International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised two housing associations and an investment fund on a series of large scale portfolio sales and purchases.
The sales consisted of over 1,300 units of accommodation with a value of in excess of £84m and the portfolio acquisitions were of over 2,700 units with a value of around £150m, all completed in the same six month period.
The transactions included the sale of national housing association stock to allow for a more effective service to residents.
Jeremy Hunt, who led the team on the transactions commented:
"It has been widely reported that the number of housing associations buying, selling and swapping stock over the last twelve months has been at a peak and we have certainly contributed to this statistic. Large scale projects like this require team planning and speed of delivery to process a substantial amount of legal and operational information in such a short timeframe.
Our due diligence on the purchase was facilitated and then supplemented by colleagues in our Real Estate and Finance Security team to ensure the necessary information was provided to enable charging exercises to be carried out. The team continue to work with the acquiring organisations as they progress to charging the units, enabling further funds for new development opportunities.
The team were able to prepare and draft legal documents and handle data in advance of preferred bidders being appointed on the sales. This meant that transactions were able to move along quickly leaving a relatively short time between the appointment of preferred bidder and exchange of contracts."
The team at Trowers was led by partner Jeremy Hunt supported by senior colleagues, Rebecca Gibson, Hannah Jackson, Jessica Church and David Zong.
