A LOW-PROFILE property investment company based in Dublin has acquired four branches of Barclays bank in the London area and a HSBC branch for more than £20 million (€25.55 million).
In defiance of downbeat assessments of the British commercial property market, Putney Properties concluded the deals in recent weeks with 70 per cent debt finance from Irish Life Permanent. The annual rent roll on the properties, which is understood to exceed £1 million, represents an initial yield of roughly 6 per cent.
Putney Properties is a division the Heavenly property investment business, which has been active in the Irish and British markets since the late 1990s. The firm is controlled by businessman Joe Brohoon and solicitor Damien Carley of legal firm Carley Connellan, which has an office in Temple Bar.
The transaction follows the sale last year of a large development site in Putney, London, in which the company realised more than £25 million.
Included in the Barclays deal are the bank's regional office in Croydon and a flagship branch on High Street, Bromley.
"The purchase of the property portfolio from Barclays further consolidates Putney Properties' position in the market and represents a more than healthy return on our investment income from our site in Putney, which had been yielding a rent of £800,000 per annum," said Mr Brohoon, managing director of the firm.
Such income "has been replaced by returns from the portfolio of bank properties, thus allowing us to take stock of the market and identify further opportunities for the company", he added.
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