Edinburgh factoring firm scales up in Dundee with 1,400-homes deal

Factoring business James Gibb has increased the number of properties under management to well over 52,000 after sealing a Dundee takeover deal.

The firm has acquired the residential factoring division of Dundee-based J Reavley Factoring for an undisclosed sum.

The deal will increase the number of properties currently under management at James Gibb by about 1,400, taking the total number to in excess of 52,000 units.

Edinburgh-founded James Gibb manages residential, commercial and retirement homes on developments across the UK, including in Aberdeen, Angus, Perthshire and Fife.

News of the latest acquisition comes as the business appoints a new chief executive, David Reid, who had been operating as deputy chief executive, leading the restructure of James Gibb following its takeover of Life Property Management (LPM) in 2019.

He said: “The acquisition of J Reavley Factoring marks another milestone in the development of our portfolio, which has grown ten-fold in the past ten years. It is another step towards ensuring that our customer base has a local presence in every major city in Scotland.

“We have spent the past number of years investing in systems and process developments to provide the highest levels of service to our customers. J Reavley Factoring will help us to continue to build our service proposition; provide a culture of high value to our customers and teams and create genuine competition and differentiation in the marketplace.”

The firm will increase its office space in Dundee to accommodate the three colleagues moving from J Reavley and also expects to further expand its staffing levels in the city to meet growing demand.

David Reid is the new chief executive of James Gibb. Picture: Stewart Attwood

Jack Reavley, managing director at J Reavley Factoring, said: “We are pleased to have completed the acquisition with James Gibb.

“It was important to J Reavley Factoring that the portfolio transferred to a manager of real quality. It will assist in bringing investment as well as employment opportunities in the area. We will now focus on delivering our lettings business.”

James Gibb already has a well-established presence in the Dundee, Tayside and Fife area with a regional office based in Prospect III Business Centre, Dundee.

It is now seeking further growth opportunities through acquisition, including setting its sights on key cities in England, including Birmingham and Manchester.

The Gibb family business can be traced back through several generations to 1872.

Last November, the factoring firm hit the 50,000-home milestone after striking a deal with Aberdeen-based commercial property consultancy FG Burnett to take on its residential factoring arm.

That acquisition added about 3,000 properties under management to James Gibb’s portfolio and saw the Edinburgh-headquartered company tripling the number of properties it manages across Aberdeen in the past two years.

Richard Noble, managing director at FG Burnett, said: “It was important to FG Burnett that the portfolio transferred to a manager of real quality to the benefit of the developments we factored. This allows us to focus on growing our commercial property management portfolio together with our other core services including agency, building surveying, valuation and rating and we are very excited about that prospect.”