Green chief heads fresh buyout of firm

GREEN PROPERTY chairman and chief executive Stephen Vernon has headed a fresh buyout of the company just two years after a €1 billion take-private deal.

Mr Vernon, together with other Green directors, bought out the stake previously held by investment banking giant Merrill Lynch to bring their combined stake up to 50%. Bank of Scotland, which held 49% of Green after financing the original deal, will hold the remaining 50%.

Mr Vernon said the deal was an “excellent outcome” for the company and would allow it in future to avail of investment opportunities where management’s skills could add value. It completed a programme of selling property assets more quickly than originally anticipated after it left the Dublin stock exchange on August 2002.

It raised over €1.4 billion from sales of all its property in Britain and interests in well-known Irish buildings.

Mr Vernon said Green had achieved most of the objectives set out in its five-year business plan after just two years. “Things have been better than expected and the market’s been good,” he said. Green had sold properties at good prices and the Blanchardstown Centre, the firm’s major asset that accounts for about two-thirds of its €1 billion portfolio, had performed well.

The centre will open a new extension in November. The extra 130,000 square feet will add 15% to its total floor space and will feature a number of high-profile international retail chains that are coming to Ireland for the first time, as well as a new store operated by Marks & Spencer.

Green benefited from Blanchardstown’s success to agree a €710 million debt refinancing deal that allowed the group to improve cashflows by negotiating borrowing terms at better rates. “The new shareholding and financial structure arising out of this transaction provides a platform for the future development of the company, consistent with Green’s traditional areas of activity in commercial property investment and development in Ireland and Britain, while continuing to optimise the value of the existing portfolio,” said Mr Vernon. He added that the company would seek to re-establish a presence in Britain if the right deals came along.