HFF Announces Launch of UK Operations Through Proposed Acquisition of Leon Partners in London
November 01 2016 - 6:18PM
Business Wire
HFF, Inc. (NYSE:HF) (HFF) announced today that it expects
to launch its U.K. operations through the proposed acquisition of
Leon Partners Limited (Leon Partners), a London-based independent
real estate advisory firm focusing on investment banking and
corporate finance. The transaction is subject to receipt of
applicable regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, and
is expected to close in early 2017. The opening of the London
office will represent HFF’s 24th office location and the first
outside of the U.S.
David Church and Raj Somchand, founding members of Leon
Partners, will be joining HFF along with a team of four associates.
Mr. Church and Mr. Somchand will bring their collective 50 years in
the business recently with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Leon
Partners to lead the London office’s corporate finance and
investment banking business. Concurrently with the expected closing
of the Leon Partners transaction, Michael Kavanau, senior managing
director and co-head of HFF’s Chicago office, will relocate to
London. Mr. Kavanau will bring his 30 years of experience with HFF
in the U.S. to lead the London office’s equity and debt placement
business and will be joined by additional HFF associates in due
course.
HFF’s London office is expected to offer a full spectrum of
commercial real estate capital markets transaction services in the
U.K., including investment banking/corporate finance, investment
transactions and debt and equity placement. As one of the largest
and most successful commercial real estate intermediaries in the
U.S., HFF incorporates capital markets knowledge with local real
estate expertise to successfully complete a diverse mix of real
estate transactions, regardless of size or complexity. HFF’s
business model is solely focused on providing capital markets
services to its clients, and therefore does not invest, lease or
manage real estate assets, thus mitigating conflicts of interests
with its clients. HFF, Inc. was ranked in Fortune magazine's 100
Fastest-Growing Companies for four years: 2012 – 2014 and 2016 and
with its predecessor companies has closed in excess of $567 billion
in transactions since 1998.
“We are extremely excited to have David, Raj and members of the
Leon team join HFF to help start, manage and grow HFF’s first
business endeavor outside of the U.S.,” said Mark Gibson, chief
executive officer of HFF. “Leon’s culture of integrity, teamwork
and its in-depth knowledge of all capital market solutions for
commercial real estate is highly synergistic with HFF’s core values
and competencies. HFF’s global clients have been encouraging HFF to
enter the London and European markets and we are delighted to have
found great chemistry and a complementary skill set in David, Raj
and the Leon Partners team. Additionally, with Michael Kavanau’s
relocation to London, HFF is sending one of its longest tenured
partners to not only bring his vast skill set of the debt and
equity placement businesses but to also help with the integration
of the Leon team and other London-based capital market specialists
into HFF’s collaborative, team-oriented culture.”
“We established Leon Partners to be a client-focused,
conflict-free and truly independent business,” said Church. “The
real estate advisory landscape is rapidly changing and our clients
are looking for tailored solutions to complex problems. Since
opening our offices in July 2015, we have been delighted with the
mandates we have secured from our clients. We have already closed a
number of high profile deals and have a very strong pipeline, which
is a testament to our team and our business model. We are very
excited about the prospects for our business.”
“We have got to know HFF over the last six months and have been
very impressed with their platform, their approach to clients, each
other, as well as their values, which strongly echo Leon's,” added
Somchand. “The opportunity to help build a truly market-leading,
independent and conflict-free, best-in-class one stop real estate
advisory and capital markets business is hugely compelling. The
whole team is excited to become part of HFF and looking forward to
working alongside our new partners.”
About Leon Partners
David Church and Raj Somchand established Leon Partners in July
2015, following successful careers in real estate investment
banking, previously at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Leon Partners
is an independent real estate advisory firm which advises clients
on complex real estate and corporate M&A transactions, provides
introductions to private capital investors and prepares companies
to access the public capital markets primarily in the U.K. and
Ireland. Edward Bradford, formerly of Bank of America Merrill Lynch
and Aidan Smith, former CFO of Liberty International are also part
of the Leon Partners team. www.leon-partners.com.
About HFF, Inc.
Through its subsidiaries, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. and HFF
Securities L.P., the Company operates out of 23 offices nationwide
and is one of the leading and largest full-service commercial real
estate financial intermediaries in the U.S. providing commercial
real estate and capital markets services to both the users and
providers of capital in the commercial real estate sector. The
Company offers clients a fully-integrated national capital markets
platform including debt placement, investment sales, equity
placement, investment banking and advisory services, loan sales and
commercial loan servicing.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161101006933/en/
HFF, Inc.MYRA F. MOREN, 713-852-3500HFF Managing
Director, Investor Relationsmmoren@hfflp.comorKRISTEN M. MURPHY,
617-338-0990HFF Director, Marketingkrmurphy@hfflp.com
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