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Nabarro and Maxwell Winward advise on creation of Argent King's Cross Limited Partnership
14 April 2008
Nabarro LLP has acted on behalf of the Argent group’s founders, Michael and Peter Freeman, and Argent group’s current executive management team, lead by Joint CEOs David Partridge and Roger Madelin on the restructuring of their holdings in a series of partnerships with BT Pension Scheme (“BTPS”). This includes the establishment of the Argent King's Cross Limited Partnership, which will invest £160million into the 67 acre development next to Kings Cross St Pancras; the largest development scheme currently in progress in Central London. BTPS, and its real estate investment manager, Hermes Real Estate, were advised by Maxwell Winward LLP.
The regeneration at King's Cross will be carried out in a joint venture between the newly established Argent King's Cross Limited Partnership and the historic landowners of the site, LCR and Excel/DHL. When completed, the scheme will include approximately 4.5million square feet of offices, 1900 homes (40% affordable) and approximately 1.5million square feet of retail, leisure and community uses.
Argent has continued to be advised in the King’s Cross regeneration project by long time adviser Lovells and the landowners by Herbert Smith.
Jonathan Cantor, Indirect Investment partner who led the Nabarro team said:
“This has been a complex and interesting transaction which has always been negotiated in good spirit. We have a long standing business relationship with the Argent team and look forward to continuing it over the life of the King’s Cross project and beyond.”
Raymond Levine, senior partner and Head of the Real Estate Structures Unit at Maxwell Winward who led the team said :
“The most interesting part of the transaction is the Argent King’s Cross Limited Partnership. This combines the tried and tested tax transparent advantages of a limited partnership and unit trust structure with innovative provisions designed to achieve a greater degree of liquidity for investors than more traditional models. This is achieved without diluting the tight management control needed to successfully deliver a major urban regeneration project. The legal process is ongoing and is expected to be fully in place by September this year.
“We are delighted to be continuing our long involvement with the BT Pension Scheme and Argent on a deal which will secure Argent’s future for many years to come. The commercial terms of the restructuring and the legal implementation are designed to be sufficiently flexible and robust to deal with the real estate market’s cyclical behaviour, and generally changing circumstances, over the medium to long term. I have every confidence they will achieve this objective.”
The Nabarro team also included senior associate Richard Honeybourne and associate Caroline Ord. Consultant Peter Kempster and senior associate Kirsten Prichard-Jones advised on tax issues.
The Maxwell Winward team included real estate partner Michael Geiss, assisted by associate Kevin Curry.
For further information, please contact:
Jonathan Cantor
Partner, Indirect Investment
NABARRO
T +44 (0)20 7524 6176
j.cantor@nabarro.com
