04.04.2017 Views

CRUNCH

cityam-2017-04-04-58e2d9137c434

cityam-2017-04-04-58e2d9137c434

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

04 NEWS TUESDAY 4 APRIL 2017<br />

CITYAM.COM<br />

Liberty Living now second-biggest<br />

student home provider in the UK<br />

SOAP OPERATION Goldman Sachs mulls<br />

£600m bid for The Body Shop from L’Oreal<br />

HAYLEY KIRTON<br />

@HayleyLEK<br />

LIBERTY Living yesterday completed a<br />

deal for another 13 properties,<br />

making it the second largest student<br />

home provider in the UK.<br />

The student accommodation<br />

company purchased the residences<br />

from Blackstone for £460m. The sites<br />

are spread out across the UK,<br />

Germany and Spain and add around<br />

another 6,500 beds to the property<br />

firm’s portfolio.<br />

The purchase has not only<br />

provided Liberty, which itself was<br />

bought by the Canada Pension Plan<br />

Investment Board in March 2015,<br />

with a footprint in continental<br />

Europe, but also brings its total<br />

portfolio up to around 25,000 beds.<br />

In the UK, it now only lags behind<br />

sector giant Unite in size.<br />

“We have ambitious growth plans<br />

to meet the changing demands of<br />

the student community,” said David<br />

Shearer, executive chairman of<br />

Liberty Living. “We are focused on<br />

expanding our branded, servicedriven<br />

business through acquisitions<br />

and developments in key markets.<br />

“Liberty is committed to providing<br />

high quality residences, with first<br />

class services, and I am delighted to<br />

complete this significant milestone<br />

in our development.”<br />

THE MERCHANT banking arm of Goldman Sachs is considering a £600m bid for The<br />

Body Shop, according to Sky News. French cosmetics giant L’Oreal wants to offload<br />

the ethically sourced cosmetics and soaps retailer after poor performance.<br />

New disclaimer<br />

on Sadiq’s site<br />

dilutes pledges<br />

JASPER JOLLY<br />

@jjpjolly<br />

THE MAYOR of London Sadiq Khan<br />

has added a disclaimer to his old<br />

campaign website saying the contents<br />

do not necessarily count as policy<br />

pledges.<br />

The website, first set up before<br />

Khan was selected as Labour’s candidate<br />

for the mayoralty, contains some<br />

policies which are no longer part of<br />

the mayor’s manifesto.<br />

However, the more recently added<br />

disclaimer disavows the contents of<br />

the website, and points users instead<br />

to Khan’s manifesto document,<br />

which drops some of the earlier<br />

pledges. Some of the policies not included<br />

in the final manifesto include<br />

a pledge to plant 2m trees in the capital,<br />

as well as to cut bus fares during<br />

his first year as mayor.<br />

Neither pledge or any equivalent<br />

measure is mentioned in the mayor’s<br />

final manifesto document.<br />

The disclaimer says: “Some of the<br />

information on this page may be out<br />

of date and does not reflect campaign<br />

pledges or mayoral policy. As<br />

such it contains some pages that are<br />

out of date, including some old campaigns,<br />

some early ideas, and some<br />

policies that were later overtaken by<br />

events.”<br />

Khan said he was “not sure” when<br />

the disclaimer was added and who<br />

instructed it to be added when he<br />

was questioned on the disclaimer at<br />

mayor’s question time in the London<br />

Assembly.<br />

Conservative London Assembly<br />

member Andrew Boff said the campaign<br />

website presented a “misleading<br />

picture” of the mayor compared<br />

to his “much smaller manifesto”.<br />

Boff said: “This is a campaign website<br />

littered with promises that any<br />

reader would assume were pledges<br />

Khan would try to deliver if elected.”<br />

He added: “Since I began asking<br />

him some awkward questions about<br />

it, a disclaimer has mysteriously appeared<br />

on the site, effectively conceding<br />

the promises amount to nothing.<br />

You couldn’t make it up.”<br />

Khan told the London Assembly he<br />

was “responsible” for the “defunct”<br />

website, but said events had overtaken<br />

the “early ideas” on the site.<br />

Hermes becomes latest investor<br />

to attack Tesco-Booker merger<br />

EMMA HASLETT<br />

@emmahaslett<br />

ANOTHER major investment group<br />

yesterday came out against the £3.7bn<br />

merger between Tesco and Booker.<br />

The boss of Hermes Fund Managers<br />

warned it could give the pair “too<br />

much power” over smaller stores.<br />

Hermes does not own any shares in<br />

either Tesco or Booker, but it does act<br />

as a consultant for other investment<br />

groups.<br />

Speaking to the Times, Saker<br />

Nusseibeh, chief executive of Hermes,<br />

said the deal could put too much<br />

pressure on the 8,000 corner stores<br />

the pair will have influence over once<br />

the deal goes through (Booker<br />

owns the Londis and Budgens<br />

brands).<br />

“Too much power in the hands of<br />

any one supplier is never a good<br />

thing,” he said. “In the long term<br />

there could be a backlash against<br />

[Tesco].”<br />

Tesco’s shares closed down 0.48 per<br />

cent to 184.7p last night.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!