Retail & Leisure Adviser of the Year – Sponsored by Whitbread
Battersea Power Station, Primark, Regent Street – pepper your awards submission with big names like this, as Cushman & Wakefield did last year, and success might be yours.
C&W is still savouring the feeling, with judges hailing the firm as “dominant” after poring over its winning submission.
The firm’s ambition is to be number one globally. Trophy deals, including a sought-after appointment – taking Primark to the US – plus an EG Award (and a proposed takeover by DTZ) have put it firmly on that path.
Deal of the Year – Business Impact – Sponsored by Linklaters
Lambert Smith Hampton nailed it with its entry last year.
Superlatives spewed from the judges’ mouths as the organisation convinced them that last year’s biggest deal in the commercial property sector did not involve the purchase of land or buildings, but the strategic acquisition of a leading commercial property consultancy business by the UK’s largest integrated property services group.
The £34.1m acquisition of LSH by Countrywide in an astonishing three weeks was a “game-changer”, the panel said, a “fantastic deal”.
Retail & Leisure Company of the Year – Sponsored by Hartnell Taylor Cook
New River Retail set the bar high in 2014. The REIT dismissed other finalists with a headline-grabbing deal – the acquisition of 202 pubs from Marston’s for £90m.
That was in addition to quadrupling its market capital to almost £300m and delivering a shareholder return of 55%.
Confidence is returning to the retail and leisure market, says Rob Amey, partner at Hartnell Taylor Cook.
“Strong shopping centre investment transaction levels show the industry’s faith in the adaptability of town and city centres,” he says. “We help clients adapt and profit from these changes.”
EG London Award – Sponsored by BNP Paribas Real Estate
The winner of the 2014 award, Sir Edward Lister, has been called “Boris Johnson’s representative on earth”.
If the mayor himself has been London’s greatest salesman on the world stage since taking office in 2008, Lister has been the man who has made things happen. His open-door policy and commitment to development have won him many friends in this industry.
The task now falls to Team EG to select another stardust-sprinkled denizen of London for this year’s award. The team will be on the lookout for a person or an organisation whose influence over and commitment to the continued development of the city is out of this world.
