An eight-year strategic partnership
An eight-year transaction presented a property investment client with increasingly complex financial, commercial and strategic challenges.
Following the retirement of their finance director, they needed greater financial insight and senior-level support as they navigated a difficult and evolving sale process.
We provided CFO-level support throughout, working alongside the client and their advisers on multiple deal structures, tax planning and transaction negotiations.
Our role extended beyond the sale itself, with ongoing support across investment decisions, development monitoring, tenant analysis and debt planning.
The transaction ultimately completed in 2024, with the client taking ownership of a newly built commercial property and subsequently securing its first tenant.
What began as transaction support has developed into a long-term strategic partnership, with BKL now advising across the client’s wider property portfolio and business.
The Challenge
A property investment client faced multiple complex challenges following the retirement of their longstanding finance director.
They had assembled a scheme across different entities over several years and, having been granted planning consent on a significant development, were looking to dispose of the companies that owned the asset.
Internally, the client lacked forward-looking financial capabilities and required enhanced data analytics and strategic oversight.
The sale process itself proved exceptionally difficult – with changing deal structures and two aborted transactions, plus increasingly complex commercial terms involving phased payments, planning conditions and property options.
What we did
We provided comprehensive Chief Finance Officer-level support throughout the entire transaction lifecycle, beginning in 2017.
- Our team worked alongside the client and their sales agents through multiple deal iterations, structuring complex arrangements including cash payments on exchange, deferred completion terms and property acquisition options
- We delivered sophisticated tax structuring advice, including executing a capital reduction demerger to remove non-scheme assets from the sale group
- Beyond the core transaction, we embedded ourselves within the business, providing quarterly investment committee participation, development monitoring, fit-out assistance, tenant covenant analysis and debt refinancing forecasts
- Our integrated approach combined daily operational support with high-level strategic advisory
The result
The client successfully completed this highly complex eight-year transaction, exercising their property option and taking ownership of a newly built commercial property in December 2024.
- They later secured the first tenant of the building
- We positioned the client to access debt markets for capital recycling into future opportunities
- BKL now serve as their trusted adviser across all business matters. The client consults us before engaging legal counsel, even on non-accounting issues. We manage their entire portfolio and provide comprehensive services, from daily processing through to strategic investment guidance, delivering a true red-carpet service.
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