Good morning. Here is your AM bulletin with the latest news and views from EG, along with a few of the best bits from the morning press.
WeWork has raised a “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business, following further losses. The flex giant has added a trio of finance heavyweights to its board in an attempt to stem the losses, but the share price is already plunging. Could this be the beginning of the end(£)?
Meanwhile, JLL has reduced its expectations for full-year UK investment volumes to between £30bn and £35bn. First-half investment totalled £14.2bn, down 53% on the £30.6bn of transactions recorded by the same point in 2022 and as bad as the height of the pandemic.
The UK is suffering from the return of the “British disease” of stagflation, a think tank has warned. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research says inflation will not return to 2% until 2027, and there is a 60% chance of recession by the end of 2024.
IWG could become the next big departure from the London Stock Exchange. “It’s not that there’s a problem with the UK market,” boss Mark Dixon insists. “It’s that the US may be a more appropriate market.”
From IWG to IHG – InterContinental Hotels Group is planning a new three-star brand, targeting an estate of 500 hotels over the next decade.
The FT (£) looks at how realistic Michael Gove’s plans for Cambridge are. Spoiler alert: not very.
The British Property Federation has said government inaction over its EPC proposals make it highly unlikely that the EPC C by 2027 target will be met. Assistant director Rob Wall says: “It is more than two years since the consultation closed and commercial landlords are still in the dark.”
Housebuilders are fuming as farmers are granted licences to further pollute rivers, while new homes are being blocked.
And plans to ban oil boilers will be “a ULEZ for rural communities”, former environment secretary George Eustice has warned.
The owner of Laura Ashley is considering a bid for Wilko, but the chances of a deal are “relatively low”.
China’s biggest private developer, Country Garden, has missed interest payments on two international bonds. The $22.5m payment is for a $500m bond, just a small part of the developer’s $200bn debt mountain.
And the new owners of “Britain’s wonkiest pub” are facing questions. Fire ravaged the Crooked House in Himley at the weekend, but council planners concluded it could be saved. New owners Carly and Adam Taylor ignored that instruction and had the entire structure bulldozed. They are now facing questions from the council… and the police.
