Good morning.
French hotel group Accor is rumoured to be considering a bid for rival IHG(£). A deal would create the world’s biggest hotelier, with 11,000 properties.
Two retail veterans(£) are fronting the leading bids to buy Asda from Walmart.
Mike Ashley(£) has warned of further House of Frasers store closures(£), if landlords don’t play ball.
Frasers’ share price surged yesterday as the UK’s largest REITs and listed propcos also defied a downbeat market.
Seaside towns have been given a welcome boost(£) by the government’s ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme. City centres, not so much.
Nightclub owners, meanwhile, fear “financial armageddon”, (or even ‘murder on the dancefloor’? ‘Panic at the disco’, perhaps?) with half of them predicting collapse within weeks.
The government could be about to make a u-turn over the resi evictions ban(£), which is due to end this weekend. Expect an announcement “shortly”.
Airbnb has extended its moratorium on party houses(£), by banning groups of 16 or more people from booking.
Real estate private equity firm Benson Elliot is mourning the loss of founding partner Trish Barrigan, who has died of cancer.
Infrastructure investor John Laing(£) has said it won’t meet its target to invest £1bn by 2021, having only managed to spend £2m so far.
Still looking to make the post-lockdown move to the countryside? The Times (£) has what it considers to be ‘the 30 best country houses’ on the market.
Historic England and the Gardens Trust have listed 20 post-war parks and landscapes, including a children’s slide in Paddington, some ponds outside a former Jammie Dodgers factory and a car park near Heathrow.
And finally, the Rolling Stones are gathering moss no more, as they finally settle into their new store at 9 Carnaby Street. The store, somewhat boringly called RS No9 Carnaby Street, will sell clothing and merchandising. And maybe the odd Ronnie Wood original. It will also sell items in a brand new Pantone colour: Stones Red. No prizes for guessing what colour the band wanted the store painted, though.
