MORNING NEWS: British Land finance boss flies to Kingfisher

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of industry-relevant headlines from the nationals, all perfectly curated to set you up for the week ahead. Big people news this morning as British Land’s chief finance officer Bhavesh Mistry announces that he is flying the nest to join B&Q owner Kingfisher as CFO. Mistry had been at BL since 2021, joining from Tesco. A search has begun for a new CFO at the REIT. Mistry has a 12-month notice period, but is expected to take up the new role at Kingfisher in early 2025. People moves aside, the positive news in property seems to be continuing with the sector back in expansion mode as fundraisings take off and searches begin. Data centre giant Vantage now has a whopping $11bn (£8.7bn) to spend on expansion after a second round of fund raising. Its latest oversubscribed raise is a “game-changer”, says the company, that will allow it to capitalise on “the incredible AI and cloud opportunity in front of us”. The group has raised its spending pot from the likes of Australian Super, DigitalBridge and Silver Lake. It will be used to expand its footprint in EMEA and North America. Hoping to capitalise on the need for rented homes to be updated to meet sustainability standards is GreenResi, which EG can exclusively reveal this morning is on the hunt for £50m  for a new investment platform. The business, set up by former IMMO director Anna Clare Harper, is looking to buy PRS assets in the regions and upgrade them to EPC C and above. Elsewhere, Capital Palace founder Neil Sinclair is still on the hunt for assets to launch his new business, Pristine Capital. He is hunting for “old chestnuts” that other firms might be struggling to offload. “Notwithstanding that we are inspecting possible opportunities, we are stepping up our search for a distressed property portfolio, distressed single asset or an old chestnut that has failed to sell,” said Sinclair. He added that he would welcome word from “agency friends, institutions, private property companies, family offices, restructuring consultants, receivers, accountants and solicitors with any opportunity”. And in the world of life sciences, the joint venture between Lipton Rogers and Galileo Labs has appointed Savills and DTRE to help it find sites of between 100,000 sq ft and 300,000 sq ft as it seeks to build a £1.5bn portfolio. The jv, launched in April this year, wants to create a portfolio of purpose-built space for start-up and grow-on life sciences companies and is looking for sites in urban locations that are close to universities. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: Home REIT fails to refinance borrowingGreenResi looks to raise £50m British Land CFO to step downShaftesbury appoints Cosgrove to boardOffice-to-resi conversions pick up for Picton and CLSSwarovski to open flagship at GPE’s Kingsland HouseLipton and Galileo Labs begin hunt for 100,000 sq ft sitesSinclair searches for ‘old chestnuts’ at new firmCrown Estate hires public realm directorVantage raises $9.2bn for EMEA and North American expansionCBRE teams up with Climate X on sustainability pushStonebridge Boxing Club wins planning for new homeCOMMENT: Why auctions are a good barometer for the marketScotland a ‘no-go’ zone for investors under SNP rent controls (£) Hundreds of Scottish churches put on the market in ‘painful’ fire sale (£) Labour’s vague promises won’t solve Britain’s housing crisis (£) Consultants to lose £3bn of UK government work under plan to halve advisory spend (£) Zara family firm goes legal over rent ‘error’ (£) The Barclay brothers, a German upstart and the £60m battle for Sark (£) Dublin’s Fleet Hotel put on the market (£)