Photo credit: Jill Tate
Aligned experience, purpose and values will service significant demand for Thriving Investments' end to end sustainable development and investment capabilities.
Thriving Investments (formerly known as PfP Capital) the social value and ESG-focused real estate fund manager, which is part of the UK’s leading social enterprise £5Bn Places for People, has acquired the UK’s first real estate B-Corp accredited organisation, and award-winning development manager, igloo Regeneration.
Thriving Investments and igloo have been working together since 2018 through a successful joint venture partnership formed following Places for People’s acquisition of the igloo Regeneration Fund's joint venture holdings and development pipeline.
Thriving Investments' acquisition of igloo will enable the new, combined business to build on the strength of the relationship with new investors and innovative new schemes.
As part of the acquisition, igloo’s founder and sole shareholder to date, Chris Brown, will step down as igloo Chair, and move to an advisory role. All other existing igloo directors and personnel will remain unchanged with John Tatham and Alex Notay from Thriving Investments joining the igloo Board as non-executive directors.
Finance Director and board member of Thriving Investments, John Tatham, said: “We have worked closely with igloo since 2018, so its integration into Thriving Investments increases our in-house capability to do more together. igloo is fully aligned to our core principles of responsible investment, so the acquisition makes perfect sense when you consider that we have growing demand for our placemaking and community building capabilities.”
CEO of igloo Regeneration, Peter Connolly, added: “This is an exciting moment for igloo and a real opportunity to take our business to the next level and deliver more great projects and places. There will be no changes to igloo’s purpose and principles, our B-Corp status will not be affected, and we will continue to deliver projects using our footprint® methodology, as we have for the last 21 years.
“I know I speak for everybody at igloo when I say that we are genuinely excited by the new opportunities that this opens up and we see this as a great chance to take our purpose driven product to market across the UK.”
Chris Brown said of the sale: “The igloo team has achieved miracles over the last two decades. People thought we were mad trying to be a regeneration developer that reduced climate damage and delivered social progress. It's great to see many more developers now following these paths, indeed the whole real estate industry now pivoting in this direction. Thriving Investments, under its new management, with a strong social purpose and balance sheet, is an ideal owner for the next stage in igloo's adventure."
Greg Reed, Group Chief Executive Officer of Places for People, and board member of Thriving Investments, commented: “At Places for People, we believe that community matters. For a number of years, Thriving Investments and igloo have been working separately, and in partnership, to successfully create and develop communities throughout the UK. With igloo now wholly part of Places for People, we’re creating a powerful force that will not only satisfy the significant demand from investors but also forge a new era of responsible development.”
igloo and the igloo Investment Management business will continue to operate as a separate business structure within Thriving Investments. igloo Development Management, igloo Community Builders and igloo Investment Management will all continue to work with their full range of clients.
PfP igloo, the joint venture partnership between Thriving Investments and igloo, will continue to focus on its development portfolio of over 500 existing homes and plans to deliver a further 500 homes for sale and rent, as well as over 300,000 sq ft of commercial space.