Today, Britain’s Property Week magazine exclusively reported that NAMA has sold a GBP 100m (€121m) portfolio to a British consortium comprising The William Pears Group and Development Securties (commonly called “DevSecs” in property circles). The portfolio, the so-called “Chrome Portfolio”, was assembled by NAMA Top 10 developer, Gerry Gannon (of the K Club fame – see earlier blogpost today) and comprises residential and retail property in London and England and Scotland. Savills had been marketing the portfolio – see the 101-page brochure here – and the portfolio, which has very little vacancy, seemingly yields GBP 6.4m (€7.7m) in rent each year which gives a relatively attractive 6.4% implied yield on the transaction, though it should be noted that much of the retail property is in secondary locations. Property Week says that the yield on the residential portion equates to 3-4% and on the retail, 8-9%. Apparently other companies were sniffing around the portfolio, with Property Week citing Palmer Capital and Cannon Estates.
Neither NAMA nor the buyers are presently commenting on the reported transaction.
UPDATEL 7th February, 2012. Development Securities has issued a statmement in which it says “Development Securities confirms that it is in discussions with NAMA regarding the potential acquisition of a number of different assets. However, it is not in a position to comment on these discussions at this juncture” The Property Week report says that DevSecs and Pears have “won” the portfolio, but as with many of these transactions, there is quite a distance between an agreement and a final sale.
UPDATE: 6th August, 2012. Nick Johnstone at Property Week who first reported sale talks between Gerry Gannon and DevSecs and Pears has today reported that the sale has now concluded, though we don’t have a price as yet.