Moorfield Group

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History

Moorfield Group, under the control of Marc Gilbard and Graham Stanley, took on its current corporate persona in January 1996 when Marc and Graham, after an extensive career in real estate finance and investment in the UK, identified it as a vehicle with which to create a dynamic real estate and real estate related investment business focused upon the private equity market. At that time, Moorfield was a traditional small real estate company (Moorfield Estates plc) listed on the London Stock Exchange that was in a position of asset and financial difficulty. After completing a comprehensive financial and operational restructuring of the Company, the new management team, with the support of the group’s shareholders, soon became a preferred local partner to large private equity investors that lacked the specialised knowledge required to maximise returns in the UK real estate market.

From 1996 to 2001, Moorfield remained as a listed company and the new management team focused on realising the inherited assets whilst identifying new investment opportunities and investing the Group’s own capital alongside that of their private equity partners. Moorfield was responsible for opportunity origination, securing equity and debt finance, business planning and acting as investment, asset and financial manager. Over this period, successful joint venture relationships were formed with, amongst others, the Blackstone Group, the Barclay Brothers, Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank, Westbrook Partners and Bank of Scotland. The Group also created Domain, one of the first significant student and key worker accommodation providers in the UK in 1998 and Kew Green Hotels in 2001, a specialist budget hotel operator and asset owner/manager. As an indication of the turnaround of the Group, over this period:

• The share price rose circa 50%
• The dividend per share was increased year on year by 10%
• The Net Asset Value per share increased by circa 70%

By 2001, it had become clear that remaining a public company was inappropriate considering Moorfield's investment structure and ambitions. As a result, in April 2001, the senior management team of Moorfield, combined with equity and debt capital from Bank of Scotland Group, took the Company private. The Company then continued to acquire, finance, manage and dispose of assets through the private equity structures, as well as continuing with the growth of Domain and Kew Green Hotels.

By 2005, Moorfield had achieved an average IRR of over 60% on an equity multiple of 2.5x. Following this diversified and highly successful investment and subsequent disposal programme of some £2 billion, Moorfield raised its first real estate private equity fund, The Moorfield Real Estate Fund (MREF). MREF was invested over the next two years in: two hotel portfolios; three shopping centres; and land for student accommodation development. Please refer to our ‘Investments’ page for more detail on each investment.

In 2007, Moorfield raised a second real estate private equity fund, The Moorfield Real Estate Fund II (MREF II), which we are currently in the process of investing.

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