01 August 2003

The Reuben Brothers have joined the consortium that recently acquired a £ 310m retail property portfolio following discussions with West Coast Capital (“West Coast”).

The brothers will take a portion of the equity in the deal through the original joint venture between Catalyst Capital LLP, the pan-European real estate investment and asset management group, Bank of Scotland and West Coast Capital.

The consortium has purchased a retail property portfolio from REIT for £310 million in one of the largest property transactions of the year. It comprises six shopping centres across the United Kingdom, totalling 1.5 million sq.ft., located in Bootle, Irvine, Sunbury, Walsall and two in Oldham.

The majority of these sites are purely retail properties, whilst the Sunbury Cross also houses a 12-storey office development. The acquisition takes West Coast’s deal flow since its inception in March 2001 to in excess of £ 1.5 billion.

Tom Hunter of West Coast said:

“The tie-up with the Reuben Brothers underscores an excellent relationship established at the time of the Selfridges bid. Our investment philosophy is to back management teams with exceptional expertise often in partnership with other substantive players and we are delighted the Reuben’s have joined the consortium in this our first deal together.

“We will explore further opportunities to partner with them in the retail and property sectors and look forward to building upon this relationship.”

Julian Newiss, Chairman of Catalyst Capital, commented:

‘We are delighted to add this significant portfolio to our extensive list of acquisitions this year across a variety of sectors including retail, office and mixed-use sites. It follows our two major acquisitions in France earlier in the year and the Dunedin portfolio more recently. It brings our portfolio under management to over £1 billion and we are continuing to look for similar opportunities both within the UK and on Continental Europe.”
The net initial yield on the portfolio is 7%. Catalyst Capital was advised in the acquisition by Jones Lang Lasalle with Eversheds as legal advisor in England and Tods Murray acting in Scotland. Dundas and Wilson advised the Bank of Scotland.

For further information, please contact
Charles Stewart-Smith on 0207 618 9100