Little therapy in these retail buys

Research by Barry Gilbertson at PricewaterhouseCoopers highlights the deterioration. He follows retailers that have gone into administration, and monitors what proportion of their shops they plan to shed in order to return to profitable trading. When he first did the exercise in October 2007, they proposed to close 27% of their stores on average. By last October, the figure had risen to 38%. It is now running at 43%.

This has the potential to create a wasteland on the High Street. Gilbertson reckons that if just 10% of retailers get into financial difficulty, it would translate into 4400 empty shops. This is not a far-fetched calculation, given the casualty rate in retail and the fact that last year just 22 of 38 restructurings led to the jettisoning of 1553 stores.

These voids come on top of a development pipeline still chugging on remorselessly. Last year saw the opening of three iconic developments, Liverpool One in the City of Culture, Westfield in west London and Cabot Circus in Bristol, all of which have had a marked effect on older properties in their catchment area. But the space that will soon come onstream from developments already in the pipeline is the equivalent of seven new Blue-waters — the original being one of the largest developments of its kind in Europe. In the current climate of depressed retail spending, these will have a severe effect on the older stock.

It is also hitting rents. Rather than lose their tenants altogether, landlords are slashing rents, and in some cases allowing tenants in for nothing provided they pay the rates and electricity.It is a brave time to be buying a shopping centre.

Yea not to blame for 3i's blushes

Given what has happened to 3i's share price and various assorted embarrassments and own goals, it is perhaps no surprise that Philip Yea is chief executive no more. However, the fact that his departure was predictable does not necessarily make it fair.

What you see is what you get with Yea. Baroness Hogg, as chairman, eased out his predecessor Brian Larcombe and brought Yea in to do what he did best — turn up the financial engineering, return capital to shareholders, gear up, and get into the sexier higher-profile end of the private-equity business, rather than finance all those boring small companies that took forever to deliver returns. Change the culture and get the share price up.

This Yea did, not always wisely but well — and for a time the old lady looked positively nimble. But it is always hard to separate what is management genius and what is a bull market, and this was no exception.

When the market turned — albeit savagely — his group was left as badly exposed as any in the private-equity sector. What worked on the way up worked in reverse on the way down.

Having said that, Yea did what he was brought in to do — so the fault, if there is fault, lies with those who brought him in. Baroness Hogg, however, appears still to be firmly in place.

A harvest from the wilting pound

The rapid fall in the pound may be causing jitters in the City, but it has the nation's farmers rubbing their hands with glee. Almost all farmers in this country receive some form of support payments from the Government as part of the EU agricultural policy.

The level of payment is subject to all manner of complex formulae — but once established the recipients have the choice of being paid in either sterling or euros.

The more enterprising among them have realised that the system has not been adjusted to cope with the recent collapse of sterling, and have moved to take payment in euros while also selling the coming years' support entitlement in the futures market.

That way they can lock in the benefit of sterling's 25% fall against the single currency.

It can be quite serious money. According to Farming Today on Radio 4, top-end payments to big farmers can be as much as £250,000.

By taking it in euros and converting back to sterling that make another £75,000 to £80,000. That sounds a whole lot easier than growing cabbages.