The UK-based Cording Group, a real estate asset management firm founded in 2009 by Peter Dove, Mark Millar and Simon Kitching, is to expand further across Europe, and has picked John Partridge, former executive chairman and founder of Cordea Savills, as its new executive chairman.
The UK-based Cording Group, a real estate asset management firm founded in 2009 by Peter Dove, Mark Millar and Simon Kitching, is to expand further across Europe, and has picked John Partridge, former executive chairman and founder of Cordea Savills, as its new executive chairman.
Incumbent chairman Richard Cundall, who worked with Partridge at Morgan Grenfell in the early 1990s, is stepping down. Partridge (pictured) will become a major shareholder in the Mayfair-based firm, which also has offices Frankfurt and Copenhagen.
He joins as the firm seeks to capitalise on its strong historic UK base to expand in some European markets. Property assets under management have reached c. €1.65bn, which includes around £450m of investment mandates.
The Cording Group is a founder and joint venture partner in the Family Office Real Estate firm (FORE Partnership), a property investment manager specifically for Family Offices, which closed its first pan-European fundraising in March of this year.
In the last two years the group has also acquired Danmerc, a UK investment management business, and MGI in Frankfurt.
Partridge said the Group has already taken significant steps towards becoming an important independent property investment and asset manager, and he feels the firm is well placed to take advantage of both the next phase in the property lifecycle and the major changes occurring in the property fund management industry.
“The focus on deploying considerable expertise at portfolio, asset, and property management levels, all in-house, is a considerable draw for me and I am confident that, together, we can build Cording Group into a significant force in the industry.”
Cording Group comprises Cording Capital, Cording Property Management, Danmerc, Cording APS, Cording Germany and the joint venture with FORE Advisors. The Group invests in real estate in both single and client managed accounts and specialist vehicles.
Cording’s in-house asset and property management team manages offices, retail, industrial and leisure properties with a value of around €1.65bn, of which c.£450m relates to the Brittannia Invest and FORE Partnership mandates.
Brittannia Invest, whose principal investors are Danish pension funds, has been managed since 1994 and invests in prime regional UK offices. FORE Partnership, whose investors are all family offices, backs value add assets targeting London and Germany, Cording has 28 staff in London, nine in Frankfurt, and three in Copenhagen.
