50% growth in assets under management for Orchard Street in 2011

Investment transactions include acquisition and disposal of significant retail and office schemes

Article posted: 23 Jan 2012

In 2011 Orchard Street Investment Management has announced that it increased assets under management by £800m to £2.5bn and completed £580m of investment transactions in 2011.

In September, Orchard Street was appointed by St James’s Place Wealth Management as investment manager of over £800m of property funds. The mandate includes the St. James’s Place UK Life and Pension Property Fund and the St. James’s Place Authorised Property Unit Trust.

Since January 2011, Orchard Street has been an active investor across all the various client funds under management. In total, it has acquired nineteen properties with a combined value of £414m including seven retail assets. Orchard Street also completed sales totalling £167m including 102,000 sq ft of office space in Manchester at Marble Arch Tower, Belvedere and office space in the City of London, EC4 at 60 Cannon Street (pictured). The average initial yield on acquisitions was 6.3% and on disposals 5.7%.

Asset management activity included over 850,000 sq ft of new lettings, lease renewals and lease restructurings with a total rental value of around £12.4m. Significant among these were the lettings of 35,200 sq ft of office space in Midtown at the newly refurbished 11 Strand, and a five year lease extension to HMG for 155,355 sq ft of office space in Southwark, SE1 at Rose Court.

Commenting on the property market, and the past year, Chris Bartram, Chairman at Orchard Street Investment Management, said: “2011 has been a successful and busy year for Orchard Street on many levels. We are delighted to have been appointed as Property Investment Manager by St James’s Place, and to have been able to add several assets to all our client fund portfolios. In a challenging market we believe that we have positioned each of our client funds well for further outperformance.”

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Posted by Ingrid