August 2010 Archives

Investment bank UBS has employed a former director and head of European CMBS at Morgan Stanley, Romano Paredes, to be in charge of the real estate capital markets team in restructuring of existing property debt. This is the second recent senior appointment in UBS as the previous head of EMEA securitised products from Deutsche Bank, Mark Graham, joined the bank in May. In essence, UBS plans to start originating new property loans and issuing bonds backed by loans to institutional investors in Europe.

DTZ's new Fair Value Index has reviewed the London City office market as one of three 'hot' markets for new investments in the UK. In its first year, the Fair Value Index aims to summarise views of 180 property markets across the globe. The markets, which comprise offices, retail and industrial are scored based on the difference between the expected rate of return and the risk adjusted required rate of return.

The UK as a whole scored a somewhat disappointing 38, compared with Europe's 49 and 62 globally. In addition to the scores, markets are categorised as 'hot', 'warm' or 'cold'. The City is said to be a 'hot' market, whilst the West End is described as 'warm'.

Tony McGough, global head of forecasting & strategy research at DTZ, said: "The London City office market is expected to experience continued strong rental growth over the medium term, despite the resurgence in development, with its rapid recovery from the economic downturn."

For the full story, see here.

If you thought job coals were a thing of the past, think not. Investment bank Credit Suisse announced yesterday that it would get rid of 75 jobs in London as it seeks to adjust to more testing trading conditions. According to the Financial Times the group declined to specify exactly where the job losses would fall but confirmed the cuts were not just in back office administrative functions but also in front office activities.

The move comes after Barclays Capital (BarCap), the UK bank's investment banking operation, is also shedding about 300 jobs, mainly in administrative and support functions. However, BarCap has added almost 4,000 staff since last June, bringing its total headcount to 25,500, in its determined drive to join the ranks of the world's leading investment banks. It was announced last week that Barclays profits jumped 44pc to £3.95bn in the first six months of the year, indicating that even through they are making more money, they are still keen to employ cost-costing tactics.