St James Capital, the vehicle of Anthony Lyons and Simon Conway, disposed of a portfolio of seven properties to a £19 million joint venture between Catalyst Capital LLP and Close Brothers. St James Capital also disposed of a £220 million commercial and leisure property portfolio. Our relationship with St James Capital has been consolidated by the arrival of new partner Daniel Lipman from Berwin Leighton Paisner, where he had acted on many of their previous transactions.

Since being appointed last summer, we have advised on acquisitions for the UBS Triton Property Fund and UBS South East Recovery Fund . These include premises in Cardiff and Heston.

Urban regeneration development specialist Urban Catalyst Limited and construction company Carillion Plc were involved in the formation of a joint venture vehicle. The limited liability partnership is called Urban Catalyst Carillion LLP and will provide core funding and development finance for key urban regeneration projects.

Loyalward Group plc is seeking approval of an environmental impact assessment and planning permission for the largest single inward investment project in Greece, comprising 2.5 million sq ft of sustainable tourism development in Crete.

AMEC Developments and Royal London Asset Management were granted planning permission for 1 million sq ft of international office headquarters and a 245 acre rural park, having secured the removal of part of the site from the green belt, on a £240 million site adjacent to Manchester Airport.

Helical Bar has been busy on transactions involving premises in Cardiff and London.

Refined Holdings has had an active year, acquiring a portfolio of 85 sites including petrol storage depots, of which 78 Q8 branded petrol stations were subject to an intra-group sale and leaseback. Throughout the year we also acted on the acquisition of petrol filling stations from the major oil companies to a composite value of upwards of £50 million.

Winston Group has been busy with the acquisition and sale of retail investment property to the value of £80 million, including the sale of a prime retail investment property in Chester for £25 million.

Fairview/Rialto two of the South’s largest private housebuilders have merged. Mishcon acted for the Rialto shareholders in connection with the property aspects of the merger and continues to act for the merged company.

Gentian, retail developers specialising in NHS related PFI schemes, completed the acquisition of their interest in the £370 million PFI scheme at Gloucester Royal Hospital. In the last year Mishcon has also acted for the Gentian Group on the retail element of the £300 million PFI scheme at Newcastle RVI and Freeman Hospital, and on various other NHS/PFI projects.