Savills, on behalf of London Brewing Company, an independent pub and brewery business, has sold the free of tie interest in The Bull in Highgate, London to Gorgeous Pubs for an undisclosed sum. The Grade II listed, 5,000 sq ft (465 sq m) brewpub venue is set over two storeys and benefits from two trading floors with customer seating for 140 and external terrace seating for 70.  It also has a midnight licence for the sale of alcohol. Dating back to around 1730 as a public house, The Bull is an attractive building  located on the edge of Highgate Village.   London Brewing Company, which is headed by Dan Fox, acquired the venue in 2011 and carried out a substantial refurbishment.  The business has an on-site microbrewery producing various cask ales for sale in The Bull and for distribution.   London Brewing Company also operates the The Bohemia, an O’Neills pub, in Finchley. Gorgeous Pubs is led by former Geronino Inns employee Rob Laub and entered the London pub market in 2014 with the acquisition of The Prince Arthur in London Fields, Hackney.  It also acquired The Shillibeers in Islington in late 2015, which was recently sold to West Berkshire Brewery. Chris Bickle, director of licensed leisure at Savills, comments: “London Brewing Company took The Bull as a closed venue and developed a highly successful business over a short period of time.  We are delighted to have secured an off market deal to Gorgeous Pubs. Quality assets such as this, which are free of tie, unaffected by MRO issues and with substantial unexpired lease terms, are highly desirable.”  Rob Laub of Gorgeous Pubs adds: “We are delighted to have secured the acquisition of The Bull and look forward to continuing the development of the business and becoming the heart of the community.” Paul Tallentyre, executive director at Davis Coffer Lyons which acted for the purchaser, says: “Free of tie leases are increasing in value due to the uncertainty surrounding the leasehold market.  The Bull is a great site with good potential to develop trade already established. Gorgeous Pubs is now looking to grow the group with further free of tie and freehold sites in London.” Dan Fox of London Brewing Company adds: “We are extremely proud of what the team has achieved at The Bull over the last five years, which would not have been possible without the support of our loyal customers. We wish Rob all the best with his new venture.” Source link

The group said it was on course to meet its target of “£200m cash in and £100m of cost out” through its Build to Last programme, implemented last year following years of profit warnings and under-performance. Underlying revenue declined by 2 per cent to £8.3bn, while its order book declined by 4 per cent in 2015 to £11bn, which Balfour said was the result of “improved controls and disciplines on bidding, together with the decision to withdraw from certain types of work in non-core areas”. Balfour Beatty had underlying losses in Construction Services of £229m (2014: £209m) which were largely caused, it said, by “historic issues in the UK, US and Middle East”, while the Far East performed in line with expectation. Underlying revenue in the UK fell by 14 per cent to £2bn, predominantly due to a decline in the regional construction business. The group’s total loss in the UK was £195m, an improvement on 2014’s loss of £317m. Balfour Beatty said that of 89 historic contracts identified as having a negative impact on profitability and cash, 60 per cent of these projects were at practical or financial completion by the end of 2015, with that number expected to reach 90 per cent by the end of 2016. The group hinted at further shake-up in the UK to come. “The UK Regional construction business is in the process of rationalising its management structure and offices,” it said. Balfour is also increasingly walking away from bids in the tender stage. “Today across the UK and US approximately 14 per cent of bids are known to be terminated before Gate 4 – the final stage before bid submission,” the group said. Despite the loss, chief executive Leo Quinn said Build to Last had made “significant progress in transforming Balfour Beatty”. Among the actions taken were the reduction of 846 indirect employees, as well as the standardisation of working practices to make £60m of annualised savings in the year, comprising £39m from centralising back office and support functions, £13m from IT and £8m from indirect procurement. Excluding the impact of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the group’s cash performance improved by £357m in 2015, compared with 2014. By the end of 2016, Balfour Beatty said it will have achieved its phase one targets, and over the following 24 months the group expects each of its businesses to reach “industry-standard” margins. Leo Quinn statement “We have upgraded the leadership team and set out a clear direction. We are implementing consistent processes to integrate our businesses into a group with greater transparency and control. “Our main markets are providing a positive backdrop, so that with stronger governance we can both win and deliver business on the right terms. Looking to the future, we are investing to maintain Balfour Beatty’s expertise and assets. “By the end of 2016 we will achieve our phase one targets: our costs are coming down, our cashflow has improved substantially and we expect to reinstate our dividend later this year. “Over the following 24 months, I am confident we can reach industry-standard margins. But above all, Build to Last is putting in place the foundations to build a Balfour Beatty with market-leading strengths and performance over the longer term.” In 2014 Balfour Beatty recorded a £59m loss, with a £317m loss in its UK business alone. The group’s losses would have been an eye-watering £293m had it not been for the sale of its US business Parsons Brinckerhoff. Balfour Beatty’s construction arm was hit particularly hard, with its 2014 losses totalling £391m – up from £103m in 2013. Following the 2014 results, Mr Quinn pledged to cut costs by £100m over two years. Source link

Demand for property in London’s most prestigious locations has fallen a few weeks after a new stamp duty charge of 3% was introduced on buy to let and second homes, new research shows. Property demand in the prime central London sector is at just 10% on average, having fallen 23% since the new surcharge was introduced, according to the PCL index from fixed fee estate agent eMoov. It is now at its lowest since the firm began recording its data over a year ago in the index which records the change in supply and demand for property above £1 million across London’s most prestigious areas, by monitoring the total number of properties sold in comparison to those on sale. On the run up to the stamp duty deadline eMoov found that the rush to complete had revived the capital’s top end market, with demand bucking the prime central London’s downward spiral and increasing for the first time since May last year. However, it seems that this resurrection was short lived as just one month since stamp duty deadline day, demand has plummeted to its lowest level on record. In fact, just one area across the prime central London market has maintained March’s upward trend of demand growth. Fitzrovia is the only locations where demand hasn’t dropped or remained static since March. Year on year the area is joined by Belsize Park, Maida Vale, Primrose Hill, Holland Park and Marylebone as the only other areas to have seen a positive movement in property demand since May last year. Where current demand levels are concerned, Islington is the most in demand area at present, with demand at 21% followed by Belsize Park at 19%, Chiswick at 18%, Maida Vale at 16% and Notting Hill at 12%. At the other end, at 4%, St Johns Wood and Mayfair are not only the coldest spots in prime central London but are suffering from some of the lowest demand levels recorded. ‘It’s now abundantly clear that the brief resurrection of London’s prime central London market witnessed in March, was an artificial skew as many scrambled to complete a sale before April’s stamp duty deadline,’ said eMoov chief executive officer Russell Quirk. ‘It seems the extra 3% levy has slowed London’s top end market and this will inevitably lead to further, sizable reductions in property values,’ he added, and pointed out that other potential threats include the UK voting to leave the European Union, economic slowing in countries like Russia and China and low oil prices. BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)      Source link

Energy suppliers need to “rethink” their business model to attract and satisfy the demands of millennials who are driving change in the industry. New research found that 81 per cent of millennials (aged 18-34) would be discouraged from signing up for additional products and services if their energy provider could not provide a seamless experience. Additionally, 22 per cent of global respondents said they wanted to experiment with new technologies, compared to 15 per cent for 35-54 year-olds and six per cent for those aged 55 years or over.   The data has sparked calls from the report author, Accenture, for suppliers to change their business models to accommodate more demanding customers. Accenture utility customer services UK and Ireland managing director Toby Siddall said: “Our energy companies, whether large or small need to rethink their operating model for the future – really over the next five years they’ve got to understand and offer new propositions.” The report also found that millennials in the UK are three times more likely (46 per cent) than those aged over 55 to sign up for solar panels in the next five years. Globally, 87 per cent would consider distributed energy resources products. Siddall added: “It is an exciting time for organisations and customers to change the service and propositions that come out of the energy sector. “The millennials are more engaged in their energy supply and services. They provide more opportunity to grow through value added propositions. The real challenge is that the energy providers and suppliers really have to make sure that they are responding to them and improving both the effortless and seamless service that they provide and also the propositions and the creativity they are offering.” The report, which considered the views of 10,000 respondents across 17 countries showed that 70 per cent of UK millennials would be interested in an online personalized marketplace to buy energy-related products and services, and 24 per cent of the demographic in the 17 countries surveyed are classified as early adopters for new technology and energy products. Siddall said that energy companies now must utilise the new information available for individual customers and focus on value added services rather than the commodity price per unit. “That takes real design thinking from the energy companies and a real sophistication around customer and operations analytics, and a willingness to leverage and collaborate to scale up with new technologies that are out there. But the exciting thing is, we can do that,” he added. Source link