The Cardiff office of global commercial property consultancy Knight Frank has promoted local duo Neil Francis and Gareth Lloyd from Associate to Partner within its agency and capital markets team.
Neil Francis heads the Cardiff office’s industrial agency department. He joined the firm in February 2012 and has been active in the South Wales market for the last 14years
In the past year Neil has been involved in many landmark industrial transactions in South Wales, including the acquisition of the Morgan Advanced Materials site at Swansea for £11.75m and its ongoing asset management; handling two large owner occupier sales at Festival Drive, Ebbw Vale and at the AG Barr Tredegar premises in Tredegar; and involvement as national agent on 45 separate ownerships throughout South Wales within the M7 portfolio of multi tenanted and single let investments.
Neil grew up locally and lives in Cardiff with his wife and young daughter. He said: “Since joining Knight Frank I have enjoyed growing the industrial agency team within the Cardiff office. We have a good mix of national and local clients and act for both landlords and occupiers active within the region. I am delighted that the Partnership has recognised this hard work and success over the last few years and look forward to my growing role within the company.”
Gareth Lloyd has been promoted to Partner within Knight Frank’s capital markets team in Cardiff. Cardiff-born Gareth is married with three children and lives in the city. After graduating in 2003 he worked for other national firms in London and Bristol before moving back to Cardiff and working more locally before joining Knight Frank as an Associate in 2010.
Within the past 18 months Gareth has been involved in £650m worth of Investment deals for Knight Frank, including Legal & General’s £400m investment in Central Square; the sale of Helmont House in Cardiff for £34.6m, and the acquisition of Admiral House in Newport on behalf of WP Carey for £18.46m.
Gareth Lloyd said: “I’m delighted to have been promoted to Partner and I would like to thank Knight Frank for this recognition. As a Capital Markets team in Cardiff we are lucky to have such a strong working relationship with our colleagues in Cardiff, and the wider Capital Markets team at Knight Frank, and this collaborative approach has been the key to our recent success. With so much going on in the region it’s a very exciting time to be working in the investment market in Cardiff and I look forward to working with our clients on many more transactions in the near future.”
The Knight Frank office in Cardiff is widely regarded as one of the strongest commercial property consultancies in South Wales and is involved in many of the region’s high profile instructions. Matt Phillips, Managing Partner of Knight Frank in Cardiff, said: “The promotions of Neil and Gareth reflect the excellent work they have both put in since joining the firm.
“Knight Frank recently announced record results for its 2014/2015 financial year and we have enjoyed a strong measure of success in South Wales. As one of the of the very few large international practices which retain a partnership model, we are able to tailor our service in a manner which is beneficial to clients while enabling us to reward outstanding members of staff like Neil and Gareth.”