London property: Capital’s Royal Docks business park development gets billion pound investment from China’s Minsheng February 14, 2015 A Chinese investment firm will spend a billion pounds creating a new financial and business district to rival Canary Wharf and the City in London. China’s largest private investment fund, China Minsheng Investment, will plough £1bn into the project to develop a 35-acre site at the Royal Albert Docks in east London. Plans for the [...]
Three things you didn’t know about Level39 boss Eric Van der Kleij June 16, 2014 Chief executive of Level39 Eric Van der Kleij 1 He invented the online process of “web call back”, leaving your number on a website for someone to call you back, while struggling to buy flowers for his wife online. 2 Canary Wharf’s FinTech incubator Level39 was born following a very chance meeting between Eric and [...]
Focus on St James’s: The home of the English gentleman July 9, 2015 In many ways, St James’s resembles the City. Sure, there aren’t any skyscrapers and it’s not half as old, but it’s SW1’s commercial hub and barely anyone lives there. As proud purveyors of men’s garments since the Victorian age, it boasts such prestigious names along Jermyn Street as Turnbull & Asser, Alfred Dunhill, while St [...]
Fitness Tracker: The best running apps to use with your Apple Watch May 20, 2015 It’s been almost two weeks since I decided to get fit again, using technology to help to keep me motivated. This week I’ve been trying out different running apps to see which ones are the most helpful, with a focus on those I can use with my Apple Watch. It’s worth pointing out that as [...]
Canary Wharf skyscraper sold for nearly £800m June 20, 2014 A partnership led by China Life (CL), a state-backed Chinese insurer, has bought number 10 Upper Bank Street in the Canary Wharf area of London for £795m, according to reports. The skyscraper is one of the most recognisable buildings on the London skyline and will now now be split mainly between CL and Qatar Holdings [...]
Fitness Tracker: How useful is technology in the quest to get healthy? May 13, 2015 Last year I underwent a 10-week fitness program with City gym No 1 Fitness. It involved four personal training sessions a week and eliminating carbs and sugar from my diet. Unsurprisingly, it worked; I ended up fitter than I’d ever been. But how easy is it to get to that level of fitness if you [...]
Eight Songbird Estates board members fly the nest after successful bid by Qatar and Brookfield February 13, 2015 Eight board members of Songbird Estates has flown the nest after a successful takeover bid by Qatar and Canadian investor Brookfield Property Partners. They will be replaced by three execs joining from one of its prospective majority owners. The board, led by independent chairman David Pritchard, resisted the takeover during a bitter three-month battle for the [...]
Walkie scorchie repair bother for Canary Wharf Group September 13, 2013 Figures for repairs to the 'Walkie Talkie' tower on Fenchurch Street are "in the low single-digit millions". David Pritchard, chairman of Songbird Estates, an owner of the building, was speaking today following damage to the unusually shaped skyscraper caused by its own reflection of sunlight at the end of August. City A.M. first reported [...]
Diamond adds sparkle to Twitter July 7, 2014 The City’s Twitterati got quite the treat yesterday as it was joined by relative royalty. Bob Diamond swept into the Twittersphere, holding a big fish and adopting the handle @rediamondjr. Surely he hasn’t stepped down from his pedestal to walk among us in the squalid world of 140-character musings, we thought at first – but [...]
Record number employed to work in the City February 1, 2015 London has more finance and professional services workers than ever before, business group TheCityUK revealed today. A total of 709,500 now work in the sectors in the capital, up 2.5 per cent on the year. That compares with 692,600 a year ago, and 691,700 at its pre-crisis peak in 2007. And TheCityUK expects another 19,200 [...]