REC staff
News that Sir Robert Finch will succeed Sir David Clementi as chairman of The Property Industry Alliance (PIA) is welcome for several reasons. Finch is better known in the industry and knows the industry well. His arrival is also an opportunity to review the PIA’s future role and practices with a measure of detachment. With […]
Angela Sheahan has left IPD, where she was head of indices. Sheahan has taken a temporary post with Morgan Stanley’s real estate equities research team, headed by analyst Bart Gysens, where she will cover property derivatives. IPD co-founder Ian Cullen said the company had set up the IPD Index Management Group, comprising staff responsible for […]
Private equity real estate fund MGPA has bought two prime Polish shopping centres, plus an option on a third centre, from developer Mayland Real Estate and Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Fund. The 70,000 sq. m shopping centre and 36,000 sq. m Pogoria mall, both in Silesia near the German and Czech borders, were acquired for a […]
ING’s listed UK Real Estate Income Trust has taken further steps to cut its debt by buying back some of its AAA-rated debt on the secondary CMBS market, at a 5% discount, from two vendors. The deal and cancellation of the notes for £14.25m cuts the outstanding loan balance to £175m and was made using […]
UK funds delivered a 10.4% return in a single quarter in the final three months of 2009, reflecting the ‘dramatic’ and rapid reversal in the underlying property market. The funds’ double-digit return was the first ever in the 20-year history of the IPD UK Pooled Property Fund Indices (UKPPFI). Every one of the 25 balanced […]
AIM-listed London & Stamford must invest another £200m of the £260m cash on its balance sheet to execute plans to gain a main listing, and convert to a REIT, ideally by this summer. Last week it paid Clerical Medical £33m in cash for Tamworth distribution centre, let to DIY retailer Focus for 14 years, in […]
Only 15% of European fund managers expected to earn a performance fee in 2009. In INREV’s latest Management Fees and Terms study, carried out in Q4 2009, 219 of the 268 funds in the survey charged performance fees. Of those, 94 had planned to reach their first hurdle rate in 2009, but 85% said they […]
Capital came from 13 existing and 20 new investors at premium to NAV
Tesco BL Holdings, a 10-yearold joint venture between British Land and Tesco, has refinanced a £315m loan that was due to mature in December 2009. WestImmo led the five banks that provided the maturing loan, but lost out on the lead role in the refinancing to Eurohypo. Eurohypo has taken a £100mparticipation in the new […]
Aberdeen Property Investors has been allocated £500m from its segregated UK direct property clients to buy UK property.The house is the latest to turn bullish on the market. API UK managing director John O’Connor said the cash was on top of £250m of property acquired for clients in the past three months and that all […]