FirethornTrust, formed by ex-Tristan Capital duo Peter Mather and Chris Webb, has secured an exclusive mandate from two U.S. family offices to invest in U.K. real estate.
FirethornTrust is mandated to continue to diversify the expanding investment portfolios of the Stephens and Van Tuyl family offices. The venture will focus on creating a long-term, diversified property portfolio and will aim to take advantage of opportunities and market dislocations occurring as a result of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union.
FirethornTrust will invest an initial £200 million ($265 million) into U.K. real estate with further equity funds to follow. The focus will be to add value and create maximum potential returns through active asset management, development, refurbishment, planning enhancement, regeneration and restructuring. The team already has in-house asset management and development expertise to deliver results on a wide range of business plans across multiple sectors. External bank debt will be utilized, targeting leverage of between 50 percent and 65 percent.
“Being able to launch a new U.K. real estate business with committed family capital is a unique opportunity,” said Mather. “We seek to be both proactive and reactive to the dynamic nature of the U.K. market. Most importantly, unlike traditional institutional real estate funds, we have no fixed investment periods, no fixed focus to specific sectors and no strict return parameters, allowing us to maximize return potential across the whole risk/return spectrum. We will react quickly and intelligently to a wide range of real estate opportunities.”
Webb added, “We are excited to be launching FirethornTrust in partnership with our investor group, at such a pivotal and unique time in the United Kingdom. We believe there will be increasingly interesting opportunities over the next few years for well-capitalized investors to take long-term value positions in the U.K. real estate market.”
Mather is the former managing director and head of U.K. & Ireland transactions at Tristan Capital Partners, and Webb is the former executive director and head of U.K. & Ireland asset management.
