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Milan Khatri, chief economist at Aberdeen Property Investors outlines the implications of the UK’s latest Budget announcement.
The property industry will be relieved that the announced increase in the stamp duty land tax (SDLT) rate will only apply to residential property. The change will help to finance a temporary rise in the nil rate threshold for first-time buyer purchases of residential property to the value of GBP 250,000 for two years.
The SDLT rate will rise from 4% to 5% for residential transactions over the value of GBP 1 million from 6 April 2011 while for commercial property the
Jérôme de Lavenère Lussan, CEO of hedge fund consultancy Laven Partners, comments on the UK Financial Services Authority’s first operation carried out with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), resulting in the arrests this week of six men on suspicion of being involved in an insider dealing ring.
These arrests send a strong signal to the City; the FSA’s actions show that they are fully committed to seeking criminal convictions for insider dealing. Historically this has not been easy, largely as a result of the evidence needed to secure a conviction.
The FSA has significantly expanded its task force, and
UK private equity firm Sovereign Capital is backing the GBP10m management buy-out of RehabWorks, a provider of physiotherapy-led back to work rehabilitation services.
Established in 1999, RehabWorks treats individuals with long-term, musculoskeletal disorders from its centralised triage function and its 19 rehabilitation centres across the UK together with a national network of associate physiotherapists.
The company has a blue chip client base that includes Aviva, Sainsbury’s, BT, Honda and Royal Mail, as well as public sector clients such as emergency services and local authority customers.
Sovereign is backing a team led by chief executive Lutgen Terblanche who, following an
QVT Financial has sent a letter to Galatasaray Sportif demanding that it make a full and fair disclosure of how it intends to comply with the Capital Markets Board of Turkey’s decision, both in relation to the outstanding loans and to the proposed improper use of assets.
It follows the response issued by the CMB in relation to QVT’s petition to halt the coercive tender offer for shares of Galatasaray Sportif by its majority shareholder, Futbol.
QVT Fund, QVT’s flagship fund, is the largest minority shareholder in Sportif, currently holding approximately 17.7 per cent of the public stock.
In its
Amati Global Investors, a newly formed investment management firm, has been appointed by the board of the Victory VCT as the new fund manager.
Amati, established in January this year by Paul Jourdan (pictured) and Douglas Lawson, currently manages the Noble AIM VCT and the CF Noble UK Smaller Companies Fund, which it acquired from Noble Fund Managers.
Victory VCT was originally established in 2001 as the Singer & Friedlander AIM 3 VCT. It was re-branded in June 2009 and currently has net assets of around GBP19m.
The board of Victory VCT, which selected Amati following a competitive process, was
Investment strategies and post-crisis global positioning will be the focus of the Channel Islands Stock Exchange’s second International Business Summit, which is scheduled to take place on September 10 at the Hotel de France in St Helier, Jersey.
Speakers at the event will include Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, Paul Mortimer Lee, global head of market economics at BNP Paribas, Colin Powell, chairman of the Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors and advisor on international affairs for the States of Jersey, and economist and author Roger Bootle.
According to CISX chief executive Tamara Menteshvili, the conference aims
Andrew Page, a distributor of automotive parts to UK garages, servicing centres and retailers, has received an investment from private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners which values the business at around GBP100m.
Andrew Page is the UK’s largest regional wholesaler of automotive parts, which it distributes to customers across the Midlands and Northern England.
The company was formed in 1946 with two founding partners. In 1979, Jim Page and Andrew Page borrowed the money to purchase the other 50 per cent ownership bringing it all under the one family. The company now has 46 regional sites and employs approximately 1,100
Aureos Capital, a private equity fund management company focused on small to medium-sized businesses in emerging markets, has signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.
The principles were established in 2005 by 20 of the world’s largest institutional investors.
There are currently over 700 institutional investors, investment managers and professional service partners who have signed up to the principles.
Sev Vettivetpillai (pictured), chief executive officer of Aureos Advisers, says: “Our proactive approach to the consideration of environmental, social and corporate governance in portfolio companies and the communities in which they operate aligns commercial objectives with lasting development
Highgate Associates and Enterprise Corporate Finance’s EIS Fund, the HG Tech Fund, has reached the initial minimum funding target.
Further investment is anticipated during the final weeks of the tax year by investors looking to maximise their tax benefits.
The fund has made its first high tech company investment in iVoucher, an early stage business that is developing a Software as a Service delivered SMS technology for the food and beverage industry.
iVoucher has a technology and service proposition that is planned to launch later in Q2 2010 that will enable all bars and restaurants to communicate with their customers
Although public pension plans and their corporate counterparts were hit equally hard by the global market crisis, a study from Greenwich Associates shows they are responding to historic funding shortfalls in dramatically different fashions.
With an eye toward constraints imposed by tougher accounting rules, companies that sponsor defined benefit pension plans are shedding risk from their investment portfolios and are apparently preparing for the inevitability of much higher cash contribution requirements.
Public pension funds, meanwhile, are shifting money into riskier asset classes in what is looking like a “swing-for-the-fences” attempt to close shortfalls with future investment returns that far outpace
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