SKINFLINT'S CITY DIARY
Xanadu Centre
I have had a soft spot for Lonrho since they took over (by a share exchange) a few shares my mother had held for a long time in Anglo-Ceylon and.General Estates. Lonrho was then 90p and she, in the words of clever city folk 'couldn't afford to stay in' after 340p. They're now, though she is the last person to be glad, a satisfactory 90p again. If I had Lonrho shares 1 think I should sell them should they take over the 150,000 square foot Centre Point tower in the Tottenham Court Road.
I do not envy anyone who has to work in Centre Point whether for Lonrho or any of the sub-tenants from whom they will be drawing a profit rental. There are few lifts and there is a rumoured plan far staggered lunch and office closing times to relieve the pressures on not only the lifts but the pedestrian crossings and tunnels from the island site.
Lonrho plan to use four or five floors themselves and to sub-let the rest to smaller firms who by themselves are unsatisfactory to the re-financing interests with whom the owners, Harry Hya,ms and George Wimpey Ltd, will be negotiating when a substantial main tenant is found to take the main lease. A scheme such as this one may work but it amounts to a property speculation and is certainly not Lonrho's usual business which has been the buying of asset-rich companies ,in speculative places like Africa, in exchange for their shares when they were standing high.
The trouble for Lonrho shareholders with a 'flyer' of this sort by their board is that it takes their eye from the main task of looking after widespread interests and an already difficult-to-supervise group.
If the deal comes to be done and the block is given some such name as Lonrho Centre it will lead the poor plantation and mine managers in places like Mauritius and Ashanti to believe that there is some Citizen Kane at the head of their affairs and that he has created for himself his own Xanadu.
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