Thursday newspaper share tips: Great Portland Estates, Inbev/SAB Miller

Rents at the investment trust were pushed up 6.5% in the six months to 30 September, largely due to what the newspaper’s Questor column described as “frantic demand for office and retail space” in the West End, where the large bulk of the trust’s portfolio is held.

The value of its holdings rose by a whopping £356m in the period, to £2.75bn - or 808p per share.

Questor said the tight supply of property in the capital’s entertainment hub, as well as driving demand for space, should push rents higher still.

The column said investors have been laughing all the way to the bank, with sustained low interest rates and the UK’s steady economic recovery making for a heady tailwind.

But it warned that with the prospect of the Fed leading interest rate rises in December, the seas might turn somewhat rougher in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the pink one was spitting tacks at the latest move in brewing.

The pundits at the Financial Times believe AB InBev’s investors will be waking up with a sore head, after the Belgian brewing giant swallowed its London rival SABMiller for the princely sum of £71bn.

It’s a deal that “underwhelms”, with the newspaper’s Lex column highlighting the fact AB Inbev shareholders have paid a $35bn premium on the promised $1.4bn of annual savings the deal promises.

Taxed and capitalised, the newspaper said the meagre savings could be pumped up to $11bn, but that it still looked like “a very expensive way to save a little money”.

Since rumblings of the acquisition emerged in late September, however, AB Inbev’s shares have risen by a fifth.

It’s here that Lex conceded one point to AB InBev’s chief Carlos Brito – “the benefit of the doubt” – for now, at least.