Ambitious Rugby eyes £1bn buy

12 April 2012

RUGBY Estates chairman David Tye wants to propel his company into the ranks of the major property developers and said today he could handle a £1bn-plus acquisition.

As his biggest deal so far was £82m and with full-year profits unveiled today of £4.6m, up 10%, this may seem ambitious.

However, Tye said the company had won its spurs with its Covent Garden deal. 'There's nothing to stop us looking at a £1bn deal,' he said.

Earlier this month Rugby completed the £60m sale of its Covent Garden estate to a limited partnership, in which it has a 20% stake, enabling it to pay a special dividend of 33p a share.

Net asset value per share in 2001 climbed 10% to 391p.

Tye said he is looking to do 'another Covent Garden' by building up a portfolio of mixed usage in properties in central London areas such as Spitalfields and Clerkenwell, but he said stock was 'pretty scarce at the moment'.

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