Hansteen buys £13.5m portfolio of properties

HANSTEEN, the listed property fund, has acquired another portfolio from failed Edinburgh property firm Kilmartin for £13.5 million. The deal follows the firm's buyout of another Kilmartin property portfolio for £80.4m in April.

The latest acquisition consists of 12 properties, ten of which are located on the east coast of Scotland between Perth and Edinburgh. More than half of the value of the deal was in five commercial properties, with the remainder comprising five residential sites with development consent and 17 new-build flats in two properties.

Kilmartin, run by Edinburgh property developer Iain Wotherspoon, fell into administration in January owing Lloyds Banking group an estimated 200m. The firm had been backed by HBOS to the tune of 500m before it was severely hit by a downturn in the property market.

The industrial REIT Hansteen is run by Morgan Jones and Ian Watson. Jones, joint chief executive of Hansteen, said: "As with the previous Kilmartin portfolio, this portfolio contains a lot of small but interesting properties which we believe can produce good returns with focused and vigorous management."

Watson added the deal was done on a "very tight" 15-day timescale, from agreeing terms to exchange of contracts.

In April, Hansteen bought 61 properties from Kilmartin's administrators for 80.4m.

Last November, Hansteen bought a 12 per cent stake in the Kenmore European Industrial Fund (KEIF), formerly managed by another failed property firm, Kenmore. Hansteen had initially planned to buy the firm but later withdrew its bid and sold its stake in March to billionaire Joe Lewis.

Lewis had also backed the buyout of KEIF's manager, Kenmore Financial Services, by former Kenmore director Rob Brook, and KEIF is now managed by Brook's new company Tamar Capital.