(Reuters) – Land Securities Group Plc (LON:), Britain’s top commercial property landlord, has appointed broadcaster Channel 4’s Ian Cheshire as its next chairman, the company said on Friday.
The new Landsec chairman takes over the mantle at a time when UK commercial property values are seeing a slump, pressured by rising interest rates and broader economic uncertainty.
Aggressive interest rate hikes to tame stubborn inflation and deepening recession worries are dampening a tentative recovery in the British commercial property sector from the pandemic fallout.
Cheshire, the chairman of Channel 4 and private hospital operator Spire, replaces Cressida Hogg, who was named the next chair of defence firm BAE Systems (LON:) last year.
He will join the Landsec board in a non-executive capacity on March 23 and take over the chairman’s role on May 16, when Hogg retires after almost five years in that position.
Cheshire, 63, is currently a non-executive director at BT Group (LON:) and will retire from the communications firm at their annual general meeting in July.
A veteran in the retail industry, Cheshire had joined Channel 4’s board last April and was in the forefront of discussions with the British government over its now-abandoned privatisation plan.
