Trowers & Hamlins

Trowers & Hamlins, the international law firm, has advised on the merger of the Orbit Group and the Heart of England Housing Group to form one of the UK’s largest housing groups, managing 33,000 homes across the UK.

The Orbit and Heart of England Groups had a strong geographical overlap in the Midlands, and have come together to capitalise on that strength and form a leading presence in the area.  At the same time, Orbit have reorganised their own stock regionally, with a transfer from Orbit Housing Association to Orbit Group Limited.  This follows an internal restructure in October 2007 to create Orbit South Housing Association Limited, on which the firm also acted.

Emma Tarran, Partner, of Trowers & Hamlins Public Sector Communities and Governance Department, comments "This deal is part of a continuing trend amongst housing associations towards consolidating in areas of strength (by geography or specialism) to achieve the scale and resources needed to give their customers the best possible service."

"Our clients continue to demonstrate a keen appetite for mergers in their drive to deliver successful social housing and regeneration projects across the country, and make a real difference to communities.  We have the strength and depth of experience to help them through what are often very complex deals."

The specialist RSL Governance Team within Trowers & Hamlins has acted on many major housing association mergers over the last year including:

• Metropolitan Housing Partnership and Walbrook Housing
• Metropolitan Housing Partnership, Threshold Support and Refugee   Housing Association (creating Metropolitan Support Trust)
• Hyde Group and Martlet Homes
• London & Quadrant and Threshold Housing
• London & Quadrant and Ujima
• Circle Anglia and Russet Homes
• Moat Homes and Bourne Housing Society
• Guinness Trust and Northern Counties Housing Association
• the creation of Guinness Care and Support
• Sanctuary Housing Group and Shaftesbury Housing Group
• Sovereign Housing Group and The Vale Housing Association.