Good morning. Here is your breakfast buffet of the latest news and views from EG, what to expect from the week ahead, and a few choice morsels from the national press.
Private equity is set to snap up a slew of undervalued REITs as the gap between market value and assets grows wider. Investec says Blackstone’s $700m deal for Industrials REIT is just the beginning.
But analysts are hopeful that Landsec and British Land’s results this week(£) will show that worst of the pain is over and the market is beginning to stabilise.
And on Thursday the board of Vistry will have its High Noon, as activist investor Inclusive Capital stages a showdown over executive bonuses.
Meanwhile, investment firm M&G has told its managers to get back in the office for three days a week – and they can’t just be TW&Ts about it.
HUB and Bridges Fund Management have paid £30m for an office block on the edge of London’s Barbican Estate to convert into a residential scheme.
Hotelier, Brexit supporter and VAT-free shopping campaigner Rocco Forte has said things have become so bad that he might leave the UK for Italy.
But don’t despair! This weekend’s EG Like Sunday Morning had Jess Harrold, deputy editor Tim Burke and offices reporter Chanté Bohitige coming up with reasons to be cheerful. Well, the EG Awards and Tim’s latest playlist will do for a start!
GPE, meanwhile, has launched a new version of “The Time is Now”. Sadly that isn’t a cover of Moloko’s 1999 club anthem, but an “evolution” of GPE’s sustainability approach.
Rapleys has announced three new equity partners and five new heads of office.
Over in The Observer, Rowan Moore asks if Sellar and Network Rail’s 1m sq ft addition to Liverpool Street station is on the wrong track.
And beware of American donuts! No, this isn’t dieting advice in The FT (£), but a cautionary tale about commercial business districts in the US failing.
Meanwhile, Conservative MP, former environment secretary and housing rebel Theresa Villiers is interviewed in The Times (£), explaining why mandatory housebuilding targets should be scrapped. A “brownfield free-for-all” would turn our suburbs into “East Berlin”, apparently.
And finally, as Boris Johnson selects a place to hunker down – a £3.8m mansion with a three-sided moat, no less – levelling up secretary Michael Gove has had his chance at a knighthood snatched away. He was due to become Sir Michael in Johnson’s resignation honours list, but has apparently failed to make the final cut. Not because Johnson decided to reduce the number of gongs he is handed out. No, sources tell The Times (£) it is because of Gove’s constant “betrayal”. Perhaps that is also why Johnson feels he needs a moat?
