Property giants face cash calls
It is rumoured that Hammerson and British Land, two giants of the UK real estate sector, are set to ask investors for cash injections totalling £1 billion. There have been rumours for some time that the UK commercial property sector is in serious trouble with suggestions that UK banks may have to write off anything up to £200 billion over the next few years. The suggestion that Hammerson and British Land are set to tap shareholders for significant funding would appear to rubberstamp this opinion in the marketplace.
It will be interesting to see how UK investors react to these major cash calls (if the happen) from the real estate sector where property prices have been plunging for many months and do not yet appear to have hit rock bottom. Traditional funding is also a serious problem for the sector with money market liquidity and consequently banking liquidity still very thin on the ground.
Many people were expecting an influx of foreign investors into the UK property market after the demise of sterling but this has yet to appear although many feel it is inevitable. If the likes of Hammerson and British Land are in anyway struggling this does not bode well for the smaller companies in the sector who must also surely be feeling the pain.
Share this..
Related stories
BCC against ring fencing any budget cuts
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has today come out with a heartfelt request that the UK government refrains from ring fencing any budgets in the forthcoming round of budget cuts. There is talk that healthcare and internationally aid could well be ring fenced leaving other government departments to take the lion's share of the cuts. Is this fair? In the view of the BCC the idea of fencing...
Read MoreUS stocks retreat on Dell acquisition
On the surface of it the US stock market's reaction to Dell's $3.9 billion acquisition of Perot Systems would appear to be a kick in the teeth for the US technology market, but this may not be the case in the longer term. Dell shares were down 3.6% after the announcement of the deal with many believing the company may have overpaid in a bid to match rival Hewlett-Packard which recently acquired a...
Read MoreUK government to tax frequent fliers
The UK government has announced plans to increase the tax burden on those who make use of the airline industry on a regular basis. Lord Turner, the chairman of the government's committee on climate change, has issued a report which will anger and dismay many in the UK business arena. It appears, yet again, that the business arena and those on higher incomes in the UK will be subjected to more "ind...
Read MoreHelp to Buy scheme extension launched
09/10/2013 The second stage of the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme has been launched three months early in the hope that the housing market will further benefit from growth in a similar way it did under the initial stage of the scheme. The scheme was originally launched with the intention of helping home buyers find a mortgage, even if they did not have a vast amount of savings. This has been achie...
Read MoreLloyds bank announces further job cuts
Lloyds bank, in which the UK government has a major share stake, has today confirmed a further 4,500 job cuts in its IT division. This takes the total number of job cuts since its merger with HBOS to "around 22,000" and has provoked an angry response from union leaders. This massive reduction in the Lloyds bank workforce continues to go on with more job cuts expected in due course as the compan...
Read More