Sigma snaps up regeneration specialst InPartnership

URBAN regeneration firm Inpartnership has been snapped up by Edinburgh-based Sigma Capital Group for £347,000.

The company, which has offices in Manchester and Birmingham, is a large-scale property-related regeneration specialist which acts as a bridge between public and private partners.

It had previously been jointly owned by West Coast Capital – an investment vehicle owned by Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter and HBOS, which is now part of Lloyds Banking Group.

In addition to the initial sum, West Coast Capital will enjoy a future share of the company’s development projects. It will be entitled to a maximum of £3.1m of the first £10m of development profits and a further 10% of all existing projects after that.

Inpartnership was set up in 2001 and has three major asset-backed partnership agreements with local councils in Liverpool, Salford and Solihull – each of which area expected to run for between 10-20.

Between them, the partnerships hold option arrangements to deliver 10,000 new homes, new retail, commercial and health centres, schools and a series of other facilities with a development value estimated to be worth more than £2bn.

In Liverpool it has an agreement to redevelop surplus land assets at the council’s discretion and has a ten-year option over a 60-acre site in Norris Green where it has already gained outline planning approval for more than 1,100 new homes.

In Solihull it formed a partnership to regenerate 1,000 acres of land in North Solihull over a 15-20 year period where it is set to deliver more than 8,000 new homes, five new primary schools, four refurbished schools and five new village centres.

In Salford, it formed the Higher Broughton Partnership which has given it an option over 30 acres of land in Broughton.

It is seven years into a 12-year programme and has already completed 250 new homes. It plans to build a further 80 homes on the site of a former high-rise apartment block.

In the year to March 31, 2011, the firm declared an operating loss of £74,000 before exceptionals on revenues of £692,000.

Inpartnership’s existing management will also remain with the firm, helping with its integration into Sigma Capital – in which West Coast Capital already holds a 20% stake.

Graham Barnet, chief executive of Sigma, said: “The acquisition of Inpartnership represents an exciting and significant step forward for Sigma. 

“As we highlighted in our Annual Report, we have been working with our largest shareholder, West Coast Capital, on a number of material property-related initiatives and the acquisition of Inpartnership brings the first of these initiatives to fruition.

“Inpartnership expands Sigma’s property development and investment activities, bringing well established, long term partnerships with three major UK local authorities. 

“We see exciting potential in each partnership, with the total development value of the opportunities estimated at over £2 billion.  We believe that the additional skills the Sigma team can bring to these opportunities as well as greater access to finance will unlock significantly more of the value that is inherent within the partnerships.”