Highcross is weighing up the future of its 50% stake in one of the largest developers in the North East.
The US-backed opportunity fund manager is understood to have approached a limited number of potential investors to gauge interest in a sale of its share in UK Land Estates, which has an 11m sq ft portfolio spanning 25 industrial estates.
Highcross formed a 50:50 joint venture with UK Land Estates Partnership in 2011 when it bought out Lloyds Banking Group’s stake in the business.
The fund manager, until recently led by Peter Gubb, invested on behalf of Highcross Regional UK Partners III, which was launched in March 2008 after raising £500m from US endowment funds. The fund expires in September 2018.
Highcross provided fresh equity and a mezzanine investment in the company when it came on board in 2011, ?nine years after UK Land Estates Partnerships was set ?up as a 50:50 joint venture ?with Uberior, a division of ?HBOS, bought by Lloyds after the crash.
The fund manager undertook a management reshuffle in August 2013 when managing director Gubb retired after 27 years at the company and was replaced by finance director Mike Megan.
All parties declined to comment.
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
