GM-led developer goes public

One Heritage Group, a company focused on delivering residential and co-living schemes in Greater Manchester, has been admitted to the London Stock Exchange’s main market.

The Manchester-based developer, which is headed by Jason Upton, whose background is in financial services, has raised £930,000 via a combination of a subscription and a placing through broker Hybridan of 9.3m new ordinary shares at 10p a share, which is fully subscribed.

The company’s market capitalisation at the placing price on admission will be £3m. A secondary fund raise is likely to follow later in 2021.

One Heritage initially came to prominence proposing the One Heritage Tower project in Salford’s Greengate: a 55-storey PRS complex including 544 apartments. Designed by OMI Architects, this could become Salford’s tallest building. Further details on delivery are expected in the new year.

Over recent months, the company has also picked up the former County Court site on the edge of Oldham town centre for £1.25m and acquired a development site on Manchester’s Chester Road.

One Heritage’s intention is to concentrate on new and refurbished co-living opportunities, acting either as developer or development manager on behalf of third parties. The company expects to lever its marketing network in Hong Kong to pre-sell a significant number of units, de-risking its exit and improving its ability to secure debt finance where necessary.

Co-living properties will be sold on the open market, primarily to Hong Kong investors. Schemes of self-contained apartments will be sold to investors through that same network or through a forward sale agreement to institutional investors.

One Heritage’s aim is to be “attractive to younger socially mobile professionals and those seeking more flexible living arrangements”. The business will focus on edge-of-city centre locations where there are good transport links or where there is a major local employer to underpin demand.

Initially, the focus will be on Greater Manchester and the North West, potentially moving into other UK cities.

The company’s board of directors is comprised of CEO Jason Upton; former Colliers International chief executive David Izett as non-executive chairman; former Squarestone finance director Jeffrey Pym; and Yiu Tak (Peter) Cheung, chief investment officer and a founding director of One Heritage in Hong Kong.

The executive management team includes Peter Child who leads the group’s lettings business; along with development director Martin Crews and FD Luke Piggin, who both joined in October.

Upton said: “We are excited to bring One Heritage to the market. We were oversubscribed from a wide range of investors, which represents a real vote of confidence in the potential for the business.

“We are excited to be one of the first publicly listed residential developers that also focuses on co-living, a growing sector with real promise. We see the North West as being a continued centre of growth in the UK in the coming years as the Government invests in levelling up the regions and continues to invest in infrastructure.

“We believe that we can create a lot of value in the residential market and are excited to part of the solution to tackling the UK’s shortage of quality accommodation.”

The shares opened up 1p at 11p in the first couple of hours of trading on Wednesday.