European residential real estate developer Cordia International has acquired Birmingham-based PRS (private rental sector) developer Blackswan Property Limited. The Blackswan acquisition marks Cordia’s first investment in the UK market.
Cordia is the residential development platform of Futureal Group, one of the real estate development and investment groups in Central and Eastern Europe with more than 500 real estate professionals and 7 million sq.ft of properties under construction across 43 ongoing projects.
UK’s Blackswan under the Cordia Blackswan brand will continue to be led by the current management team. The company will also be growing the team with a recruitment drive in the next few months to support the scale of their existing planned projects.
“Blackswan’s vision has always been to create sustainable places that enable people to live happier, richer and more fulfilling lives.
Being part of Cordia will allow us to fulfil that vision by delivering a £550 million pipeline of projects across the West Midlands. We are excited to join the Cordia family as they share our vision of creating new, well-designed places where people want to live, work, play and learn,” said Marcus Hawley, Managing Director and Founder of Blackswan.
“Our goal is to become one of the leading and most diversified residential development groups in Europe. The acquisition and recapitalization of Blackswan is not only our debut in the UK, but the latest milestone of our international expansion strategy,” said Tibor Földi, Chairman of the Board of Cordia.
Blackswan focuses on residential-led mixed-use developments in the West Midlands region. Projects currently include The Lampworks, a 124 home build-to-rent apartment scheme and The Gothic, an ambitious reanimation of listed and heritage buildings which will create a new residential and leisure destination. Both developments are located on the edge of Birmingham City Centre, in the Jewellery Quarter.
This acquisition follows Cordia’s recent 93% acquisition of Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed, Polish residential developer Polnord S.A., and 20% stake in German residential rental and large-scale urban renewal project company Argo Properties NV, increasing Cordia’s development land bank to over 14,000 apartments. Cordia has recently issued a €135 million 7-year bond and a €105 million 10-year bond to fund its international expansion and foray into the private rental sector (PRS).