D2 Private buys bank branches for £72m

Dublin-based property investment company D2 Private is set to become landlord to a major British bank as the result of a €105 million property deal.

D2 announced yesterday that it has bought 15 bank branches across cities and towns, including Derby, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham and York, for £72 million (€105 million). The properties are located in prime retail districts in the cities in question and are let to Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) plc for the next 19 years on full leases and with no tenant breaks.

D2 is expecting them to deliver a rental yield of 4 per cent, which it says is attractive in light of the fact that both Bank of Ireland and AIB are doing similar deals for much lower yields. The deal follows D2's recent purchase of a residential site in Foxrock, Dublin for €31 million.

It completed that transaction this week.

Recently, it bought a prime commercial and office building in Ballsbridge for €50 million.

D2 has built up a portfolio of London properties worth more than €1 billion since it began investing last year. In April, it paid €475 million for the Woolgate Exchange, one of the most prestigious office blocks in the City of London. In January, it spent €90 million on property in Mayfair in the centre of the British capital.

Last year it bought the Richared Rogers-designed Marks & Spencer headquarters in Paddington, London, for approximately €205 million. Former Quinlan Private director Deirdre Foley founded the property investment company last year along with David Arnold and Brendan O'Mara.

Mr O'Mara chairs D2 and holds the same position with Bruce Shaw, the biggest firm of quantity surveyors in the Republic. Mr Arnold is a well-known property investor and developer.