Belvoir Announces Major Acquisition
Belvoir announces, subject to completion later this week, the acquisition of Northwood GB Ltd (“Northwood”); the UK’s largest independent lettings franchise, which will add a further 86 offices to our network.
Northwood is a very well-respected lettings and sales network with a strong lettings bias and has its head office in Fareham plus a further 86 franchised offices in various locations around the UK. I’m pleased to say that this acquisition will position the Belvoir Group as the largest property franchise in the UK with more than 54,000 managed properties and a total of 301 outlets.
Now Ahead of Our Own Target
When Belvoir floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2012 we made a clear promise to our network and our investors that we would reach 200 offices before the end of 2016. With further acquisitions and new-starts in the pipeline, this puts us way ahead of our target and our sights remain firmly set on developing our network even further.
This acquisition also demonstrates Belvoir’s commitment to significantly increasing its market presence and continuing to develop the network with multi-brand franchises. Additionally, our pipeline of franchisee-led acquisitions remains strong and several new acquisitions are due to complete in the next few weeks bringing second offices, and even third in some cases, to Belvoir franchise owners who have been actively pursuing their own acquisition strategy.
Significant Investment in the Franchise Network
Since our floatation, we have invested heavily in our franchise network and have deployed a significant amount of funds raised from our investors into franchised offices. We currently have around £5m outstanding in loans to Belvoir franchisees, deployed on a revolving basis, and these loans mostly relate to acquisitions made by franchise owners. These funded acquisitions have meant that some franchise owners are now operating sizeable businesses with a significant asset value. Whilst we intend to continue pursuing our successful franchisee-led acquisition strategy, this particular acquisition will not be deployed across our existing network of Belvoir offices. Instead, it will run alongside our existing operation.
Similar Acquisition
Similar to when we floated in 2012, and acquired Newton Fallowell in July of last year, this acquisition will have no detrimental impact on our existing and very successful franchise network. Over the last twelve months we have demonstrated that it is possible to operate a successful multi-brand strategy with effectively a “glass wall” between each brand and, of course, separate management and support teams. It’s clear to everyone that our industry is evolving around us and we have chosen to be at the forefront of consolidation in our sector which, over time, will bring numerous benefits and provide underlying strength to our Group. Our enlarged network means we’re in a far better position to face competitive changes in our marketplace in the future, and capitalise on opportunities as the industry evolves.
Dorian Gonsalves, Managing Director
(On Behalf of the Board of Directors – Belvoir Lettings PLC)
