Member Article

Dickinson Dees advise on £39.1m Addington property deal

The administrators of Grant West Property Ltd and Grant Residential Property Ltd have sold £39.1m worth of student properties to Addington Capital.

Under an agreement with Lloyds Banking Group, the Newcastle-based property group Grainer are the strategic asset and property managers to the administrators through their Residential Asset Management Platform (RAMP), that was set up last year to manage distressed residential assets.

Law firm Dickinson Dees also played a role in the sale of the properties; mainly houses that are privately let to students across UK cities such as Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham.

Nigel Emmerson, residential real estate partner with Dickinson Dees, who advised Graingerand the Administrators, explained: “This was a complicated transaction where we acted jointly for the Administrators, Ernst & Young, and Grainger Residential Asset Management Platform (RAMP), assisted by Anderson Strathern in respect of the Scottish property element.

“The team was led by Emma Garfit, supported by John Morgan, who drew on the combined resource of our Residential Investment and Insolvency Real Estate teams. We have proved again that we are the leading team in the area of Residential Investment Real Estate, handling another high profile and complex deal.”

Grant West Property and Grant Residential Property were backed by North East entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter and Uberior, the private equity division of HBOS.

The company’s initial intention when established in 2007 was to develop a £1bn portfolio, but at its height it only reached a value of about £150m.

Alex Greaves, Fund Manager for Grainger said: “I would like to thank the Dickinson Dees team, led by Emma Garfit, who did a first-class job in ensuring that this difficult deal was concluded to everyone’s satisfaction. The commitment and expertise shown by the legal team was exemplary, especially since we were all working to a tight timescale.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .