Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Jones Day were among a raft of firms that advised the investors behind residential schemes at the Olympic Park in Stratford and Elephant and Castle on a joint venture (JV) to combine the developments and create a £1.4bn JV vehicle for rented housing. Amid a booming London real estate market, intensified by supply not keeping up with housing demand, the firms were instructed by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, property firm Delancey’s flagship fund DV4 and Dutch pension fund asset manager APG, combining to create 4,000 London homes. Olswang, Mishcon de Reya, Simmons & Simmons and London firm Michael Conn Goldsobel also won instructions on the deal.
The deal will create a sizeable new force in London’s residential market, with the merged entity taking ownership of the former Olympic athletes’ village, now renamed the East Village, and the Elephant and Castle redevelopment.
The partnership will kick off with an initial portfolio of 4,000 new market-rate rented homes and is conditional upon regulatory approval, which parties hope to achieve this month.
The HSF team acting for Qatari Diar was led by real estate partner Alice Dockar, corporate partner Alex Kay and competition partner André Pretorius. Dockar was previously seconded to Qatari Diar as interim general counsel for two years and acted on its JV with Canary Wharf relating to the Shell Centre last year.
Jones Day provided M&A real estate, banking, antitrust, private equity and regulatory advice. The firm’s team was led by real estate partner Alex Millar and private equity partner Anna Cartwright (pictured), who acted for longstanding client DV4 alongside Olswang, Mishcon and Michael Conn Goldsobel.
Jones Day advised the client on the Elephant and Castle asset, while Olswang, whose team comprised tax partner Clíona Kirby and corporate partner Paul Blackmore, advised DV4 on the disposal of the East Village assets.
Jones Day, which has worked with DV4 since the 1980s, advised on its acquisition of the Elephant and Castle housing development in 2011 and on the company’s original JV with APG back in 2013.
Cartwright said: ‘The transaction was complex because it involved a renegotiation of the terms of the existing joint ventures at the same time as DV4, APG and Qatari Diar were both selling and buying interests in the joint ventures among themselves.’
Simmons advised APG on the deal, led by corporate partners Gideon Sharp and Jason Daniel, and real estate partner Ali Crosthwaite.
They were supported by environment partner Steven McNab, tax partner Nick Cronkshaw, competition partner Peter Broadhurst, banking partner William Greig and litigator Stephen Gentle.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk