Grant plans float as property market rebounds

Grant Asset Management (GAM), owned by Peter Grant, is working with advisers to take the firm to the junior stock market, though a flotation could be two years away. Grant plans to beef up the size of the company first by acquiring residential property management firms in key cities in the UK, particularly university towns.

"In the next year we will be making acquisitions of other management companies in the 12 cities in which we operate," he said. "It is logical for us to build scale by buying other companies. The flotation will come on the back of that and to take that even further. The property management industry will be really up for consolidation."

In its latest accounts for the year to 31 March 2009, GAM's turnover last year tumbled by more than two-thirds and the group reported a 898,000 pre-tax loss. Grant confirmed that this year the group will break even, and predicts a return to profit in 2011.

Grant said the firm's lettings business, which manages about 1,850 properties across the UK, had remained "recession proof" but the investment side had collapsed. Having established joint venture funds in 2006 with HBOS worth close to 200m, Grant said the firm had brought on board three new banks to fund acquisitions in UK residential property.

He said the firm is closing deals on three commercial properties in Edinburgh that will be refurbished for residential use.