£50m for Northern acquisitions as Glenbrook’s investment arm gets new name
Pennine Investment Management, formerly Glenbrook Private Clients, is on the hunt for industrial and retail park opportunities in the region with a price tag of between £3m and £15m.
Pennine’s new moniker was chosen to help further differentiate it from Glenbrook’s residential-focussed development business, which has recently put forward plans for 162 homes off Chester Road, 300 homes at Birley Fields, and 300 homes off Church Street – all three in Manchester.
“Glenbrook has grown into two successful but quite different property businesses,” explained Glenbrook founder and Pennine IM director Guy Butler.
“One is delivering major residential developments in cities including Manchester and Leeds, and increasingly further south in locations such as Borehamwood and Bristol, while the other might be buying a £5m industrial estate somewhere in the North where we think there is an opportunity to create value,” he continued.
“They require different skills, capital and conversations, and increasingly we felt they needed their own identities.”
He added later: “Giving our investment team its own identity means we can be much clearer with the market about what we do and go after it with real intent. The message to the market is simple: we are growing and we have significant capital to deploy.”
Pennine IM will continue to be led by Scott Griffiths, with Butler and fellow Glenbrook co-founder Ian Sherry staying as directors. It will also continue to operate out of the Glenbrook office in Manchester, with ambitions to grow its team over the next few months.
The company described its investor base as primarily made-up of family offices and high net worth individuals. Since its founding in 2015, it has completed on 75 transactions.
The firm said that it can move quickly to secure new properties, due to not need debt to complete. It has a war chest of £50m to immediately pull from.
On Pennine IM’s wish list are schemes that have value-add potential, whether that’s through refurbishment, dealing with vacancy, or improving income. It is particularly interested in projects within 90 minutes of Manchester.
Recent acquisitions from Pennine IM include the freehold of a 100,000 sq ft warehouse at Haydock Industrial Estate and a 30,000 sq ft warehouse in Wigan. Pennine IM is also working alongside Metis Real Estate Advisors to market St Mary’s Gate Retail Park in Rochdale, which has a guide price of £7.1m.
