Anyone know anything about Golfrate?

[supercity]

Looking up the other morning on my way to the station, I noticed that several properties along Brixton Road, including The Fridge, Iceland, and several others on the other side, have been acquired by a company called Golfrate.

The company has a minimalist website at www.golfrate.com

Does anyone out there know anything else about them? Why are they buying Brixton?

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

There's another recent thread on the page, about the Fridge.

I noticed at the weekend they've bought a property on Half Moon Lane in Herne Hill as well.

 

[ajdown]

Seems like they're branching out from Angola - http://www.golfrateangola.com/

http://www.newratings.com/en/main/company_headline.m?&id=900683

"Golfrate has branched out of Angola to buy properties across south and central London; Surrey + south London boroughs - IN 1983, WHILE MOST OF HIS 16-YEAR-OLD contemporaries were lying about their age to buy lager at the corner shop, Asif Aziz was spinning a line to purchase a 1.9m [pounds sterling] property on London's Brompton Road"


http://www.nriinternet.com/NRIentrepreneurs/UK/A_Z/A/Asif_Aziz/index.htm

"NRI Asif Aziz, 39 has invested in London property since the 1980's and has an in depth knowledge and understanding of the London property market. This knowledge, together with his entrepreneurial skills has guided Golfrate to its current standing as one of the fastest growing private property companies in the UK."

http://www.nriinternet.com/NRIentrepreneurs/UK/A_Z/A/Asif_Aziz/index.htm

"His first deal was buying two shops in Deptford High Street but soon his Golfrate investment vehicle was snapping up landmark sites. "

Make of that what you will.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

http://www.nriinternet.com/NRIentrepreneurs/UK/A_Z/A/Asif_Aziz/index.htm

"His first deal was buying two shops in Deptford High Street but soon his Golfrate investment vehicle was snapping up landmark sites. "

Make of that what you will.

maybe The Academy will be next

 

[jogdi]

Seems that Golfrate trades as Criterion Capital, in the UK at least.
The latest news is the Asif Aziz gets Trocadero go-ahead story.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=248709&highlight=golfrate

 

[Belushi]

Seem to be buying up property in Streatham as well.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Seem to be buying up property in Streatham as well.

and Herne Hill

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

According to them

Established in 1991 and based in Wimbledon, we [Golfrate] have a long and successful association with the property market particularly in South London. We manage nearly 400 properties with a gross income in excess of £100M per annum.

So how come nobody had heard of them until recently?

 

[ovaltina]

Asif Aziz, the property magnate who owns the Trocadero, is being sued for $20m over claims that he defrauded a Lebanese businessman once alleged to be involved with the trade in African "blood diamonds".

Aziz is accused of illegally ramping the price of Golfrate Africa and Ovlas Trading, two Angolan food manufacturing businesses he sold in 2005, just before he bought the Trocadero

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/12/16/cnaziz116.xml

Hmm... so according to this he's prepared to play a bit dirty when it suits him...

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Found this

Woolworths has been left with a £1.6m rent demand after a shock decision on an outstanding rent review for its Brixton store. The 45,000 sq ft store on Brixton Road, owned by Golfrate, went to arbitration for a 2004 rent review. The arbitrator, Chris Ray at Harmer Ray Hoffbrand, found that the rent of £250,000 should rise to £896,000 a year.

Blimey, that's one hell of a rent increase

 

[ovaltina]

Sheesh! Is there any way in the world Brixton Woolies can make a profit with a 900,000 pa rent bill? They'd have to sell a LOT of pick & mix. I smell a rat.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Sheesh! Is there any way in the world Brixton Woolies can make a profit with a 900,000 pa rent bill? They'd have to sell a LOT of pick & mix. I smell a rat.

His name is probably Aziz. We need to find a picture of the little weasel.




















Except, I've looked and not found one

 

[Belushi]

Sheesh! Is there any way in the world Brixton Woolies can make a profit with a 900,000 pa rent bill? They'd have to sell a LOT of pick & mix. I smell a rat.

Yup, massive rent rises to drive out unwanted retailers...

 

[editor]

"His first deal was buying two shops in Deptford High Street but soon his Golfrate investment vehicle was snapping up landmark sites. "

"Golfrate investment vehicle". Wah?!

 

[ovaltina]

We need to find a picture of the little weasel.

I can't find one either. None of the media reports come with pictures. From the look of his website I'd imagine he likes keeping a low profile.

*rubs chin thoughtfully*

 

[hipipol]

Very interesting

Seems that RBS are the prime source for funding for these guys, there main contact being this lass: Suzanne Avery MD of Porperty Finace at RBS she took over this role in early 07 and says wonderful things about Criterion on the website..........
Criterion claim on their website to offer advisory services with regards to advising on investments in property and have a Capital markets group - they are not registered with the FSA so that hardly seems plausible

They look very much like a private equity firm, but if they are advising others to purchase public quoted comapnies, they need to be regiasterd with the FSA

I must dig further......

 

[rennie]

Hold on, doesn't the telegraph article make a distinction between Aziz/Criterion and the Lebanese mafiosi who reportedly own Golfrate?

 

[ovaltina]

Aziz - whose company Criterion Capital is worth £620m

.

 

[ovaltina]

I was going through Tooting on the bus yesterday (don't get jealous!) and saw three shops with signs saying "another investment property acquired by Golfrate - more wanted - ring da da da". They were Woolworths, New Look and an internet cafe, all near Tooting Broadway tube. I wonder what Mr Aziz plans to do with south London when he's bought all its high street shops?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I was going through Tooting on the bus yesterday (don't get jealous!) and saw three shops with signs saying "another investment property acquired by Golfrate - more wanted - ring da da da". They were Woolworths, New Look and an internet cafe, all near Tooting Broadway tube. I wonder what Mr Aziz plans to do with south London when he's bought all its high street shops?

Well if he keeps putting rents up like he did with Woolworths in Brixton, they'll all be shut and probably converted to yuppy flats

 

[jogdi]

Looks like the portfolio is growing. One Leicester Square and Coventry House are the latest investments by Asif Aziz

 

[se5]

And walking around central hounslow this morning I noticed several Golfrate signs

This article http://property-week-uat.internalho...oncode=39&storycode=3051220&featurecode=11433 provides a bit of backgroiund information on the company and the man behind it (apologies if this has been cited before - I did a little search and couldnt see any reference to it)

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

And walking around central hounslow this morning I noticed several Golfrate signs

This article http://property-week-uat.internalho...oncode=39&storycode=3051220&featurecode=11433 provides a bit of backgroiund information on the company and the man behind it (apologies if this has been cited before - I did a little search and couldnt see any reference to it)

You can't have done much of a search

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=252377&highlight=golfrate

 

[Gramsci]

His name is probably Aziz. We need to find a picture of the little weasel.

Your right ,just checked the Criterion Capital website.In "Key People" the rest have pics of themselves with there profile.Except him.

 

[supercity]

Slightly off-topic, but there's a lot about Woolies here.

I've heard on the grapevine that Woolies in Clapham is shutting to be turned into a Waitrose.

 

[brixtongirl78]

Lucky Clapham, I hope they do the same thing in Brixton, and put Sainsbury's out of business.

 

[Crispy]

no way, woolies is useful. waitrose can fuck off - that'd put a lot of local shops out of business

 

[supercity]

Here's the proof - from the horse's mouth

Waitrose press release

Aha, my mistake - it's really Clapham Junction!!!

 

[RubyToogood]

Spotted some Golfrate signs up in Walworth this week as well.