Making property work for you
Case studies
Realising strategic assets
One of the ways that owner-occupiers could achieve more efficient use of space is to lease their property rather than own it. Sale-and-leaseback transactions take property off the balance sheet and release cash to invest or reduce debt.
This strategy was extremely beneficial for Corus Catnic in Caerphilly helping them to continue trading during a difficult period and enabling them to procure a flagship headquarters building for the South Wales-based business.
The company was previously located on two sites in an older factory premises
and a property that was old and had extended over the years to become
a complex of corridors and office spaces. In addition, the company had
an adjoining parcel of waste land that was unsuitable for their own use.
The company was able to realise capital by way of a sale-and-leaseback and through the sale of non-performing assets for residential use. Corus Catnic now occupy a single site with modern, purpose-built offices.
Roger Thomas, Corus Catnic, "Property was becoming a major issue for us and we sought advice from Robert Chapman to consolidate our business and assist us in disposing of the waste land. The advice we received was highly professional and completely independent.
The project has been very successful both from a financial standpoint as well as our improved positioning within the business community."
Property acquisition makes a significant contribution to growth plans
The acquisition of property is often a major investment for an organisation and can be the key to future success. It can also take a lot of time – a commodity that is not available to senior executives. Vista Retail Support, one of the UK’s leading IT service and support organisations dedicated to the retail and hospitality markets, discovered that expansion into a second property contributed significantly to their growth plans.
Vista takes responsibility for thousands of EPoS installations across the UK using a team of specialist engineers who are coordinated through a central Retail Support Centre in Cardiff. Space at their Pentwyn facility was at a premium as more and more staff needed to be accommodated. Robert Chapman had assisted Vista in acquiring their first property and his expertise was sought once again to weigh up the alternatives of acquiring a second.
Robert quickly established that a property on the same site as Vista was about to become available in the market place. He opened an early dialogue with the company in order to ‘steal a march’ and to ensure a competitive advantage. Having co-ordinated the due diligence exercise, he then agreed the terms of the lease assignment.
Richard Olds, Vista’s Finance Director, explains, “With Robert’s local knowledge and awareness of the market and his technical expertise, he was able to ‘acquire’ a second property for us – without his tactical input, I suspect we may have ‘missed the boat’. It is extremely beneficial to have the two properties in close proximity and we have been able to introduce a new stock system for greater efficiency. With so much more space, internal morale is much improved and our customers now have a better perception of the business. Robert’s professional approach and expert knowledge has been appreciated.”