Charles Russell Speechlys acted for the shareholders of Mayfair Capital Investment Management Limited, a specialist UK real estate investment management company with around £1bn of assets under management, on its sale to Swiss Life.

The transaction completed on 1 November 2016 and brings together real estate teams in Switzerland, Germany, France and the UK creating a pan European business with some £55.3bn (CHF69.7bn) of real estate assets under management and administration.

Founded in 2002, Mayfair Capital manages the Property Income Trust for Charities and is adviser to the Mayfair Capital Property Unit Trust (on behalf of clients of Schroder Real Estate Capital Partners) and Mayfair Capital Commercial Property Trust (on behalf of clients of Jupiter Asset Management). In addition, the business manages two residential debt funds where the investors are a combination of pension funds and high net-worth individuals.

Mayfair will continue to trade as Mayfair Capital in the UK, James Thornton will remain as Chief Executive and Robert Palmer, Chief Investment Officer.

James Thornton, Chief Executive of Mayfair Capital, said, “It was a great pleasure to work with Charles Russell Speechlys as part of our team on this transaction.  Their financial services transactional team was able to help us at every stage of the transaction, had the necessary skills and expertise to ensure it ran smoothly to a successful completion and demonstrated excellent dedication and professionalism throughout.”

David Hicks, Corporate Partner at Charles Russell Speechlys said, “We thoroughly enjoyed working with Mayfair Capital on this transaction. It is an excellent team that I am sure will make the most of the opportunities afforded by becoming part of Swiss Life. We wish them well and look forward to seeing them succeed in the next stage of their development.”

The Charles Russell Speechlys team was led by financial services sector Corporate Partner David Hicks, with support from across the Firm, including Nick Janmohamed (Corporate Partner), Chris Manning and Nathan Lightman (Corporate Associates), Jonathan Bayliss and Jessica Arrol (Regulatory), Kirsti Laird (Employment) and Rob Birchall and Anna Broxup (Corporate Tax).