High street firms bought up by private equity tycoons have axed almost 40,000 staff in the pandemic, the Mail can reveal today.
The jobs bloodbath is responsible for a third of all shop, pub and restaurant redundancies reported by big companies.
Low-paid workers bore the brunt of the cuts as private equity’s aggressive business model creaked or failed. The investors themselves emerged relatively unscathed.
The Mail audit found that 26 of the 67 large high street operators to announce job losses in the pandemic are either in private equity hands, or have been.
They have shed 37,609 jobs since March 2020, out of a total of 109,783 lost. Almost 23,000 jobs went at Debenhams and Boots, which were previously in private equity ownership.
China-focused SPAC Angel Pond raises $250m in downsized US IPO
Shanghai, China. Source:
Ralf Leineweber/Unsplash
May 19, 2021
Angel Pond Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that focuses on tech-enabled sectors in Greater China, announced raising $250 million in its initial public offering (IPO) in the US.
The SPAC offered 25 million units at $10 each, with every unit consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one redeemable warrant, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange and started trading under the ticker symbol POND.U on Tuesday.
The final offering was 5 million units fewer than what the company had initially filed to offer when it submitted its IPO prospectus in March.
The 55-year-old chain, owned by Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital, has slashed around 2,400 jobs and closed 73 restaurants since the pandemic broke out
Top 5 Office Projects Under Construction in California
According to CommercialEdge data, California had some 38.5 million square feet of office space underway as of April. These are the largest developments in the pipeline. May072021
As the pandemic rendered offices dispensable, California’s office market took a deep dive, leaving owners and occupiers uncertain about what the future holds. Despite the lingering unpredictability, office construction did not come to a halt in California.
According to CommercialEdge, the state’s development pipeline encompassed some 38.5 million square feet of office space as of April, and nearly 3.5 million square feet was delivered year-to-date. The list below highlights the largest office projects underway across California, based on CommercialEdge data.
Blank cheque firm Summit Healthcare files for $200m IPO, eyes target with China link
Wall Street, New York, United States. Photo: Robert Bye/Unsplash
May 5, 2021
Summit Healthcare Acquisition, a blank cheque firm led by sponsors including the founder of Asia’s healthcare private equity firm CBC Group, has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering (IPO).
According to an SEC filing on Monday, sponsors of Summit Healthcare Acquisition include CBC Group’s founder and chief executive officer Fu Wei; Tan Bo, ex-president and CFO at Chinese biotech firm 3S Bio; and Ken Poon, founding partner of Hong Kong-based boutique advisory firm XCap Partners Limited and formerly Asia Pacific Head of Capital Markets Origination at Citigroup.