Australian investor GPT Group has bought Halverton Real Estate Investment Management.
GPT, which already owned a 25% stake in the UK company, paid €51m for the remaining 75% of shares held by Babcock & Brown and Halverton management.
“We needed a much stronger backbone to take long-term views,” Halverton chief executive Richard Croft said. “We now have the ability to acquire assets on our own balance sheet, from which we can create funds.”
Halverton was founded in 2004 by Croft, Doug Gardner, Bill Sexton, Taco de Groot and Andrew Yates to invest in higher-yielding property in Europe. The company, which started trading in January 2005, initially focused on logistics and industrial assets, but has since branched out into offices and retail.
Today, the company has 110 staff in nine locations and manages €1.3bn, through four funds and a number of separate account mandates. Following the completion of the acquisition, Halverton will be rebranded GPT Halverton.
Croft said that the change of ownership would have no impact on the staff or the management team.
