History
Rugby Estates Plc was formed in 1990 by David Tye, Andrew Wilson and Stephen
Jones, who had previously worked together as a successful management team at
Rugby Securities Limited, part of the Hillsdown Holdings Group. Neal Taylor
and Alex Wildman joined the company in 1992 and 1993 and together these five
directors comprise the executive team. Shares in Rugby Estates were first listed
on the London Stock Exchange in April 1994 and thus 2004 marks the first ten
years of successful growth as a public company.
Rugby Estates’ core competency lies in the identification and realisation of latent value in property situations. Once values have been maximised the company’s policy is to realise profits through disposals and to recycle the resources released into new opportunities. Thus over time the geographical and sector focus of the property portfolio changes – from smaller retail units in the mid 1990s to the assembly of a substantial mixed use portfolio in Covent Garden which was sold to ING Covent Garden Limited Partnership in 2002. Rugby’s asset management skills are recognised by a significant number of major financial and institutional investors and current and recent joint venture partners include ING Real Estate, Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch, UBS Capital and Liverpool Victoria. Through such joint ventures Rugby can lead and manage very large property portfolio transactions while limiting its balance sheet exposure and generating fee income to enhance shareholder returns.
