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Safestore Revenue Increases
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Self-storage retailer Safestore posted a double-digit percentage revenue rise this year to Oct. 31, but said it will slow its expansion plans in light of the current economic uncertainty.
Safestore, which operates in the U.K. and Paris, said turnover climbed by 11.3 percent from the previous year to £82.7m. However, overall occupancy declined by 6.7 percent to 2.7m square feet.
Safestore managed to offset this by lifting the average rental rate by 11.2 percent per square foot to £24.05. For more information, visit http://www.safestore.co.uk/home/home.aspx.
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Shares Fall for Big Yellow
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According to an article on Forbes.com, shares in Big Yellow shed 1.7 percent after the self-storage group posted a 12 percent fall in first-half pretax profit, scrapped its interim dividend and said it continues to experience tough trading conditions.
Citigroup says Big Yellow's failure to pay a dividend is a surprise which is blamed on continuing build-out on "potentially highly profitable existing London sites," with the key word "potentially," adds the broker.
Citigroup says it is cautious on the self-storage market as a whole and on Big Yellow, with the poor first half results reinforcing that view. For more information, visit http://www.bigyellow.co.uk/.
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£2m Facility Planned for Derby
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A Derby company is investing almost £2 million to create the first self-storage facility in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, England.
BE Webbe has bought two adjoining premises with plans of conjoining them into one property dedicated to storage.
Both premises have been empty for several months, but will now have a new lease of life because of the increasingly popular trend of using self storage, said a spokesman.
Extensive work is required to both buildings. Refurbishing and fitting-out costs will be in the region of £1.2 million on top of the purchase costs.
The building will house 46,000 square feet of self-storage in self-contained steel units ranging from 20 square feet to 400 square feet. The units will be used for items including furniture, files, garage and garden equipment. The facility is planned to open by April 2009.
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Approval for Largest Self-Storage Facility in Scotland
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For those of you who have not read our website recently and in particular our customer testimonials, you will probably be unaware of our most recent achievement.
This month UR-Store Self-Storage Consultants on behalf of Keepsafe Storage Centres, gained Building Warrant approval for what is the largest self-storage facility in Scotland. The facility will offer almost 115,000 sqft of self-storage space over three internal, open plan floors along with exterior units. With an open plan loading bay complete with atrium to the first floor and a large reception with 4m high ceilings, the facility has certainly got the wow factor.
Keepsafe Storage Centres acquired the building over 2 years ago and although two architects had been involved on the project they were still disillusioned with the outcome. In June of this year the project was handed over to UR-Store and a completely new design was drawn up in house including the general arrangement of the mezzanine floor and unit layouts.
It has taken just 5 months to design, submit and gain approval for the new project despite coming up against construction issues such as fire rating.
Ian Allen of UR-Store Self-Storage Consultants said, ”We didn’t want to follow the standard approach to self-storage in Scotland and use compartmentalisation to lessen the fire rating required, as we wanted the customer to experience as much open space as possible. Also by dividing the building up into segments using full height compartment walls, you begin to hinder the build process through access issues with such items as the mezzanine and partitioning system. Therefore we had to design a fire system and mezzanine that would achieve a severe 2 hour rating. All in all it has been a fantastic and enjoyable project to work on and I have nothing but praise for Keepsafe Storage Centres who's faith in our company and myself, allowed us to have a free hand in what the building would look like and how it would work“.
Other project contributors worthy of a mention due to their efforts are Justin Beavis and Bill Brenan of Steel Storage Europe and Dave Murden of Promat UK Limited.
To enquire about our design, project management and build services call us on 01252 624017 or email info@urstore.co.uk
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UK bank's £37bn bail-out unveiled
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The government is to inject up to £37bn of new capital into Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to raise £20bn - with the government buying £5bn of preference shares and underwriting £15bn of ordinary shares. RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin has quit the firm after the move.
A further £17bn of taxpayer cash will be injected into HBOS and Lloyds TSB - Barclays has announced plans
to raise £6.5bn without government help.
The announcement means taxpayers will end up owning about 60% of RBS and about 40% of the merged Lloyds TSB and HBOS, BBC business editor Robert Peston said. He said the announcement would "count as perhaps the most extraordinary day in British banking history" and was "an absolute humiliation" for the banks.
As a condition of the deal, the government has insisted that senior directors should get no cash bonuses this year, with future bonuses to be paid in the form of shares - a move aimed at encouraging management to take a more long-term approach.
Dividend cancelled
Lloyds TSB will raise £11.5bn from taxpayers - made up of £8.5bn in ordinary shares and £3bn in preference
shares. while HBOS is to get £5.5bn. Meanwhile, Lloyds TSB has said it has renegotiated the terms of its
takeover of HBOS. A £12.2bn deal was agreed last month, but the value of HBOS shares has since plunged
and the extent of the recapitalisation highlights its weakness. Under the revised deal, HBOS shareholders will get 0.605 Lloyds TSB shares for every 1 HBOS share. Under the original deal they would have received 0.83 Lloyds TSB shares.
Barclays has said it is to raise £6.5bn of new capital. The bank is to raise the money from shareholders and
investors, rather than going to the government - meaning it will not have the government influencing its
day-to-day decisions.
Barclays also said it would scrap its final dividend payout for 2008, saving it £2bn.
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Markets Rally After Crisis Talks
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Asian markets have reacted positively to efforts by world leaders to end the recent financial turmoil. Shares in Australia, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Singapore and India all rose although Taiwan's stock market lost ground.
Major central banks also made extra funds available and said they would take "whatever measures necessary" to stem the crisis. EU leaders said on Sunday no big bank would be be allowed to fail. Japan's stock market is closed for a public holiday. European markets are expected to open higher.
Governments around the world had been racing to throw financial institutions a lifeline before the major markets re-opened. At the weekend, finance ministers from the main industrialised nations - the G7 - approved a five-point plan to unfreeze credit markets, and a number of countries announced individual rescue packages. Australia's benchmark index ended 5.6% higher and South Korea's main Kospi index finished up 3.8%. By 0645 GMT, Hong Kong shares were up 3.2% and Shanghai's benchmark index moved into positive territory after falling earlier. But Taiwan stocks fell 2.15%.
Investors worried
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his government would guarantee all bank deposits, however large, for the next three years.
Correspondents say that type of move raised confidence as markets opened, and Australia's central bank on Monday pumped $2bn into the banking system to facilitate improve lending between banks. By 0645 GMT, Sydney's benchmark index had risen 5%, while both Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and South Korea's Composite Stock Price Index were up by around 3%. But after a volatile morning's trading, Shanghai's main market was trading 2% lower, while Taiwan's benchmark index had lost more than 3%. Japan's markets were closed for a public holiday.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says Asian investors remain worried that even if Europe and the US resolve their banking crises, their underlying economies are slowing down, which is bad news for Asian exports.
UK cash injection
The European plan was confirmed after an emergency Paris summit of the 15 eurozone leaders on Sunday.
Under the eurozone plan, members pledged to guarantee loans between banks until the end of 2009, and said they would put money into them by buying preference shares.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy - whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU - said the group was taking unprecedented steps. The plan was similar to one announced by Britain last week, and although the UK is not a member of the eurozone club, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended parts of Sunday's talks.
Governments in Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere are due to present their individual plans later, within the agreed eurozone framework, said Mr Sarkozy.
"The crisis has over the past few days entered into a phase that makes it intolerable to opt for procrastination and a go-it-alone approach," he said. Mr Sarkozy said the plan addressed all aspects of the financial crisis, but he did not say how much it would cost.
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Financial Crisis In Graphics
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It is shaping up to be one of the most tumultuous times on record in the global financial markets. The financial landscape is going through a period of upheaval with some major firms folding, other operations merging and a limited number of companies in both the Europe and the US, being rescued at a governmental level.
THE CASUALTIES
As the global financial crisis has worsened, the number of firms to crumble or be bought out has increased.
US BAIL-OUT
Governments have spent billions of dollars on rescue packages, led by the US with its $700bn rescue package.
UK RESCUE PLANS
STOCK MARKETS
In London confidence in the markets fell with news of Bradford and Bingley's nationalisation. Banking shares have been the worst hit by the financial turmoil.
FTSE 100 INDEX: 16 September 2008 - present
In Japan, the main Nikkei index lost 3% in value following news of the failure of the US bail-out plan.
NIKKEI 225 INDEX: 16 September 2008 - present
After the failure of the US bail-out plan, the Dow Jones index lost 770 points, 6.9%, its biggest one-day
fall since the present crisis began.
DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: 16 September 2008 - present
SHARE PRICES
Banks have continued to suffer the steepest falls in share prices. HBOS share prices fell sharply on
Tuesday, down 26% at one point, before picking up again.
Royal Bank of Scotland shares have followed a very similar downward path. The bank suffered a
pre-tax loss of £691m in the first six months of 2008, the second biggest in UK banking history.
US bank Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America on 15 September prompting an
initial recovery in shares, but they have since dipped again.
Fortis shares were falling sharply until a rescue deal was mounted by European banks on 29 September.
COMMODITIES
The price of metals and oil has also been affected by the financial chaos. After reaching a record
high in July of $147 a barrel, the price of oil has fallen and is now back under the $100 mark. Gold has
fluctuated significantly.
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