Rugby Estates Investment Trust (RugbyReit) has made an offer worth £21.5 mln (EUR 30 mln) to aquire the entire share capital of George Philip Properties Group (GPPG) from private investors. GPPG has assets in London and Northern Ireland valed at £26.7 mln which generate a rental income of £1.1 mln annually.
Rugby Estates Investment Trust (RugbyReit) has made an offer worth £21.5 mln (EUR 30 mln) to aquire the entire share capital of George Philip Properties Group (GPPG) from private investors. GPPG has assets in London and Northern Ireland valed at £26.7 mln which generate a rental income of £1.1 mln annually.
RugbyReit raised £50 mln from institutional investors in an IPO this summer to establish a vehicle to take advantage of the tax-friendly real estate investment trust (REIT) regime introduced in the UK in 2007. The trust's strategy is to acquire investment properties from private investment companies with latent capital gains tax liabilities and use the REIT route to minimise the tax bill. In the last three months, RugbyReit has acquired two property investment companies from private shareholders.
David Tye, chairman of Rugby Asset Management, the group's property adviser, said: 'This transaction will bring RugbyReit's total property acquisitions to date to over £80 mln. We have identified a number of other private property companies and are currently at various stages of negotiation regarding their potential acquisition by the company.'