Having made recent noises about the increasingly competitive squeeze the sub-prime mortgage market is undergoing at present, it would seem that Kensington the mortgage lender which specialises in lending to borrowers with less than robust credit scores, may have decided to cash in its stellar performance since its founding twelve years ago.

Whether it’s the shockwaves searing through the US sub prime industry, impacted as a consequence of the recent HSBC profits warning over its own US based sub-prime Lending subsiduiary or simply the “right time”, the firms shares roared ahead by 16% on news of the announcement.

NM Rothschild has been tasked with the job of seeking a potential US buyer in whose expertise such assets would be best exploited.

In any case consolidation in the sector is almost inevitable since the potential borrower base is being rapidly frittered away by mainstream competitors muscling in and US operators who have a much cheaper finance base.

Sopwith

Financial Times : Backed by 3i the private equity group, Harry Hill, Managing Director and other Countrywide board members are understood to be putting together management buyout package which could see the firm valued at near £900 mn GBP.

The Countrywide board are understood to have convened an approval meeting about the 550p per share, which could result in an announcement as early as today.

Real Estate Business 18-01-2007 : 

In a trading update Big Yellow the UK’s largest self storage business, said that whilst it was confident about attaining REIT status, the move was not guaranteed as revealed by a dispute with the Tax authorities regarding the treatment of assets held by the firm.

The nub of the dispute centres on altering the narration the firms income as rental income as opposed ‘trading income’. HM Customs requires that a strict application of property related earnings surround the collection of rents and not turnover.

The firm is confident that the issue can be resolved, paving the way for adoption of full REIT status.

OOBrien

Having recently secured the purchase of Exeter regional UK airport, the construction group is amongst the final bidders for rapidly expanding Leeds Airport, which has fast become the central hub of international flights in and out of North East England.

There are 5 bidders in the £120 mn GBP race for the airport

Footfall

Real Estate Snippet 24-01-2007:

When Mervin King, Governor of the UK central bank, announced the 25 basis points increase in central lending rates, watchers of the macro-economic conditions in the UK were heard squeaking in gasped surprise.

Never in the history of news media and armchair economists had such a prediction been catastrophically mis-anticipated

The ranked army of amateur experts and gurus used to sneering at the long suffering bureaucrats and intelligentsia comprising the Monetary Policy committee were heard simpering over their early morning cappuccinos: “whatever happened to Mervyn King’s promised objectives of running a “boring” monetary course?

Mr King cited that December’s near 3% inflation rate was exacerbated by high oil prices and rampant house prices and that an early assault on inflationary tendency, exemplified by the quarter point hike in January 2007 would help in bringing inflation under his obligatory target norm of 2%.

He underlined that many of the inflationary drivers from 2006 were likely to start unwinding during 2007.

There was little of the usual sarcasm from the News galleries…..

Footfall