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The Wilky Group, a property development and investment company based in Surrey and Hampshire, has acquired a property fund management business with investment portfolios worth more than £280m currently under its control.
As a result of the deal the property team from MNPA Limited (MNPA) have joined Wilky. Trading under the new name of Wilky Asset Management Ltd (WAM), they will continue to manage the property interests of both the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund and the Merchant Navy Ratings Pension Fund.
Wilky also aims to grow the business by offering a tailored management service for smaller portfolios of up to £100m. MNPA has consistently achieved top quartile returns when compared to similar funds in the widely recognised Investment Property Databank. For example, the Ratings Fund has matched this benchmark for the IPD All Funds Universe over the past three, five and 10-year periods.
Wilky Group chief executive Malcolm Young believes WAM’s energetic management will often deliver better returns than institutions can achieve by managing such assets themselves. He added: “This acquisition is a perfect fit for the Wilky Group, in terms of its growth potential. We are refocusing our development and investment business to encompass property asset management in all its forms. Our aim is to become the property asset manager of choice in the South East region.”
The six-strong team have moved from MNPA in Leatherhead to Wilky’s offices in central Guildford. Nick Yeomans, currently MNPA’s property fund manager, becomes WAM’s Director of Property Fund Management. Property Director Stephen Corless remains with MNPA in a new role but will also become a non-executive director of WAM. He explained: “MNPA felt that, to retain the services of this excellent team and maintain continuity of service to existing clients, it was necessary to offer them the opportunities and challenges that growth can bring, and that this growth would best be achieved by making them part of a commercial property enterprise like the Wilky Group.”
Nick Yeomans added: “We are all looking forward to the new challenge and winning new business by maintaining the quality of service that our existing clients have come to expect.”
Wilky was advised on the acquisition by CB Richard Ellis Financial, lawyers Charles Russell and accountants BDO Stoy Hayward and Sharles & Co. MNPA’s advisors were lawyers Jones Day and accountants Deloitte and Touche.
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