same point in 2012. And almost half of 2013’s total was raised on the London Stock Exchange. But investors may want [...]