It has been recently announced that Irish power organisation, Viridian, is set to be purchased by I Squared Capital, a US-based owner of considerable assets in the renewables industries of India and the US.. The move by I Squared Capital is one which is expected to act as a way
A London property news update: it has been highlighted that greater than 25% of London boroughs don’t offer a home-for-sale at a value of less than £191,812, the average across the UK; a concerning affordability issue for those wishing to relocate to London. The news comes with the release of
It has been recently announced that Irish power organisation, Viridian, is set to be purchased by I Squared Capital, a US-based owner of considerable assets in the renewables industries of India and the US.. The move by I Squared Capital is one which is expected to act as a way for the company to break into the UK’s energy sector, and, sitting at a total value of €1bn, will prove to be a sizeable investment into the UK-based assets, with Viridian’s present, considerable assets crossing both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In total, Viridian presently provides some 20% of domestic energy in Ireland, which is generated through a combination of gas-fired and renewable, wind farms. As of I Squared Capital’s motives, an expression of consideration has been made as to whether buying into the market with Viridian will prove to be a foothold for breaking into it entirely, with Gautam Bhandari, Partner at I Squared Capital highlighting how the company has been weighing the potential of buying into the market, or pursuing a more organic approach to entering it. Of course, despite already being a highly competitive market, with a handful of operators presently dominating the UK energy sector, this, to Bautam Bhandari seems only to be perceived as a challenge, with him passing comment that: “There is a need for new contenders in the UK power-market, where customers are looking for solutions other than the Big Six.” Of course, this is seemingly only the first step in considerable international expansion plans for the company, with plans already nodded to for entering the European market more significantly. This, however is expected to come some time in the future, with the expectations being of about one year before the company would be comfortable with it’s UK-based market entry plans.
A London property news update: it has been highlighted that greater than 25% of London boroughs don’t offer a home-for-sale at a value of less than £191,812, the average across the UK; a concerning affordability issue for those wishing to relocate to London. The news comes with the release of figures from House Simple, the online estate agent. The average price for a property in London presents sits at circa £530,409, a startling value. Additionally, as highlighted by House Simple, only nine in 32 of the boroughs actually play host to a property with an asking price under the average price from the Land Registry. In fact, it was reported that there was only one borough with the provision of a property for less than £100,000 Bexley. In contrast to this, however, Tower Hamlets reports no available properties marketed for below £250,000. As can be expected, the cheapest form of property available in close to 50% of the boroughs is a studio flat which, while efficient, also sits at a comparatively small offering of space in comparison to that of the traditional one-bedroom flat (100-110 sq ft approximately, as opposed to an average of 495 sq ft). While the results do point out there are at least some properties available on the market at less than the average UK property price, House Simple’s CEO, Alex Gosling highlighted that the availability of such properties is very low, and the space on offer for the amount paid is also rather small. “It’s a studio or nothing in many boroughs,” he added. This piece of London property news, of course, also highlights potential reasoning as to why there is an increased trend of people relocating out of the London area, with property price comparisons highlighting the potential for a fully-fledged house in some areas of the UK, for a similar price to that of a studio flat in London. Yet, for people to still be doing this thus far, there must still be some considerable appeal in living in the capital.