Manchester investment firm splashes out £15m for Portuguese business

Manchester investment firm Arrow Global has bought a Portuguese property investment firm for £15.1m.

Arrow has announced the proposed acquisition of Norfin Investimentos this morning.

The firm said the deal will strengthen its asset management and investment capabilities and is highly complementary to its existing Whitestar platform.

Due to Norfin’s ownership of a regulated fund manager the transaction is subject to a regulatory change of control approval by the Bank of Portugal and is expected to complete by the end of 2018.

Norfin is owned by its founding shareholders João Brion Sanches, Alexandre Relvas and Felipe de Botton. Norfin’s.

Its main business activity is the management of closed-end real estate funds in Portugal.

The acquisition will be funded in cash from existing group resources, with £15.1m paid on closing.

For the year ended 31 December 2017, Norfin’s audited revenues were €6.7m, with €2.1m profit before tax.

Norfin’s Lisbon-based team, will add approximately 50 dedicated management and staff to Arrow Global’s team.

João Brion Sanches, Norfin’s chief executive, will continue to run the business after the completion of the deal.

Meanwhile, Arrow said trading continues to be strong and in-line with management expectations, at high returns.

The firm is on track to meet annual target of £230-240m of portfolio purchases

Lee Rochford, group chief executive of Arrow Global, said: “We are delighted to announce this strategic acquisition that further strengthens Arrow Global’s market position in Portugal and adds valuable real estate asset management capabilities to the Group.

“The acquisition adds further significant capital-light revenue to the Group’s income stream and is expected to be earnings accretive in year one.

“Trading in the second quarter has continued to be in line with expectations, with the positive pricing environment we noted in the first quarter continuing into the period and resulting in strong returns.”

João Brion Sanches said: “We are delighted to be joining Arrow Global. We have built a strong business which will add to the group’s investment and asset management capabilities and which complements Arrow Global’s existing Portuguese business.

“Arrow has a strong entrepreneurial culture and we believe that it is the right partner for us to enable Norfin to reach its next stage of development.”