LONDON: Dukemount Capital, the property management and long dated income provider, announced that it has appointed Matthew Thompson MBA BA (Hons.) as Chief Executive Officer.

Matthew is qualified in commercial and corporate law and has 17 years of private equity, family office, legal, energy and real estate experience gained in executive and leadership positions. He has a wealth of experience from contract management and procurement to land and property development control.

As well as the CEO responsibilities, Matthew will manage the due diligence and development process of each project, driving forward current and future projects and assist the board in its discussions with institutions with regards to investment in long dated income.

Dukemount Executive Chairman Geoffrey Dart said, “I would like to welcome Matthew to the company, and I look forward to working alongside him as we grow the business.”

With the potential uplift in project size and the significantly increased size of the parties involved in these talks we are initially concentrating our discussions with one university. During the last 3 months it has been challenging and we are being very mindful of the fact that the start of the new education year, and the continued uncertainty of COVID-19, are foremost in all universities thoughts with regards to the safety of their students. As we have mentioned previously, there is a real appetite within the university sector for development of classrooms and student accommodation and I look forward to updating shareholders at the appropriate time.

Dukemount CEO, Matthew Thompson said, “I’m excited by this new opportunity, building on what has been achieved and looking forward to helping drive the company forward.”

The purpose of the Company is to acquire, develop and manage portfolios of properties which may in some cases be sold onto institutional investors on a sale and leaseback basis and which are already backed up by long-term operational tenants at a rent, which where possible, is CPI linked. The required rental profile implies that the target properties will be operating in cash regenerative business such as Housing Associations properties in the Supported Living sector, Independent Retirement Living with Extra Care and Hotels.

The Company will generally seek operational tenants willing to enter into lease terms of at least 25 years which will enable the Company to enter into long-term sale and leaseback arrangements.

The Directors believe that such properties will be attractive to institutional investors who will want long-term leases of appropriate properties provided that they are combined in portfolios of appropriate size to ensure consistent long-term returns and offer minimised risk of tenant insolvency and void periods.