Will Canary Wharf become a financial ghost town?

In today’s newsletter:

• great canary wharf cruises

• Syngenta Dilemma of Western Banks

• Italy’s luxury brands grapple with succession

Dealmakers leave Canary Wharf

The end of London as a global financial center may be grossly exaggerated. But the same may not be true for Canary Wharf, London’s iconic business district.

on Monday, hsbc became the latest large tenant to announce plans to leave the East-End Docklands. British bank tells staff it expects to relocate to telecoms group’s former office BT – near the FT’s headquarters – in the City of London in late 2026.

Getaway highlights the growing desire among the financial and business services community to leave the pier. many other banks including barclays, City Group And Societe GeneraleConsolidating its operations in Canary Wharf, closing subsidiary offices and sub-leasing floor space.

This could spell trouble for its owners, the Canadian investment giant brookfield and sovereign wealth funds Qatar Investment Authoritybought by the landlord of the site Canary Wharf Group in a £2.6bn deal in 2015.

At the end of last year, more than half of Wharf’s tenants were financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley And credit Suisse,

It has come back to haunt the site’s developers as the dealmaking drought following Brexit and the pandemic has contributed to a growing appetite for downsizing. Lex notes that since the pandemic, Canary Wharf has performed poorly in terms of revenue per available meter metrics, a trend expected to continue.

sector, which has since become synonymous with the UK financial sector Margaret ThatcherBig Bang financial reforms of 1986, now struggling to diversify. Canary Wharf Group said in its annual report that it was taking steps “wherever possible”. , , to reduce or avoid the physical consequences from this concentration”.

This approach is likely to be prudent, as much of the legal community has already moved on to greener pastures.

american law firm skaden arpsTenant in the area for several decades, it moved to Bishopsgate in the City of London earlier this year. going there, it joined many of his comrades Involved allen and overyWhich left Canary Wharf in 2010. clifford prospectUK Magic Circle firm has announced it will leave Docklands after its lease expires in 2028.

They are being replaced by residential units in the shadow of the skyscrapers and what promises to be “Europe’s largest life science campus”. This change has already started. There is also a plan to develop an affordable housing scheme.

Brookfield and QIA are hoping this will be enough to make a nice return on their investment.

‘Question mark’ for US banks over $9 billion Shanghai IPO

For Goldman SachsJP Morgan and other Western conglomerates that spent years building up often unprofitable investment banking units in mainland China, upcoming Shanghai initial public offering syngenta Must be a dream come true.

At $9 billion, this could be one of China’s largest listings. More importantly, Swiss-based seed and pesticide maker Syngenta, which operates in more than 90 countries, is one of the most internationalized companies ever to list in China and has long-standing relationships with global banks.

On its surface, this seems like a perfect justification for their presence on the mainland. So it’s no surprise that the bankers at Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS and HSBC – all of which have mainland investment banking businesses – are lobbying for roles in the listing, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

But even if they get roles, they may not be able to get the job done. state owned ChemchinaFor the past six years, Syngenta’s owner has been on the US government’s watch list of companies with close ties to China’s military.

Banks are asking lawyers and political consultants whether they can or should be part of the listing, yet most have no clear answer.

This has left bankers based in Asia in a quandary. One told DD’s Kaye Wiggins, “We want to be part of the IPO”. But “there’s always a question mark before us – are we going to be able to finally make it work or not?”

It comes at a time when some Asia-based bankers of Western companies are questioning why they bother to operate on the mainland as geopolitical tensions rise and US banks in particular are excluded from Chinese listings. going.

At the moment, bankers seem confused. “Do we pitch it at 100 percent, or 80 percent (of our potential)?” said one. “Perhaps not all of you will attend.”

The Next Trend in Italian Luxury: Consolidation

Italy’s fashion houses are known for a few things, including expert craftsmanship and visionary founders who still have control over their empires.

But even the most powerful personalities of the industry cannot stand the test of time.

The country’s luxury brands are facing a succession crisis, as a lack of domestic investment makes them open to foreign takeovers, reports the FT’s Silvia Ciorilli Borelli.

Since then French groups have been making their way into Italy Gucci narrow escape from wolf lvmh in the late nineties. But its cashmere-clad billionaire founder Bernard Arnault The search is still on and private equity firms are also doing the rounds.

Some have managed to fend off brand acquisitions. Hong Kong-listed Pradawho announced that descendant this year Lorenzo Bertelli is next in line, still in the shadow of the owner of swollen conglomerates LVMH and Gucci clinging to his empire kering, Private ownership armani And dolce and gabbana Holding on too tight.

According to the Italy head of UBS, a solution Ricardo Mulone“smartly going strong” rather than trying to compete directly with the French giants.

Prada is often touted as the conglomerate that could lead the domestic consolidation effort because it is one of the largest conglomerates by market capitalization to have avoided a buyout.

But the prospect is still far away. As Bertelli told an FT conference last month: “Let’s see what’s left to buy when the time comes.”

job goes on

• Goldman Sachs plan to enroll Tom MontagueA former partner and until recently a top executive in the trading division of a Wall Street group Bank of AmericaTo its board of directors.

• pwc has appointed senior partner Kevin Burrows to lead an Australian operation marred by its scandals. he replaces Kristin Stubbinswho stepped in as interim chief executive following the departure of Tom Seymour in May.

• Jefferies Financial Group hired barclays executive sven baumann As head of investment banking for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, according to Bloomberg. He will be based in Frankfurt.

• National Grid hired shellformer head of mergers and acquisitions katie jackson as president of its low-carbon and renewable enterprise business.

• bridgewater given the former Nuveen Advisory Services President margo cook as co-chairman of its board. He has served on the board of the hedge fund since 2021.

• kpmg is cutting 5 percent of its workforce in the US.

• Gerson Lehrman Group China has become the latest due diligence group to cut jobs.

reads smart

pat the billionaires on the back defending the US government Silicon Valley Bank Helped save thousands of small tech start-ups. But it also included groups with deep pockets. were not in serious dangerBloomberg reports.

royal flop Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s second act as a Hollywood power couple strayed from the scriptWall Street Journal reports.

super agent of sbf Hollywood dealmaker Michael Kives received hundreds of crores As The New York Times reports, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was coerced into investing in A-list celebrities in exchange for connecting them.

secretly rich The Wall Street Journal Explains How Hoka Ugly Sneakers became a billion dollar sensation,

news round-up

Businessman James Crowne dies in racetrack accident in Colorado aged 70 (Bloomberg)

Agnelli-backed fund raises Ocado stake (FT)

Japan steps into chip supply chain with $6.4 billion JSR deal (FT)

Elite law firms flock to deal with Saudi Arabia amid global M&A drought (FT)

Fenway Sports Group Joins Tiger Woods Backed Virtual Golf League (FT)

Ryan Reynolds and Redbird Capital to invest in Alpine F1 Team (FT)

IBM to buy software company Apptio for $4.6 billion (Bloomberg)

Prologis to buy industrial assets from Blackstone for $3.1 billion (Reuters)

Gucci owner to buy perfume maker Creed (Wall Street Journal)

Ares/Pakwest: Barclays the odd partner in the £2.3bn loan deal (Lex)