Good morning.
Yesterday a High Court judge approved Virgin Active’s ‘super CVA’ , rejecting a legal challenge from a group of landlords owed as much as £30m in unpaid rent.
The ruling has prompted calls for an urgent rethink on restructuring, as landlords fear “a world of hurt in coming months”.
EG’s editor asks: What happened to last month’s High Court ruling? You remember, the one which stated that tenants could not sidestep rent obligations. If landlords have no hope of getting back the £30m owed by Virgin Active, or of challenging New Look, what chance do they have of recovering the £5bn-plus owed by all the others?
The fallout has already had an impact on share prices, with retail landlords slumping during yesterday’s trading.
Perhaps the new rules(£) proposed for banning rogue directors(£) could be extended?
Savills, meanwhile, has promised to engage with shareholders over how much it pays its directors, after a fifth of votes were cast against plans for full bonuses.
But there are silver linings as well as clouds. The economy coped better(£) than anticipated during the latest lockdown, and recovery is now tipped to be quicker than expected.
And its isn’t just Wendy’s and Greggs wanting space. A raft of new retail and leisure entrants are looking for locations as lockdown restrictions ease.
And the prime minister has signalled that work-from-home(£) guidance for England will be lifted next month.
Meanwhile, the man from Uncle is spying opportunities across the water, as Ryan Prince sees a chance for BTR in the US and Canada.
Gianluigi Torzi, the Mayfair-based broker at the heart of the Vatican’s Sloane Avenue property scandal(£), has been arrested in London.
The high court has ruled that local authorities can no longer issue blanket bans on Gypsies and Travellers stopping on parcels of land.
A fresh bid has been launched to prevent Glasgow’s Egyptian Halls(£) from crumbling into ruin.
And another week, another high profile divorce case. This time its the turn of Dmitry Tsvetkov and his wife Elsina Khayrova to grace the London courts, in a tussle over a £42m property portfolio(£).
A Hindu sect in the US is being investigated by the FBI(£) over apparently using slave-labour to build a super-temple in New Jersey.
And who needs levelling up? Not Manchester’s Didsbury(£). The city’s cosmopolitan community is already the UK’s most sought-after location for house buyers, says Rightmove.
But it is in Cornwall that the market is truly going crazy, says The FT (£).
But how much should a house cost anyway? About the same as a hairpin, plus postage and packaging – as long as you trade right.
And finally, could it be true? Could gorgeous George Clooney, the world’s most charming man, be… a criminal?! Apparently Clooney gazumped a rival buyer(£) in order to purchase his Provençal property, a 172 hectare vineyard in Brignoles. And gazumping, under French law, is strictly a non-non. But don’t you fret, Clooney stans. It appears the world’s most beautiful man (official!) was unaware of any previous offer and hasn’t gone all ‘method’ in preparation for yet another Ocean’s film.
