The London Daily News

28 October, 2008 20:19 (GMT +00:00)

Andy Panayiotou the Chairman of the Ability Group spoke exclusively to the London Daily News on the state of the economy, watch the full interview in the video section.

By John Kaponi

Andy Panayiotou the Chairman of the Ability Group one of the UK's largest property company's has predicted that many companies dealing in property development will fail due to high levels of debt and the market has yet to hit the bottom. In an exclusive interview with the internet newspaper the London Daily News the Chairman of the Ability Group highlighted the flawed strategies of many property companies and the lending practices of banks.

"Instead of building cash reserves these companies were reinvesting into more property", Andy Panayiotou speaking to The London Daily News.

"These next few years there will be a great tidy up and a shuffle up".

The Ability Group has embarked on strategy away from residential property and is now "focused" on building five star hotels like the Hilton in Liverpool, The Stakis Hotel in Dunblane, Cyan Park in Chiswick a 5 star Hilton, a plot of land in Luton acquired to build a 250 room hotel and in Sicily a 5 star hotel.

"We decided to sell two years ago £750 million of residential property now we look back with hindsight and say its luck or good business sense, but right now we have been busier than at any other time in our history. There are deals to be made".

The market is now an attractive place for the Ability Group to make deals with Mr Panayiotou saying:

"This is we take advantage now, a lot of assets we could not buy are now within reach".

Mr Panayiotou speaking from his HQ in Mayfair underlined the importance for businesses to get back to basics,
"the basis of business, what is your cost of funds, and what are your returns, must be practiced again and we must not go back to these complex financial mechanisms".

"For the layman it is now a period to tighten up and hold onto what you have got, for the long term that asset value will return".

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