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Silent Goodbye a sad reality. (Mom passes on & leaves small Children)

The quiet community of Ngodini, just outside Nelspruit in Mpumalanga, South Africa, woke up to heartbreaking news that left neighbours and relatives in disbelief. Twelve-year-old Ayanda had always been the responsible one. As the eldest of three children, she helped her mother care for her younger siblings, eight-year-old Sipho and four-year-old Amahle. Their mother, Nomsa, worked hard to provide for them, often reminding her children that no matter how difficult life became, they should always love and protect one another. One cold winter morning, the children woke up as usual. Ayanda prepared breakfast while waiting for their mother to get up for work. Minutes turned into an hour, but Nomsa never came out of her bedroom. Ayanda gently knocked on the door. "Mama?" she called softly. There was no answer. She knocked again, louder this time. "Mama, it's morning. You have to wake up." Still, there was only silence. Growing worried, Ayanda tried opening the door. H...

Companies are selling their real estate at the fastest pace ever

 As they rush to shore up their Covid-battered balance sheets.

Image: Camilla Cerea/Bloomberg

Companies are selling record amounts of real estate as they rush to shore up their Covid-battered balance sheets.

Firms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa sold 27 billion euros ($32 billion) of corporate properties in 2020, according to a report by broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. That was slightly more than a year earlier, even as overall real estate deals collapsed during the pandemic.

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Companies are ditching property to “preserve capital and release liquidity, as well as to reshape their portfolios to support post-pandemic business plans,” said Nick Compton, head of corporate capital markets for EMEA at JLL.

Just over a third of corporate sales were office properties, with volumes jumping 10% from the previous year. All types of commercial real estate sales in Europe plunged by 27% in 2020, according to Real Capital Analytics data.

Widespread lockdowns cut off revenue overnight for many retail and hospitality businesses in 2020, straining their balance sheets and prompting them to raise capital. Many of the sales involved leaseback agreements, allowing companies to access capital while maintaining their premises. Retailers including the U.K.’s John Lewis Partnership Plc and Matalan were among property sellers.

The forced shift to home working also provoked many businesses to reconsider how much real estate they will need in future.

“What we are witnessing is a wholesale rethink from many enterprises on their relationship to real estate,” said JLL EMEA Corporate Solutions CEO Mark Caskey.

© 2021 Bloomberg

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