LONDON, UK: Gresham House (AIM: GHE) has acquired Burlington RE Property Management Limited (Burlington Real Estate), one of Ireland’s premier independent commercial property asset and development management companies, for an initial consideration of €1.8 million.
Based in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Burlington Real Estate was established in 2012 by John Bruder and Niall Kavanagh, who together have 60 years’ combined experience in the Irish property industry.
Burlington Real Estate has had a successful strategic partnership with Gresham House Ireland (formerly Appian Asset Management) for over five years, as Investment Advisor to the MSCI award-winning Appian Burlington Property Fund which invests in office, retail and industrial properties in the greater Dublin area and major regional urban centres.
Burlington Real Estate manages or advises assets of €340 million as at 31 December 2021, which will bring pro forma assets managed or advised by Gresham House in Ireland to c.€750 million as at 31 December 2021.
The acquisition forms part of Gresham House’s ongoing international expansion plans, as set out in its five-year strategy GH25 and is the Group’s second acquisition in Ireland, following the completion of the Appian Asset Management transaction last summer.
It consolidates the existing relationship between our two businesses to achieve long-term alignment and is expected to be earnings enhancing for the Group with potential further value creation through synergies and identified growth initiatives.
The Burlington Real Estate team will become part of the Gresham House Group going forward, and its 14 employees, including John Bruder and Niall Kavanagh, will join Gresham House’s wider Real Estate activities in Ireland. Burlington Real Estate will remain the advisor to the Appian Burlington Property Fund and the recently launched Gresham House Credit Union Income Fund which invests in social housing in Ireland.
There will be no change to current operations within Burlington Real Estate, and we expect a seamless transition for Burlington Real Estate’s clients. Looking ahead we anticipate the broader suite of products and opportunities available across the Gresham House platform may be of interest to some clients and thereby an opportunity to drive further growth and enhancement of value for our business in Ireland.
Patrick Lawless, Managing Director, Gresham House Ireland commented: “Having worked closely with John and the team at Burlington Real Estate for over five years in their capacity as Advisor to our property fund, we see a strong cultural fit with the Gresham House Group and our ambitions in Ireland.”
The initial consideration of €1.8 million will be paid by the Group to the sellers of Burlington. In addition, the sellers have agreed to subscribe for 73,177 new ordinary shares of 25p each in the capital of the company, in aggregate, at a price of £8.42 per subscription share.
The subscription shares will be subject to the terms of a lock-in deed that will, subject to certain exceptions, restrict dealing in the subscription shares.
An application will be made to London Stock Exchange plc for the Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. The Subscription Shares will be issued credited as fully paid and will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares, including the right to receive all dividends and other distributions (if any) declared, made or paid on or in respect of such shares after the date of their issue.
It is expected that admission of the Subscription Shares to trading on AIM will become effective and that dealings in the Subscription Shares will commence on AIM at 8.00am on 21 March 2022.
Following Admission, the Company will have a total of 38,073,996 Ordinary Shares in issue. With effect from Admission, this figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company, under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority.
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