Nabarro has advised US-based Värde Partners, a privately held, investment manager specializing in alternative investments in the acquisition of the Titan portfolio of secondary mixed-use assets for circa £250m. The former Noé family-owned portfolio was put up for sale earlier this year by receivers at KPMG via Aviva Commercial Finance, which holds the debt against the 187-property retail-focused UK portfolio.

Project Titan is the second portfolio to be brought to market following the receivership. Tristan Capital Partners swooped on the 144-property Project Tree in July for £153.2m. The Titan portfolio has 187 properties and a combined rent roll of £21.1m, reflecting a yield of around 8.8%. It has a weighted average unexpired lease term of 5.2 years and is 87% occupied. It is mainly made up of small shops in secondary locations but also includes residential, office and industrial properties.

The Nabarro team working on the acquisition included Real Estate partners Simon Staite, Chris Oakley and Chris Chambers. The team also worked closely with Nick Scott at Brodies on the Scottish properties. There was a quick turnaround from being chosen as the preferred bidder to exchanging, which took less than a week.

Commenting on the acquisition, Simon Staite said:

"We were thrilled to be involved in this acquisition. Nabarro was instructed in the summer on Project Minard where Värde bought half of Local Shopping REIT. To secure a large second instruction so soon is great. Corporate partner, Patrick Speller, and Banking and Finance partner, Mike Delaney, and I worked on Project Minard. On both deals we have worked closely with their asset manager, APAM. The instructions came through a former client, John Richards, ex CEO at Hammerson, who is now a senior property advisor to Värde.”