Dyson should stick to his hoovering

The British appliances billionaire Sir James Dyson has reportedly agreed to sell his S$73.8m (£41.6m) Singapore penthouse at a £6.6m loss, says Lex. What appalling timing. There was “negative growth in the first quarter”, but property prices are now actually edging up in the Asian city state. And there look to be plenty of drivers that could send them higher yet. Singapore has become the main “beneficiary of sour relations distancing Beijing from the US, and Chinese party bosses from Hongkongers”. Indeed, its “relative neutrality” has lured tech giants from all sides to make it an offshore regional hub. Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance have recently taken new office space to complement domestic HQs in China. But so, too, have America’s Amazon and Tesla. So far this year, Singapore has secured sign-ups for more than 350,000 square feet of new office space. That figure is expected to grow by another 50% next year – with a likely knock-on effect on house prices. Sir James’s “cheery demonstrations on how to vacuum are more instructive than his real estate moves”. He apparently still owns a bungalow in Singapore – he should hang onto it.

The would-be “ticket king” has long dreamed of uniting the two companies he founded – Viagogo and StubHub – to form a global ticketing juggernaut. Sadly, he continues to be confounded, said The Observer. Weeks after Baker negotiated his $4bn takeover of StubHub from eBay, “the pandemic shut down live events indefinitely” – leading some to dub it “the worst deal in history”. Baker, 47, dismissed Covid as a “flash in the pan” and pressed on with the deal, roping in such backers as the “mega-rich Waltons, the family behind Walmart”. But now the UK competition watchdog has threatened to block a tie-up that would give the company 90% of Britain’s ticket resale market. Baker’s main target in buying StubHub was the US. Those pesky Brits may “scupper everything”.