Intu Shares Tank As Cash Call Falters
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BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY EVERGREEN DON’T LEAVE IT TOO LATE HOW TO INVEST OUR GUIDE TO VALENTINE’S CASH IN ETHICAL IN THE SQUARE MILE P26 PROJECTS P24-25 WEDNESDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2020 ISSUE 3,554 CITYAM.COM FREE Intu shares tank as cash call falters ANNA MENIN 30.20% @annafmenin INTU shares lost almost a third of their value yesterday after Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) said it would no longer participate in the troubled retail landlord’s £1bn emergency cash call. It emerged on Monday that Link was in talks with Intu, which owns the Trafford Centre, over potentially becoming a “cornerstone” BORIS JOHNSON investor in the fundraising. But in an update to the stock exchange yesterday Intu ENDS A DECADE OF said the Hong Kong-based trust had performed a U-turn DEBATE BY GIVING and would no longer back the raise. THUMBS UP TO “Intu remains engaged with shareholders and potential £100BN PROJECT new investors in relation to a proposed equity raise,” it said in a statement. A spokesperson for Link CATHERINE NEILAN consign the next generation to over- of the HS2 project.” management appeared to soften the said: “Link remains interested AND JACK RICHARDSON crowding… or have the guts to take a A minister will be appointed with full- blow, with many long-time Tory critics in opportunities in the UK, @CatNeilan @JackRich93 decision, no matter how controversial.” time oversight of the project, and and those on the opposition benches but our negotiations with Recognising the cost increases and gov- government will begin “interrogating giving Johnson their qualified support. Intu have not reached an BORIS Johnson has given the go-ahead ernance issues that have beset the proj- current costs to identify savings in phase MP Sir Bill Cash said his constituents agreement.” for the controversial HS2 rail link ect to date, the PM said his decision was one”, he said. would be “bitterly disappointed” by the City A.M. understands that between London and Birmingham, with “not made easier by HS2 Ltd” — the “If we start now, services could be run- decision, but appeared satisfied by the Link still sees the UK as a key a second phase reaching Manchester company set up to manage the project. ning by the end of the decade.” Prime Minister’s promise to review part expansion market, with a and Leeds. As an MP for an affected constituency, Work on phase one (London to Birm- of the route as it affects his local area. more stable currency after the After more than 10 years of debate, the Uxbridge in north-west London, Johnson ingham) will start in April, while the Chair of the backbench 1922 commit- election adding to the Prime Minister yesterday told MPs the was critical. government will revive the legislation to tee Graham Brady echoed this view. MP attraction. cabinet had given its unanimous back- “I cannot say HS2 Ltd has distin- deliver phase 2a, connecting Birming- Michael Fabricant said he was “less than Intu’s shares crashed ing to the £100bn project. guished itself among local communi- ham to Crewe, “as soon as possible”. The enthusiastic about the route of HS2,” but following the update, and Johnson said: “Our generation faces a ties,” he said. “Costs have exploded. But full scheme is estimated to reach com- was “delighted” by the shake-up. ended the day just over 30 per historic choice, we can try to get by with poor management to date has not pletion between 2035 and 2040. cent down at 12.12p, wiping existing routes from north to south, detracted from the fundamental value The decision to overhaul HS2’s £ CONTINUES ON P7 £70m off Intu’s market cap. FTSE 100▲ 7,499.44 +52.56 FTSE 250▲ 21,646.02 +152.70 DOW▼ 29,276.34 -0.48 NASDAQ▲9,638.94 +10.55 £/$▲1.294 +0.003 £/€▲ 1.186 +0.002 €/$▲ 1.092 +0.003 02 NEWS WEDNESDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2020 CITYAM.COM SPLASH THE CASH Iconic David Hockney painting of California swimming pool sells for £23.1m in Sotheby’s London art auction THE CITY VIEW After years of debate, HS2 rumbles into view N THE dying days of Gordon Brown’s government, Sir David Rowlands was tasked with examining the case for a new high Ispeed rail line between London and Birmingham. He started work in the same month that the UK officially entered recession, for the first time since 1991. Much has changed since then, and the HS2 debate has been disrupted and diverted as often as your Southern rail commute into London. It says something about the nature of these deliberations that the transport secretary tasked with selling the idea in the first days of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, Philip Hammond, has managed to rise and fall in the interim. If a week is a long time in politics, the high-speed to-and-fro feels like an epoch. But, like scores of Remainers who have come to accept the result of the 2016 ONE OF David Hockney’s iconic “splash” paintings sold for £23.1m in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London referendum, it is now time for HS2’s opponents to accept the last night. The Splash sold for nearly eight times the price achieved when it was last sold at auction for £2.9m in London in 2006. decision, and endeavour to Hockney finished the painting in 1966, and it is part of a series of three. The biggest of the trio belongs to the Tate collection. make the best of it. This newspaper has never been terribly supportive of the scheme. Like many, we We must accept expressed deep concerns about that Europe’s the spiralling bill, the War of words ramps up largest project will governance of HS2 Ltd, and the fact that the rationale behind soon be underway the project seemed to switch alarmingly easily from speed to capacity. But we are where we over City’s links to the EU are, and we must now accept that Europe’s largest construction project will soon be underway. Boris Johnson’s problem now is how to fill the gap between yesterday’s announcement and the HARRY ROBERTSON TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2020 ISSUE 3,553 CITYAM.COM FREE HACKED OFF US ramps up China cooperation”. first trains running. The go-ahead will help construction firms, TREASURY TO spat with fresh Equifax charges But Barnier hit back at Javid’s plan just providing some much-needed certainty, and it will help get @harrygrobertson SET OUT CITY hours later, saying there “will be no gen- regeneration projects over the line in cities like Birmingham. UK POLICYMAKERS should not “kid eral, global, permanent equivalence” themselves” with expectations that the BREXIT PLAN with Britain or “common manage- But the real political test of Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda will EXCLUSIVE Beyond Brexit, it will also consider “But there will be differences, not CATHERINE NEILAN the industry’s future in relation to least because as a global financial cen- worldwide challenges such as emerg- tre the UK needs to keep pace with City will be granted permanent access @CatNeilan ing technologies and climate change. and drive international standards. ment”. He said the UK should be “under THE GOVERNMENT will insist on the Javid sets out the government’s Our starting point will be what’s right right to diverge from EU financial plans to retain regulatory autonomy for the UK.” services regulation as part of a post- while seeking a “reliable equivalence He also re-committed to concluding Brexit trade deal with Brussels. process”, on which a “durable rela- “a full range of equivalence assess- be whether it helps people feel better about life in time for the to European markets, the EU’s chief Writing exclusively in City A.M. today, tionship” can be built. ments” by June of this year, in order to no illusion”. chancellor Sajid Javid says the “Of course, each side will only give the system sufficient stability City “will no longer be a rule- grant equivalence if it believes ahead of the end of transition. taker” and reveals that the other’s regulations are One senior industry figure told City ministers are working on compatible,” the chancel- A.M. that while a white paper was EMILY NICOLLE Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Le, a white paper setting lor writes. welcome after a long period where who are members of the People’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said out a vision of the there had been “very little on the big @emilyjnicolle Liberation Army’s 54th Research Barnier’s comments raise the prospect next election in 2024. Buses and potholes — both the recipients financial services sector Javid: “Compatible does picture for financial services”, it is THE US Department of Justice (DoJ) Institute, an arm of China’s military. once the Brexit transi- not mean identical” important the right balance be struck. yesterday charged four members of It is the latest in a number of US tion period is over. “The more you talk about trade out- China’s military in relation to the 2017 cases pointing the alleged work of The white paper, to be “But compatible does side the EU, the more you put at risk Equifax hack, in which the data of Chinese spies, including the Marriott of another chunk of Treasury cash — will be far more appealing yesterday as a new row broke out over published this spring, not mean identical, and your EU structures,” they said. more than 145m US, British and hotel breach last year and the hacking that the EU will demand Britain strictly financial services.