Good morning.
As the PM returns to work(£) after welcoming his son to the world…
… and hopes(£) of a vaccine(£) rise…
… lessons on how to end the lockdown(£) are being learnt from around the world(£).
The UK will have workplace by workplace guidance(£) by next week, the PM will announce today. The documents promise granular detail(£), but no firm idea of when it will happen.
Banks are proving unwilling to hand emergency loans to already struggling retailers(£).
But ‘cracking down’ on landlords wanting their rent will hurt everyone, says EG’s editor. After all, three-fifths of all retail property is owned by you and me…
… Whether through our taxes or pensions, 900m sq ft of the UK’s 1.5bn sq ft of retail space is owned by the UK public.
Intu could lose four of its centres(£) if it breaches debt covenants in June. Bondholders have appointed Clifford Chance and Moelis to advise.
London office take up was already suffering before the pandemic struck, with Q1 take up almost 30% lower than the five year average.
Some of the market’s best known REITs saw their shares soar as the FTSE 100 re-entered the land of the bulls(£) with a rise of 2.6%.
But make no mistake, a global recession is on its way(£).
Next has acknowledged that Q3 and Q4 will not be see “normal-ish” business(£), as it warns of a £150m loss(£).
But Dixons Carphone(£) says it could reopen stores within a week(£), having learnt lesson on social distancing from Scandinavia.
Liverpool developer Signature Living has followed its hotels arm into administration.
Blackstone has bought a 10% stake in Australian casino operator Crown Resorts(£) from Lawrence Ho for $360m.
And The FT (£) has an interesting piece about how Apollo plans to navigate the crisis, and profit from it.
Softbank has warned of a ¥1tn writedown, largely due to a newly recognised loss of $6.6bn from WeWork(£).
In other news, Robert Whitton and Nick Shattock have returned! The property veterans have teamed up to launch Impact Capital Group, a modular housing business targeting £1bn opportunities.
But Aberdeen Standard is “simplifying” its global real estate leadership as UK head of real estate Mike Hannigan prepares to leave the business.
Birmingham City Council has approved Bruntwood SciTech’s £30m Enterprise Wharf at the Innovation Birmingham campus.
And Ballymore wants to bump up the number of homes planned at the Thames Road Industrial Estate to 2,000.
The Times (£) has more on Elliot Lawless, who has vowed to get back to work after winning a High Court dispute over police searches of his home.
The owners of seats in the Royal Albert Hall(£) have been asked to pitch in to fund a shortfall in its £150m refurb budget.
And finally, Wetherspoon’s boss Tim Martin is not a man given to mixed messages. When the qualified barrister said there was no real risk of catching coronavirus in a pub, he meant it. When he told his staff to get jobs at Tesco, he meant it. In an update to the stock market JD Wetherspoon said it would reopen its pubs and hotels “in or around June”(£). The implication was that it would do so whether the government had eased lockdown restrictions or not. What is more surprising is that pubs are expected to be among the last businesses permitted to reopen, with most experts predicting they will stay shut until Christmas. Now Martin is saying that the June reopening is “complete cobblers”(£) and that the company has no firm plans. Despite the, you know, official announcement.
