Grafton Advisors says it will be in a better position to continue the long-term asset management of the £1.3bn West End of London Property Unit Trust, after being acquired by GreenOak.
Its eight staff will now also have the opportunity to work with the GreenOak team, which is led by founders and former Morgan Stanley Real Estate executives John Carrafiell, Sonny Kalsi and Fred Schmidt, on its international projects.
Ker Gilchrist, property director of Grafton, said: “It’s about expanding the business we do from a WELPUT fund perspective. Being with GreenOak gives us the footing to do that.
“This deal puts the Grafton team in a position of long-term stability with a real opportunity to expand what we already do.”
Grafton was bought by Lone Star as part of its £700m take-private deal of Quintain in September last year, but the fund manager was a non-core part of the business.
Quintain retains a 1.3% stake in WELPUT, which was not part of the deal with GreenOak.
WELPUT owns 12 assets across the central London office market, including North West House, NW1.
Although both GreenOak and Grafton said there were no plans for Grafton to find clients outside WELPUT, Gilchrist said he hoped to have some involvement in GreenOak’s international portfolio, which has assets in the US, Europe and Japan.
“I hope that we will get involved with what they are doing on a day-to-day basis. It is an opportunity to work with [internationally] diverse, like-minded people,” he said.
Toby Phelps, a partner at GreenOak, said the firm was confident of its investment despite post-Brexit uncertainty in the London market.
“It’s right to be cautious, but we are well placed to take the opportunities and even better placed now with Grafton,” he said.
WELPUT’s top five assetts
Grafton Advisors co-manages WELPUT’s £1.3bn portfolio with Schroders. The trust’s biggest assets include:
Stirling Square, SW1
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