London landlord becomes subsidiary as merger forms 70,000-home group

Guinness said the majority of SBHA colleagues would remain in the employ of SBHA, with some corporate teams moving to the larger landlord in the coming months.

SBHA was created in 1966 by members of St Stephen’s Church in Shepherd’s Bush, and its 5,000 homes are located throughout nine boroughs in west London. 

Guinness, founded in 1890, has more than 140,000 customers in its roughly 65,000 homes across the country.

This partnership brings the total homes owned and managed by The Guinness Partnership to around 70,000.

The proposed merger was announced in April this year and the final business case was approved by Guinness and SBHA’s respective boards in October, following consultation with SBHA residents.

Ms Simons said: “From the very start of our discussions, it was clear that both organisations share a strong social purpose and a shared commitment to the communities we work in.

“Our partnership is about improving services and delivering more and better homes for all our residents, creating more places people are proud to live and investing more in our communities. I look forward to working with SBHA colleagues to make this happen.”

Andrew Warner, managing director of SBHA, said: “Our partnership will mean SBHA has the stability and financial resilience to ensure residents continue to receive ongoing investment in their homes more quickly than would otherwise be possible, and the longer-term capacity to deliver environmental improvements to our homes.”

Mr Warner said both landlords were now working closely to integrate key business functions, to ensure residents, employees and stakeholders were kept informed at all key stages.

A number of reciprocal appointments have been made to the boards of both landlords. This includes Martin Hurst, chair of SBHA, joining the Guinness board. 

Mr Hurst said: “We are delighted to have completed our partnership with Guinness today. I would like to thank the board, SBHA shareholders and residents, and all our colleagues for their support of the partnership and their confidence in the opportunities this provides.

“By bringing our two organisations together, SBHA will be better placed to deliver investment in its existing homes at a greater pace, improve services to residents and develop more affordable homes for the residents of west London.”

There has been an uptick in merger activity across the sector in the second half of the year, as landlords looked to shore up their finances in the face of economic headwinds affecting the sector.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s latest analysis last week suggested that the sector may have hit a turning point, with landlords’ financial performance expected to “improve marginally”, but more mergers are still likely.