Carlyle buys up £671m of White Tower buildings July 8, 2010 AMERICAN private equity group Carlyle has snapped up six central London properties for a total of £671m, its first major purchase since 2008. The properties were part of a portfolio owned by entrepreneur Simon Halabi, which was used to secure the failed White Tower commercial mortgage-backed securities vehicle. Carlyle said yesterday the properties generate around [...]
TRADER OF THE YEAR | The Shortlist Day 3 September 1, 2010 AT the top of the tree, trading is all about talent. There’s an abundance of it ?on our shortlist, added to a good deal of nerve and nous. Our top five between them manage billions and have made huge returns in choppy markets. Whatever is happening out there, you can make money. This lot prove [...]
Quintain JV sells offices at Pier Walk August 9, 2010 REAL estate investor Quintain has sold its Pier Walk development near Canary Wharf to DekaBank, Germany’s largest open-ended fund manager, for £97.1m. Quintain, which owned the seven-story building at Greenwich Peninsula in a joint venture with Bovis Lend Lease, said the sale represents a six per cent uplift on the property’s valuation in March and [...]
BRIGHT STARS GATHER AT CITY’S ANNUAL OSCARS June 15, 2010 THOMSON Reuters rolled out the (imaginary) red carpet yesterday for the annual Extel awards, commonly known as the “Oscars” of the City. This year’s affair, hosted by perky Today presenter John Humphrys, was decidedly more upbeat than in 2009, when “credit crunch” presenter Axel Threlfall of Thomson Reuters’ multimedia platform Project Insider quipped that he [...]
THE TIPSTER July 11, 2010 AFTER this column tipped a sell of dollar-Canadian dollar at C$1.0675 on Tuesday of last week, the loonie rallied hard against the greenback late in the week and dropped all the way down to C$1.0303 by Friday afternoon. The market has suddenly started to price in a possible interest rate hike in Canada following the [...]
Xstrata £1bn upgrade for Peru mine July 7, 2010 XSTRATA has approved a £1bn expansion of its copper mine in southern Peru, which will boost the firm’s output and extend the life of the mine by 20 years. The mining group’s existing projects at Tintaya were due to run out of ore in 2012, but Xstrata said yesterday it will develop the deposits nearby. [...]
Xstrata £1bn upgrade for Peru mine July 7, 2010 XSTRATA has approved a £1bn expansion of its copper mine in southern Peru, which will boost the firm’s output and extend the life of the mine by 20 years. The mining group’s existing projects at Tintaya were due to run out of ore in 2012, but Xstrata said yesterday it will develop the deposits nearby. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 3, 2010 VIVENDI JP Morgan Cazenove has issued Vivendi with an “overweight” rating noting that management has indicated several times this year its willingness to acquire the 44 per cent of French mobile operator, SFR it does not own. JP Morgan believes that this could take place later this year or early next year after the completion [...]
Pinewood shareholder calls on Grade to resign June 28, 2010 MICHAEL Grade, the former ITV chief executive and current chairman of soon-to-be floated online grocer Ocado will today be urged to resign as chairman of Pinewood Studios by one of the group’s larger shareholders. The embarrassing challenge to Grade, which will be made at today’s shareholder meeting, comes from the 18 per cent holder Crystal [...]
Pinewood shareholder calls on Grade to resign June 28, 2010 MICHAEL Grade, the former ITV chief executive and current chairman of soon-to-be floated online grocer Ocado will today be urged to resign as chairman of Pinewood Studios by one of the group’s larger shareholders. The embarrassing challenge to Grade, which will be made at today’s shareholder meeting, comes from the 18 per cent holder Crystal [...]