Quintain Estates & Developments has bought Nigel Kempner’s Grafton Advisors for around £5.8m.
The takeover of the firm, which acts as property adviser to the £872m Schroders-managed West End of London Property Unit Trust, pushed Quintain’s assets under management up to £2.3bn.
Quintain had a target of increasing its assets under management to £2bn by March 2013.
The move adds the core offer of West End offices to Quintain’s four existing funds: its Quercus healthcare vehicle, the iQ student accommodation fund, science park fund Quantum and its secondary property fund, SeQuel.
It will be Quintain’s second pooled investor fund alongside Quercus, which it established in 1998 with Aviva Investors.
Quintain chief executive Adrian Wyatt said the acquisition also “enhances the group’s recurring income, offers upside potential through performance and development fees and increases the breadth and depth of expertise within Quintain”.
The deal comes just weeks after Quintain’s head of fund management, David Gavaghan, resigned.
Kempner, who set up Grafton advisers in 2005 to advise GE Capital on the disposal of assets acquired with his previous firm, Benchmark, will become head of fund management at the listed urban regeneration specialist and investment manager.
Paul Connellan and Christopher Cope from the Grafton management team will also join Quintain, along with three other employees.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
