Business
Top award for Newbury company boss
10th April 2008
Highcross MD named a Director of the Year
PETER Gubb, the managing director of Newbury-based property fund manager, Highcross, has been named one of Deloitte’s Directors of the Year for 2008.
The prestigious award is made annually to five directors from companies in the South, by chartered accountants and business advisers, Deloitte.
The awards aim to recognise the ‘DNA’ of exemplary directors. Criteria include significant business performance; a will to succeed; ability to overcome obstacles and learn from experience and establishing a culture that helps achieve clearly defined goals.
Highlighting Peter Gubb’s achievements, the award organisers said: “From one of the worst recessions in the late eighties, Peter Gubb has built a property fund management company specialising in commercial investment and development with assets of more than £1 billion. It’s well respected in the boardrooms of America’s blue-chip financial institutions, even though Highcross hasn’t ventured from the UK in terms of its work. But he’s redefined what a business in this sector can achieve.”
Peter Gubb took over as managing director of Highcross in 1989 at a time of a major slump in the commercial property market. In the early 1990s he identified a significant opportunity in Scotland for investing in industrial property and within eighteen months, Highcross was the largest industrial landlord north of the border.
This success led to joint venture opportunities with US financiers and the creation of the first Highcross fund, to acquire income generating commercial property with the potential for adding value through property investment or re-development.
When the first Highcross fund closed, £150 million had been raised, mainly from the USA. Mr Gubb explained: “We were one of the UK pioneers in getting funds from the US and it was matched by £300 million of debt from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Our first fund took more than two years to put in place, but when we announced plans for a second fund in 2006, Highcross raised £325 million in just four days.”
Since then, Highcross has acquired Bizspace, a publicly quoted UK company and leader in flexible managed workspace, Kenmore Homes (now renamed Highmore Homes), and a wide-ranging commercial property portfolio across the UK. The company has just announced that it has raised £500 million of equity for its third UK property fund.
Mr Gubb added: “I am delighted to have received this award, but it also reflects the success of the whole team here at Highcross. Property is all about people, and reaching the size we are now, with 1.8 million sq ft of commercial development and potentially £3 billion of assets, has been a great achievement.”
Pictured, Peter Gubb (right) receives his award from Alan Morgan, of Deloitte
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