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Back in 1967 Goldman Sachs’ Gus Levy orchestrated a record smashing $26.5mn block trade in Alcan Aluminum that made his name on Wall Street. But we may now have one of the all-time worst block trades in history.
On August 21, Walmart ditched its entire 144.5mn share stake in JD.com, which had been first initiated through the sale of its Chinese online grocery store to JD.com in 2016, and later increased to over 10 per cent.
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The divestment happened through a huge block trade of JD.com’s US-listed American depositary receipts conducted by Morgan Stanley at $24.95 a share — an 11.5 per cent discount to the market price. This netted about $3.6bn for the US retailer. Alphaville understands that some people involved in the trade were proudly touting that it was the largest-ever single ADR block placement.
However, with the benefit of Alphaville’s favourite resource (perfect hindsight) the timing now looks awesomely, hilariously terrible.
Having notched up another gain yesterday — thank you Beijing — JD.com’s ADRs closed at $40, up 60 per cent since the August block sale. This means that Walmart in effect has lost out on about $2.2bn.
To be fair to Walmart, JD.com’s ADRs had lost nearly three-quarters of their value from their 2021 peak, and were by August 20 trading at approximately the same level as they were a decade ago. Just getting out and focusing on its own Chinese operations still might make perfect strategic sense. Block trade timing is always hostage to fate, and selling such a big JD.com chunk back in August at a reasonable discount probably rightly felt like a feat for Morgan Stanley at the time.
FTAV is admittedly more familiar with another type of block-trade-gone-awry: when underwriters bid far too aggressively for the deal and are left holding the bag on a big share sale.
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For example, back in 2012 Morgan Stanley inadvertently became one of the biggest players in Danish telecoms company, after being stuck with a $450mn, 7.2 per cent share in TDC. Perhaps the most famous example of a hung block trade is when Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank were stuck with a chunk of Vivendi in 2002, pretty much ruining the entire year for their equity departments.
The JD.com block trade is just a matter of terrible timing, rather than banks doing dumb stuff for league table credit. But still, looking just at the money that Walmart left on the table, in dollar terms this might be one of the worst block trades in history?
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Good morning from Birmingham. This is a very odd conference in many ways, in that the Tory party is in a state of flux, yet, barring some kind of unexpected shock, the race to become the next Conservative leader is very predictable.
The big picture at Conservative party conference is that unless something changes, the next party leader will be Robert Jenrick. Tory MPs will vote next week to narrow down the field to a final pair, who will then be put before the members in an online ballot, with the result announced on November 2.
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As ever with the Tory party leadership, there are really two routes to the membership — the establishment lane and the rightwing lane. Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister from Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, has done a remarkably effective job of locking up that rightwing lane. And the polls suggest he will defeat almost anyone who might come up the establishment lane.
Kemi Badenoch, meanwhile, would beat anyone she might face in the vote by Conservative party members, but she has no guarantee of reaching that stage. The former business secretary sparked confusion over her suggestion that maternity pay was “excessive”, which she later rowed back on but appeared to double down on her position yesterday, signalling that the UK’s minimum wage and maternity pay rules are among regulations “overburdening businesses”. She is struggling to get enough support among MPs and the gaffes of recent days have, if anything, aggravated her difficulties among her parliamentary colleagues.
Meanwhile, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, the candidates who are seen as pitching for votes from the left of the party, are not going to beat Jenrick unless something changes to shift opinion among party members. Jenrick’s claim in his campaign video that UK special forces are “killing rather than capturing terrorists” was criticised by his rivals — with one military official telling the FT it was an “outrageous accusation” — but it’s the kind of message that Conservative activists want to hear.
Nothing Badenoch has done has won over wavering MPs, and thus far nothing Tugendhat nor Cleverly have done has changed the minds of party members. It may be that one of the 20-minute speeches tomorrow can change the dynamic of the contest — but it is more likely, I think, that the Tory party is just in a holding pattern until Jenrick takes over.
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Now try this
This week, I mostly listened to Katy Perry’s 143 while writing my column.
Ofcom: ‘we have got some pretty strong powers’ | Britain’s media regulator will take “strong action” against tech companies that break new rules on content moderation, even if it has limited powers to stop the spread of lies online, the agency’s head has told the FT.
Donor revealed | Robert Jenrick is facing further questions about donations totalling £75,000 to his Conservative leadership campaign from a company that was loaned money via a tax haven, after businessman Phillip Ullmann revealed himself to be the ultimate source of the funding, reports The Guardian’s Rowena Mason.
Scores on the doors | In a head-to-head the Conservative membership would choose Kemi Badenoch by 52 per cent to Robert Jenrick’s 48 per cent, according to a YouGov/Sky News poll of 802 Tory members conducted over nine days to Sunday night. The gap was 18 points just six weeks ago, showing a surge in support for Jenrick.
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Renowned for its charming floral designs and quirky vintage-style homeware, Cath Kidston had been a beloved fixture on the British high street since 1993.
However, the retailer crashed into administration last year and the last of its bricks-and-mortar stores closed in June 2023.
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Next acquired the Cath Kidston brand, meaning people could continue to buy online and at the retailer’s stores.
Now it is due to open a new store on October 18 at Westfield White City, London.
Cath Kidston has teased the return on Instagram with images of the hoardings branded with its familiar florals.
In the post, it said: “Why yes. Yes, you guessed right.”
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Fashion brand Topshop could make its return to the UK high streetCredit: Alamy
Earlier this month ASOS announced plans to sell a 75% stake in the brand to Bestseller, a Danish retail group that owns Jack & Jones.
Bestseller, which is also ASOS’s largest investor, has around 2,800 retail stores in more than 30 countries.
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Asos had bought Topshop out of administration for £265million in 2021.
As part of the £118million joint venture deal with Bestseller, ASOS will be relaunching Topshop.com as a standalone website.
However, in news that will thrill millennial shoppers, ASOS’s boss also suggested a return to bricks and mortar shops .
Ramos Calamonte said: “It is very early to say that there will be physical stores, but there is no question that they [Bestseller] have a big present presence on the high street.
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“We think that they have a lot of potential.”
Industry rumours have suggested they have already started scoping out potential sites for Topshop’s revival, including London’s famous Carnaby Street.
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Toys R Us has made a successful return to UK high streetsCredit: Alamy
Toys R Us
Toys R Us’ return to the UK high street has been been warmly welcomed by delighted fans.
The new stores are not standalone sites, but are “shop-in-shops” located inside WHSmith stores across the country.
Toys R Us was founded in 1957 by American businessman Charles P Lazarus.
It grew to 100 stores across the UK, but collapsed in 2018 and closed all branches.
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Plans for a relaunch were announced in in October 2021 and the first store to open in a WHSmith branch was in York (Monks Cross retail park) on June 10 last year.
Managing director of WHSmith High Street Sean Toal said: “Nearly 40 years ago, Toys R Us first came to the UK, and we take great pride in being the steward of this much-loved brand in the UK.
“We’ve had queues around the block for many openings in the last year which tells you just how much people are loving seeing Toys R Us back again.”
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M&Co is making its return a year after falling into administrationCredit: Alamy
M&Co
Fashion retailer M&Co closed all of its stores after collapsing into administration in 2022, but has now announced it will return to the high street.
However, a glimmer of hope was given when the brand name was scooped up by The Range, in a £5million deal – meaning that the name would live on.
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Customers were overjoyed after learning the store was being relaunched online, and even more so when in a surprising turn of events, physical branches started to open up again.
Locations have since popped up Plymouth, Exeter, Luton, St Albans and Rotherham and its roll out is spreading across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The stores offer customers all the essentials across home and garden, as well as the usual value Wilko own-brand products, alongside popular named brands.
Chris Dawson, owner of Wilko, is said to be targeting 300 stores over the next five years, and said that all the new shops so far are making a profit.
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Paperchase has made its return as a concession in Tesco storesCredit: Alamy
Paperchase
In October 2023, Paperchase also made a return after closing all of its 134 shops and concessions earlier in the year.
Fans of the brand were devastated when the retailer disappeared from the high street in April 2023.
It had collapsed three months earlier and failed to find a buyer for the business.
Ted Baker fell into administration in March when a deal collapsed between its American owners, Authentic Brands, and a Dutch operating partner which was meant to run the store operations.
Its final UK high street shops shut their doors in August and its original website stopped accepting orders.
But later that month US-based Authentic Brand Group, said it had secured a deal with a new business partner United Legwear & Apparel Co.
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They will now run the brand’s online platform in the UK and Europe.
We wait to see if it will follow others in returning to the high street.
What is happening to the British high street?
The news comes amid a challenging time for the whole of the UK’s retail sector.
High inflation coupled with a squeeze on consumers’ finances has meant people have less money to spend in the shops.
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Also the rising popularity in online shopping has meant people are favouring digital ordering over visiting a physical store.
Unseasonably wet weather has also deterred shoppers from hitting the high street.
This ongoing issue has seen brands such as Paperchase, and The Body Shop.
Why are retailers closing stores?
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RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
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Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre’s director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is “less bad” than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
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“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend,” Prof Bamfield said.
“Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023’s biggest failures included Paperchase, Cath Kidston, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
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However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Rotana, one of the leading hotel management companies in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Türkiye (MENAT), will be developing 43 new properties in 26 cities in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Türkiye by 2026
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Nobody in Helen Hansford’s family understands why she’d accept a job at Westbury Park, not least as an art therapist. But Dr Gil Rudden, one of the mental-health facility’s senior psychiatrists, understands completely. The two are initially attracted by a mutually progressive attitude towards mental health and to the patients in their respective care. It’s 1964, and homosexuality, for example, is still considered an illness to be treated. As Gil points out, “most so-called mental disorders are just behaviour that society doesn’t approve of.”
Within weeks their fledgling relationship has become all-consuming. Although, married as Gil is with two children, “he could hardly be more unavailable.” Their connection deepens when they’re called out to a dilapidated home where an elderly woman, Louisa, lives in squalor with her adult nephew William. The latter either cannot or will not speak, and he doesn’t appear to have left their Croydon house in two decades. Louisa and William Tapper are Westbury Park’s newest patients, and to Helen’s delight, it emerges that William possesses a rare artistic talent.
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Shy Creatures establishes a laser-like focus on extraordinary lives set against the suburban postwar setting, just as she did in her novel Small Pleasures. That 2020 novel was a “personal resurrection story” for Chambers, some of whose previous books were out of print when it was published to wide acclaim. Now, her latest and 10th novel is published to real demand.
Chambers’ dialogue is particularly strong, as is the precise study of human interactions in all their subtlety and shades. Her world-building speaks to extensive research but displays a light touch, imbuing the atmosphere of the story and its inhabitants with the smoke of Woodbines, the soot of coal scuttles and bomb shelters not long out of commission. The Tappers’ house reveals “a long, dark hallway with bulging wallpaper the colour of raw liver”, while public attitudes are laid bare in all their double standards: Helen hears with a “jolt” the “venom” directed at Christine Keeler, the “vitriol her parents reserved for women who took up with married men”. Woven throughout is the risk of the facility’s closure, as the mid-20th-century drift towards de-institutionalisation begins with patients soon to be “turf[ed] back out” in a “revolving-door effect”.
We follow Helen as she attempts to unravel the mystery of the silent patient. Interspersed among her chapters are those of William himself. “It’s difficult to get an accurate picture of their life together,” Gil observes of the man and his aunt. “Was he a prisoner or a recluse? Was she?” This picture develops gradually via snapshots of formative experiences, moments of fear and ostracisation, past friendships, school days. The central mystery hinges on William’s past and the origin of his impressive creative skill. His drawings are born from quiet contemplation and observation — in much the same way as he, at Westbury Park, is now observed. Structurally, however, while the first two-thirds linger compellingly on vignette-like scenes, taking their time, the final chapters feel rushed and too busy with revelation.
William’s past, as it unfolds, enables Helen to react against the corset-like confines of a society that turns inward all too often and shuts its doors, one where the threat of “busybodies” and “interference” are a constant fear, and “nervous collapse” the ultimate shame. Through subplots involving her niece, Lorraine, and a lonely downstairs neighbour — “of whom she knew so little, and the other inhabitants of the flats, strangers all” — she observes the “curious bond” needed to create true community and, ultimately, a sense of the bonds she herself must break or make to find her own.
Luxury real estate has an undeniable appeal, whether it is for the prestige, the lifestyle, or the investment potential. For example, real estate in Limassol offers stunning waterfront properties with breathtaking views and proximity to vibrant city life, making it an attractive option for those looking to combine luxury living with a solid investment.
But before you dive headfirst into this high-end market, there are some important factors to consider. Yes, luxury real estate can offer significant financial rewards, but it’s not without its challenges. Let’s break it down with a touch of practicality.
What Makes a Property “Luxury”?
Essentially, it refers to properties at the top end of the market in terms of price, features, and location. True luxury homes often include a prime location (think beachfront or city centre), top-quality finishes, and unique design elements.
The word “exclusive” is key—whether it’s a gated community, a secluded mansion, or a penthouse in a highly sought-after building, luxury real estate is meant to offer something rare and coveted.
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The Financial Benefits of Investing in Luxury Real Estate
Capital Appreciation
Luxury properties often hold their value well—especially in prime locations with limited availability. Over time, these homes can appreciate significantly, making them an attractive long-term investment. This is particularly true in markets with high demand and little room for expansion.
Rental Income Potential
A major draw of luxury real estate is the potential for rental income. High-net-worth renters often seek premium properties for short or long-term stays—vacation homes, corporate rentals, or even long-term residences. For instance, if you own a villa in a vacation hotspot like Cyprus or Ibiza, you can charge top dollar for weekly rentals during peak season.
Tax Benefits
In some places, you may be able to deduct mortgage interest, property taxes, and even certain maintenance costs. Additionally, if you rent out your property, you might qualify for further tax breaks related to rental expenses and depreciation.
Lifestyle Benefits of Owning Luxury Real Estate
Luxury real estate isn’t just about making smart financial decisions—there’s a lifestyle element to it, too. You’re not just buying a house; you’re buying into a certain way of living.
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Prestige and Social Status
Owning a luxury property is often seen as a marker of success. It’s a status symbol that reflects personal achievement and financial stability. Beyond that, living in a high-end home in a prestigious neighbourhood often comes with certain social advantages, whether it’s networking opportunities, invitations to exclusive events, or simply the sense of pride that comes from knowing you’ve “made it.”
Top-Notch Amenities
Luxury properties are synonymous with luxury amenities. We’re talking infinity pools, private gyms, gourmet kitchens, smart home systems, movie theatres, and sometimes even wine cellars or indoor basketball courts. These homes are designed for people who appreciate the finer things in life and want access to every convenience without ever leaving the house.
Customization and Uniqueness
One of the most satisfying aspects of owning luxury real estate is the level of customization available. Many luxury properties are built or renovated to suit the owner’s specific tastes, meaning you get to live in a home that’s truly your own. Whether you want an outdoor kitchen for entertaining, a sprawling garden, or cutting-edge design, a luxury home allows you to create the perfect space tailored to your lifestyle.
Risks of Investing in Luxury Real Estate
Of course, no investment is without its risks, and luxury real estate is no exception. While the rewards can be substantial, it’s important to go into the process with your eyes wide open.
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Market Volatility
Unlike the mid-tier market, which tends to move more gradually, high-end real estate can be significantly affected by economic shifts, political changes, and even global events. During a recession or housing market crash, luxury properties can take longer to sell, and buyers may have to accept lower-than-expected offers.
High Maintenance Costs
Large gardens, pools, and specialized systems like smart home technology or custom lighting require constant upkeep, and you’ll likely need to hire professionals to maintain everything. Also, insurance premiums on luxury homes are typically higher, especially if the home has unique or high-risk features (like waterfront access or a large collection of rare art).
Illiquidity
Luxury real estate isn’t the most liquid asset. It can take months, or even years, to sell a high-end property, especially in a slow market. This means that if you need to access your capital quickly, selling a property might not be the best option.
Credit: Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash
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How to Approach Investing in Luxury Real Estate
If you’re seriously considering investing in high-end real estate, here are some practical tips to help guide your decision:
Understand the market: Before making any investment, spend time learning about the specific market you’re interested in. Is it a buyer’s market or a seller’s market? Are property values on the rise or in decline? You’ll want to have a clear picture of the current market trends.
Location is everything: A high-end property in a desirable neighbourhood will always hold more value than a comparable property in a less popular area.
Think long-term: Real estate is generally a long-term investment. Don’t expect to flip a property for quick cash unless you’re extremely lucky or have a keen understanding of market timing.
Wrapping It All Up
Investing in luxury real estate offers a blend of financial rewards and lifestyle benefits that can be highly attractive, but it’s important to weigh the risks carefully. The potential for capital appreciation and rental income is significant, but so are the maintenance costs and market volatility.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Abu Dhabi’s national oil company has agreed a €14.7bn deal to buy German chemicals group Covestro in one of the largest European takeovers this year.
Adnoc, which has been pursuing Covestro since last year, has offered €62 per share for the German company. It will also inject €1.17bn of new money into the chemicals group.
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Adnoc chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said: “As a global leader and industrial pioneer in chemicals, Covestro brings unmatched expertise in high-tech speciality chemicals and materials, using advanced technologies including AI.”
Covestro initially rejected offers of below €60 a share and then debated whether its sustainability drive would be undermined by ownership by Adnoc.
Markus Steilemann, chief executive of Covestro, said: “With Adnoc International’s support, we will have an even stronger foundation for sustainable growth in highly attractive sectors and can make an even greater contribution to the green transformation.”
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Adnoc said it had asked the Covestro management team to stay on after the completion of the deal. It also said it would support “the commitments made to Covestro’s employees and has undertaken to uphold existing works council, collective bargaining, and similar agreements”.
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