Lomond Capital has secured a foothold in the Birmingham agency market with the acquisition of John Shepherd Lettings.
The agent – which managers 1,050 properties with a combined value of £250m – was bought for an undisclosed sum, with the deal also covering the agent’s Marwood Homes brand.
Lomond’s Aberdeen-based Stonehouse team has also bought Pagan Osborne’s rental portfolio, which takes Stonehouse’s portfolio to 2,000 properties with a total value of £445m.
The deals follow July’s injection of funding from private equity firm MML Capital.
John Shepherd Lettings joint chief executives Richard Crathorne and Gary Black will be retained as shareholders and in their current board roles.
Lomond already owns around 50 properties in the Birmingham area. As part of Lomond’s plan to build a regional property management network it will look to extend into Leeds this year and the South East in early 2015.
Lomond Capital chief executive Stuart Pender said: “Birmingham has a very attractive property market and has been a key target for Lomond Capital for some time. We have been looking for a high quality, ambitious firm with a strong brand to act as the hub of our growth strategy in Birmingham and have found it in John Shepherd Lettings.”
Crathorne added: “This is a fantastic opportunity to grow our business across Birmingham. It will enable us to embark on a period of expansion through acquiring other businesses and will allow us to offer other related, added-value services to our existing customers such as insurance, mortgages and property investment management via the wider Lomond Group.”
chris.berkin@estatesgazette.com
