Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin, with the latest news and views from EG as well as a few of the best bits from the morning papers.
Things are looking even worse for China Evergrande, as it files for bankruptcy protection in the US. The embattled developer, which has debts of more than $340bn (£267bn), announced an $81bn loss last month.
Meanwhile, in the UK, construction firm the Buckingham Group has filed its intention to appoint administrators. Buckingham is currently building Liverpool FC’s £80m Anfield Road stand and is contracted to work on Fulham FC’s stadium redevelopment.
In happier news, flex operator x+why has signed Lloyds Banking Group in Birmingham’s biggest office letting so far this year.
While fellow flexer Cubo is continuing its expansion in the north of England, taking space in Newcastle’s city centre.
Great Portland Estates has bought a development site on Oxford Street and Soho Square, W1, for £70m.
And Cushman & Wakefield has cut its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by a third below its 2019 baseline.
Edinburgh has become the least affordable place in the UK for students to live, as monthly rents rise by 30%.
While Rank claims high rollers are shunning London’s casinos because of the end of tax-free shopping.
Soho House has said it will take the top three floors of a former bank HQ on Washington DC’s Pennsylvania Avenue for the latest site of The Ned. The site is part of Michael Milken’s $1bn development, next to the grounds of the White House.
In London, about 1,200 people were evacuated from offices and houses yesterday after a fire broke out in a disused office in Moorfields, EC2.
And the twisted tale of the Crooked House continues, with the revelation of links to one of the UK’s biggest drug hauls. Morgan McGrath, a longstanding business associate of the Taylors, who bought the pub, hired the digger to destroy it. He also served 12 years in 2004 for his part in a £20m drug smuggling operation. But as he told The Times: “I don’t see what my past has to do with anything. Every sinner has a past, every saint has a future.”
And finally, men are more likely to return to the office than women. But possibly not for the best reasons. Nearly a quarter of respondents to a survey by co-working space provider Runway East gave “getting away from family” as a reason for going into the office. And men were twice as likely to give this answer than women. They were also twice as likely to list “banter” as a major draw, along with stealing the stationery. And why do women mostly go to the office? To work, apparently.
