News | Real Estate

SJ Berwin LLP Advises New Client Brockton Capital on First Fund and Acquisition

Monday 3rd April 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin has advised new client Brockton Capital on its first fund: The Brockton Capital Fund I L.P which has just made its first closing. The Fund, which is targeting a total of £150 million, has also just completed its first acquisition- an office building in St James's.

Brockton Capital has been set up by property entrepreneurs David Marks (formerly of Blackstone) and Jason Blank (formerly of Merrill Lynch) as a real estate private equity fund. With typical gearing of around 80%, the £150m should give the company £750 million of spending power.

The SJ Berwin teams negotiating with the investors to get the Fund off the ground comprised of real estate, corporate and tax lawyers and was led by corporate partner Michael Goldberg assisted by David Fitzgerald and real estate partner John Eldridge, assisted by Richard Lloyd. This team also advised on the first acquisition.

John Eldridge, real estate partner commented, "Brockton Capital will be one to watch. It is an exciting new client for us and one that intends to be highly active in the market place. Both David and Jason have worked on a wide variety of property assets in the past and are skilled at looking for angles to improve values - a skill that is going to be essential in this current market place of high prices. We are pleased to be part of this exciting new venture. "

Notes:

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership. SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
• SJ Berwin LLP was named 'UK Firm of the Year' at the 2005 Legal Week Awards on 30 November. The award recognised SJ Berwin's five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 22 are partners (3 of which are tax partners), and 50 assistants, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax. There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate. The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005. It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 23% of the firm's total revenue.

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