Mapeley is expected to lose its most experienced director this month, after boardroom clashes over the future direction of the outsourcing specialist.
Deputy chairman and co-founder Robin Priest is to quit the business, which owns the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise estates and the Abbey portfolio. Priest led the teams responsible for winning both deals.
Sources said Priest was keen to keep Mapeley focused on outsourcing projects. But new chief executive Jamie Hopkins – the former acquisitions director of shareholder Delancey – wants to bulk up the business with straight property acquisitions alongside outsourcing contracts.
The split comes after a difficult period for Mapeley. In April it came close to winning the £300m Aviva outsourcing, but lost to Land Securities Trillium in the final round. Mapeley has not won any new deals since Priest landed the private sector’s first outsourcing deal with the £460m sale-and- leaseback for Abbey in 2000.
It has been plagued by negative publicity following the revelation in 2002 that the Inland Revenue’s buildings had been contracted to Mapeley’s sister company, registered in the tax haven of Bermuda. This week’s NAO report (see below) finally exonerates Mapeley, saying that putting the properties offshore “has no material effect on the overall value for money of this deal to the UK taxpayer”.
Priest wanted to stand by Mapeley, at least until the NAO approved the deal. The NAO singles him out for providing continuity to the Inland Revenue contract, which it says has suffered from the loss of key senior staff on both sides.
Priest has remained the face of the business throughout this period and sources said his departure now would be a heavy blow to Mapeley. It was Priest’s pioneering business model — developed while he was head of structured finance at Bank of America – that first attracted George Soros in 1999.
He joined forces with Soros Real Estate Partners, Fortress Investment Corporation and the Ritblat family’s Delancey Estates, chaired by John Ritblat, to launch Mapeley that year. Priest moved from chief executive to deputy chairman in 2002. Bob Spoerri, the former CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Americas region, took on the chief executive’s job in 2002, but left after just one year.
Priest and Hopkins were not contactable.
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