Top stories – 23 April

Rapleys buys Brum agency Rapleys has bought Birmingham-based agency Bartlett Property. The deal is due to complete on 1 May and Alfred Bartlett, founder and director of Bartlett Property will lead the Birmingham office. Rapleys currently has 152 staff and offices in London, Bristol, Edinburgh, Huntingdon and Manchester. BCSC chief Coyne steps down John Coyne has stepped down as chief executive of BCSC only 10 months after taking up the role. Coyne was appointed to undertake BCSC’s Strategy 2020 project to reposition it as the main membership body for the retail property industry. Edward Cooke, director of policy and public affairs, has been named acting chief executive. Tchenguiz lawsuit blocked Vincent Tchenguiz has had his lawsuit against a former executive of failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing blocked. Tchenguiz alleged that in 2009 Johannes Rumar Johannsson and others conspired to encourage the Serious Fraud Office to investigate Kaupthing and the Tchenguiz brothers. However, it was determined that Tchenguiz cannot sue Johannsson due to an agreement made while settling an earlier lawsuit with Kaupthing itself. New face at Native Land Native Land has appointed Joanna Kennedy as a non-executive director. A chartered civil engineer and project manager, Kennedy’s previous roles include director and global leader for programme and project management at Arup, where she was a founder of the project management business. Alternative property on the rise Total investment into alternative property sectors will increase by 10% to £14.3bn in 2016, according to Knight Frank. In 2015, 18.3% of all commercial property investment transactions were in alternative property, with overseas capital accounting for 62% of deals. To send feedback, e-mail shekha.vyas@estatesgazette.com or tweet @ShekhaV or @estatesgazette