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GFH acquires specialised logistics, real estate asset manager in the UK

Dubai - The firm’s primary focus has been on the acquisition and management of logistics assets with investments made to date in over 85 properties located in the UK and European countries to include Spain, Belgium and Czech Republic

GFH Financial Group (GFH) on Saturday announced it has acquired a majority stake in Roebuck Asset Management, UK (Roebuck), a UK and European logistics and business space focused real estate asset manager.

Roebuck, which was founded in 2009 by Hugh Macdonald-Brown and Nick Rhodes, has managed assets with a total investment value exceeding £1.4 billion covering over 15 million sqft of floor area. The firm’s primary focus has been on the acquisition and management of logistics assets with investments made to date in over 85 properties located in the UK and European countries to include Spain, Belgium and Czech Republic.

Roebuck also brings to bear additional expertise managing assets on behalf of an extensive and diverse group of institutional investors and UHNWIs from the UK, South Africa, India, South Korea, and Malaysia.

With the acquisition of Roebuck, which will continue to operate independently and be managed by its founders, GFH will add significant expertise in European commercial real estate to the Group and gain strategic access to prime deal flow. This will enable the Group to more effectively expand its investment activities in the UK and European logistics real estate sector, a segment of the market showing solid fundamentals and prospects for growth.

“This investment comes in line with our stated plan to pursue investments that can help accelerate our growth, further enhance profitability and increase our assets under management. This is a strategic investment into a profitable platform with a proven track record and capabilities and broad institutional investor base providing GFH with a low risk approach to further expanding the European market,” Hisham Alrayes, CEO of GFH, said.

“Having recently concluded a c.$77m landmark acquisition of a high quality & income producing last-mile Amazon-designated logistics warehouse in Spain, we look forward to working closely with our new partners at Roebuck to bring other high potential opportunities to GFH, and our investors, leveraging their strong access to deal flow and deep expertise in the space.”

Hugh Macdonald-Brown and Nick Rhodes, managing partners of Roebuck, said: “Together with GFH, we are poised to unlock further exciting opportunities we are seeing in the UK and European logistics and business space sectors. Over the past decade, we have grown year on year our client base and assets under management, and we are confident we will significantly build on this by leveraging off GFH’s network and infrastructure.

“We will look to maximise synergies where possible with GFH opening up reciprocal access for the Group to Roebuck’s strong and existing institutional investor base in Asia and other markets where we have an established a strong track record and excellent relationships with leading institutional and high net worth investors,” they added.

— business@khaleejtimes.com