Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, California. It is looking to renegotiate terms of its leases on offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times. AFP
Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, California. It is looking to renegotiate terms of its leases on offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times. AFP
Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, California. It is looking to renegotiate terms of its leases on offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times. AFP
Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, California. It is looking to renegotiate terms of its leases on offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times. AFP

How Twitter's bid to cut costs are weighing on an obscure group of investors


  • English
  • Arabic

Elon Musk’s efforts to cut costs at Twitter are hitting an obscure group of investors: holders of bonds tied to the company’s headquarters building in San Francisco.

Twitter hasn’t paid rent on its headquarters, or any of its other global offices, in weeks, the New York Times reported on December 13.

Its main office at 1355 Market Street in San Francisco has a mortgage that was packaged into a $400 million bond in 2015.

Prices on one portion of the bond dropped to about 85 cents on the dollar in the middle of the week, from around 99 cents on Tuesday, according to price data compiled by Bloomberg. Those securities were originally rated B- by Morningstar.

Twitter isn’t the only tenant in the building, but it’s the biggest by far.

The social media company is also looking to renegotiate terms of its leases on offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times.

Shorenstein Realty Investors manages the building and owns a portion alongside outside investors.

Twitter’s efforts to cut lease expenses only adds to the owners’ difficulty.

The mortgage on the building matured in September and the borrower failed to refinance it, according to Morningstar Credit Information and Analytics.

Getting mortgages on big office buildings is difficult enough now, but missed lease payments from the biggest tenant will only make efforts to refinance the property harder, said David Putro, head of commercial real estate analytics at MCIA.

“In an already difficult lending environment, even a temporary cessation of lease payments would further complicate a refinancing,” said Mr Putro.

If Shorenstein and others on the hook for repayments fail to repay the mortgage loan again in January, lenders have a handful of options to try to ensure they get paid.

That could include giving the borrowers more time to repay bondholders in exchange for other borrower concessions and equity contributions, or foreclosing on the building and selling it, said Michael Cohen, managing partner at Brighton Capital Advisers.

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League final:

Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports

The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make

When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.

“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.

This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).

Age

$250 a month

$500 a month

$1,000 a month

25

$640,829

$1,281,657

$2,563,315

35

$303,219

$606,439

$1,212,877

45

$131,596

$263,191

$526,382

55

$44,351

$88,702

$177,403

 

RESULT

Kolkata Knight Riders 169-7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals 144-4 (20 ovs)

Kolkata win by 25 runs

Next match

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders, Friday, 5.30pm

The five stages of early child’s play

From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:

1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.

2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.

3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.

4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.

5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Company Fact Box

Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019

Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO

Based: Amman, Jordan

Sector: Education Technology

Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed

Stage: early-stage startup 

Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.

The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience

by David Gilmour

Allen Lane

Bugatti Chiron Super Sport - the specs:

Engine: 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 

Transmission: 7-speed DSG auto 

Power: 1,600hp

Torque: 1,600Nm

0-100kph in 2.4seconds

0-200kph in 5.8 seconds

0-300kph in 12.1 seconds

Top speed: 440kph

Price: Dh13,200,000

Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport - the specs:

Engine: 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 

Transmission: 7-speed DSG auto 

Power: 1,500hp

Torque: 1,600Nm

0-100kph in 2.3 seconds

0-200kph in 5.5 seconds

0-300kph in 11.8 seconds

Top speed: 350kph

Price: Dh13,600,000

Updated: December 17, 2022, 7:30 AM