Electric car charger POD Point launches £1.75m fundraising on Crowdcube November 9, 2015 POD Point, which builds charging points for electric cars, has announced a £1.75m crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube to help drive its expansion. The company is looking to raise £1.5m with an equity sale, amounting to around five per cent of the company, and £250,000 with an eight per cent bond over a three year period. [...]
It’s still London, London, London for global property investors as Regional REIT prepares to float November 6, 2015 Regional REIT, a new commercial property investment trust focusing on commercial real estate outside London and the southeast, is set to list in London today. The flotation underlines the appetite for commercial real estate opportunities outside London, but does this include the international community? The weight of international capital which has recently been looking to [...]
Major European investors, including Aberdeen Asset Management and BlackRock Investment Managers, call for ‘on the road’ carbon dioxide emissions testing November 6, 2015 European institutional investors will call on policy makers across the EU today, to include ‘real-drive’ data on CO2 emissions in European tests. This comes days after it emerged Volkswagen has discovered ‘irregularities’ in the carbon dioxide levels of some 800,000 cars. The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) has 118 members, including BlackRock Investment [...]
Electra chairman Roger Yates resigns as Sherborne’s activist investor Edward Bramson voted onto the board by shareholders November 5, 2015 Sherborne's Edward Bramson has finally succeeded in his mission to join the board of private equity group Electra, after 53.5 per cent of shareholders voted in favour of his appointment as a director, 16.6m to 14.4m against. Chairman Roger Yates resigned from the from the board with immediate effect after the meeting. Sherborne's first move is to introduce "a strategic [...]
Barclays share price picks up on the news new chief executive Jes Staley has bought 2.8 million shares November 5, 2015 Barclays' new chief executive, Jes Staley, has spent £6.5m buying shares in the lender. The former JP Morgan investment banker bought 2,790,000 ordinary shares for 233p each, the lowest price the shares have traded at since January. Shares dropped as low as 229.3p this morning but have now picked up, hovering around 231p, down 0.1 per cent. Last [...]
M&G Investments completes £247m refinancing for 33 Lightsource solar parks November 4, 2015 M&G Investments, Prudential's European asset-management arm, has completed a £247m refinancing for 33 solar parks. The deal with European solar energy company Lightsource is a 22-year, inflation-linked senior financing (which has repayment priority over other lenders) and brings M&G’s debt investment in the sector to over £385m in the past 12 months. Lightsource has raised [...]
EarlyBird gets the worm on Crowdcube and beats £300,000 fundraising target with two days to spare November 4, 2015 EarlyBird, the healthy snack delivery service, has beaten its £300,000 fundraising target two days ahead of schedule on crowd funding site Crowdcube. The fund on Crowdcube, which is still running, has raised £311,200 so far bringing EarlyBird's total equity investment since starting out last autumn to £600,000, which includes an earlier fund on Crowdcube and a [...]
Vladimir Putin tops Forbes’ list of the most powerful people in the world again, beating the Pope, Barack Obama, Xi Jinping, David Cameron and Bill Gates November 4, 2015 Russia's president Vladimr Putin has done it again, and topped Forbes' Most Powerful People List for 2015. It's his third year at the top of the table. He's ahead of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who's second (and one of only nine women on the list), having jumped three places, while Obama has fallen from number two to [...]
Volatile market conditions force smartcard maker Oberthur Tech to postpone French IPO November 4, 2015 Oberthur Technologies, the world's second largest manufacturer of smartcards, has postponed its IPO on Paris Euronext market citing concerns over current market conditions. Oberthur, which is owned by private equity group Advent International, had hoped to raise €500-€600m (£354m-£425m) pay debt and fund research into digital security. Didier Lamouche, chief executive of Oberthur, said: The decision [...]
VW share price drops again as emissions scandal widens to include CO2 data, and Porsche says it will stop selling some models November 4, 2015 Volkswagen shares plummeted almost 10 per cent this morning after the company revealed last night it had discovered "irregularities" in the CO2 levels in some 800,000 cars, which could cost a further €2bn. VW's share price was 9.5 per cent down at €100.45 in late morning trading. London Capital Group analysts said: "VW added €2bn to [...]