UK regional property investor and manager Praxis has announced plans to expand by offering asset and property management services to third-party clients.
Founded in 2008, Praxis was originally established as a proprietary asset management business to exploit opportunities arising from the global financial crisis, but has since grown via a series of institutional and family office mandates to become one of the UK's largest privately owned property companies.
Gary Roberts, Praxis chief operating officer, commented: 'We’ve been repeatedly asked to manage real estate on behalf of third parties for years, and have so far resisted but we now have a management platform and a retail track record that is crying out to be levered.
'We have studied the market very carefully over the last five years and have analysed in detail more than 300 schemes nationally; what became abundantly clear is how poorly managed many of these schemes are.
'In almost every situation we looked at, we felt we could do a better job than the incumbent managers, to change the trajectory of the scheme and create value. Given the status of the capital markets, it’s highly likely that we and many other "owners" are going to be holding these schemes for years, so we decided the time was right to offer our expertise and help others navigate the journey.'
Praxis has recruited former Knight Frank capital markets partner Mark Smith to spearhead business development for the third-party management and advisory business.
Smith joined Knight Frank from CBRE in 2012 to develop the retail team, and latterly he led the firm’s strategy to advise both local authorities on regeneration, and lenders in recovery situations. He has worked alongside Praxis for several years, including on their acquisitions of Blaydon Shopping Centre and The Grove in Witham.
Smith said: 'I have been at the forefront of the retail market for the past decade and as a result I have seen first-hand the successes and failures of different management approaches. The industry is in a perilous state and the effectiveness of management has never been more important.
'In my opinion, Praxis are hands down the best at what they do; they are very commercially savvy and just get things done. I’m delighted to be joining such a dynamic and entrepreneurial team and can’t wait to get started.'
Concluded Roberts: 'There is no doubt that 2020 has been a challenging year, and our management capabilities have been tested like never before.
But our fantastic team have excelled themselves, and we have proved to ourselves and our partners that the model works, and we get results however tough the conditions.
'We have collected - by which we mean cash in the bank - 88% of our rents for Q2 and Q3 and at the same time cut our irrecoverables by some 30%. Our business is not immune to Covid-19 but our cashflow has remained strong and that is testament to our approach, and the intelligent hard work of our team.'
