10
PROFILE: DAVID LOCKHART
Brave
HART
New players are few and far between, but
New River Retail has gathered enough
financial backing to make an impact
S
erial entrepreneur David Lockhart has just launched his
third retail property business, New River Retail. Will he be
able to repeat the trick of buying at the bottom and selling
at the top one more time?
Lockhart’s property career spans three decades: in 1981 he quit
the family law firm to found Caltrust, selling the business in 1987 to
Sheraton Securities. Again in 1991 he founded Halladale and in 2001 it
was floated on AIM (the Alternative Investment Market) with a £10m
market capitalisation.
By April 2007 Halladale had £1.5bn of property assets under
management, and the company was bought by Stockland Corporation
for £171m. Within weeks the credit crunch had begun to bite but
Lockhart and his management team, headed by his son Alan and
Ken Lindsay, stayed on until the beginning of this year to oversee the
transition.
At the beginning of this year the two Lockharts left Stockland and
their immediate instinct was to set up on their own again. Their latest
venture is called New River Retail. “I think there are real similarities with
1991, when we founded Halladale,” says Lockhart. “I think we’re close to
the bottom of the market and it’s time to look forward to the next cycle.”
And they had no hesitation in deciding to concentrate on retail
property. “It’s a sector we understand well,” says Lockhart, “but there
are other reasons too: retail is the biggest UK property sector, making
up over half of the IPD index, and all the evidence is that it’s far less
volatile than other sectors like offices.” “We don’t expect to see yield compression,” says Lockhart.
And Lockhart believes there are underlying characteristics “When we came out of the last recession, between 1991 and 1999,
that drive activity in the retail sector even in the toughest market prime yields only moved by something like 200 basis points.”
conditions. “Retailer demand is always changing,” he points out. “They So if the market is not going to generate returns, the
have to adapt to changing consumer tastes and that always throws up emphasis is going to have to be on asset management that drives
asset management opportunities for centre owners.” rental income.
So New River has been positioned as a specialist asset manager in New River Retail has just raised £25m through a flotation
the retail sector. “In the next cycle investors are going to be looking for on AIM, after an earlier attempt to raise ten times as much was
sector specialists: they’re only going to pick the best-of-class in each shelved in June. Although the City’s cautious approach means
sector,” Lockhart asserts. the company raised less than he’d like, Lockhart believes that it
And while Halladale did exceptionally well out of the property boom actually puts the company in a strong position compared with its
of the early years of this decade – in the six years between floating competitors.
the company and its purchase by Stockland assets grew from £116m “Up to now almost all of the equity that’s been raised has been
to £1.5bn – the Lockharts believe we’re going to see a very different used by property companies to repair their balance sheets so
market for the foreseeable future. there’s actually been very little new money raised,” he says. “The
SHOPPING CENTRE SEPTEMBER 2009
www.shopping-centre.co.uk
10-11-SCSep-Profile.indd 10 23/9/09 16:45:29
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