Orchard Street remains an active investor and asset manager in 2012

In 2012 Orchard Street Investment Management LLP increased assets under management by £550 million to £3.2 billion and completed over £512 million of transactions. Additionally Orchard Street completed leasing transactions with a combined annual rental of over £10 million.

"The past twelve months has been an extremely active period for Orchard Street,"

said Chris Bartram, Chairman of Orchard Street Investment Management.

"We are delighted to have launched the second UK Special Situations Fund with an investment capacity of up to £200 million and been appointed as an investment manager by the BBC Pension Fund. Despite the challenging market we completed a number of excellent acquisitions on behalf of all our client funds and have completed 75 leasing deals which equates to one every 3.5 days."

Since the beginning of 2012, Orchard Street has been an active investor across all its fund mandates. In total, it has acquired properties with a combined value of approximately £400 million. Orchard Street also made £70 million of disposals during the period including Logix Park, Hinckley in Leicestershire for £23.2 million.

In retail alone the Company purchased over £235 million of assets with key transactions including the 236,000 sq ft Beehive Shopping Centre in Cambridge for £109 million; a purpose built Tesco Extra in Wembley for £61.9 million; Priory Fields, a prime retail park in Taunton for £27.2 million and, most recently, Staples Corner Retail Park in North London for £24 million. Following these transactions the volume of shopping centres and retail parks managed by Orchard Street has increased to £1.4 billion

Other key acquisitions include prime office buildings in London: Buchanan House in Holborn for £20.5 million, 6-10 St Andrews Street, next to Holborn Circus for £23.5 million, 8-10 Old Jewry for £40 million. In the industrial sector the Company purchased Riverside Cargo Centre, a multi let industical estate in Poyle for £6.2 million; City Cross Business Park in Greenwich for £21.1 million;

the £19 million Cobbett Park on Slyfield Industrial Park in Guildford; and Joule House, a data centre let to Europe’s leading provider of data systems for £7.5 million.

Asset management activity included over 910,000 sq ft of new lettings, lease renewals and lease restructurings with a total rental value of over £10 million. Significant among these were the lettings of 43,000 sq ft to Debenhams at the Three Spires Shopping Centre in Lichfield; 6,300 sq ft to the Royal Automobile Club at 83 Pall Mall, SW1 on a 20 year lease; the remaining 10,000 sq ft at St Catherine’s Walk to both leisure and retail tenants including Vodafone, Stormfront and Hotter Shoes; and 10,000 sq ft at Wellgate Shopping Centre in Dundee to B&M Retail.

Commenting on the property market for 2013, Chris Bartram said:

"The commercial property market is at an interesting juncture as we approach 2013. The future promises the continuation of low rates of interest, and relatively restricted access to debt finance. Therefore property continues to offer investors a yield on cost that is superior to other major UK asset classes. In addition the restricted availability of debt, as well as a relatively risk averse sentiment in many places, creates a premium value for the best existing investments. A trend that we expect to continue, and maybe, as confidence rebuilds in the years ahead, real growth that will reward good investment today."