Retail finance specialist, Christie Finance has announced the purchase of Nisa Local and Subway in Copnor Road, Portsmouth. The business was brought to market by its colleagues at Christie & Co and purchased by its clients, Cinnamon Ventures Limited. Competitive funding for this deal was sourced by Head of Corporate and Director at Christie Finance, Chris Field.
Copnor Road Nisa Local and Subway is an extremely profitable business, presenting excellent long-term potential for the new owners. There are multiple income streams in place introduced by the previous owners who opened the business in 2015. The store was extensively refurbished and fitted out four years ago and since then, has been maintained to an incredibly high standard. The purchase also included two self-contained apartments above the shop. Cinnamon Ventures Limited, do not intend on operating the Subway restaurant, and instead will be expanding the Nisa Local store.
The new owners, Cinnamon Ventures Limited comprise husband and wife team, Ansalam Moses and Virginya Sharon Costa-Moses. The couple already own two retail businesses – two petrol filling stations complete with onsite convenience stores and food and beverage stations. Ansalam has over five years’ experience in owning and operating retail businesses and has managers in place at both filling stations, which will enable him to adopt a hands-on approach at the new store.
A highly competitive commercial mortgage was secured for the purchase for this store, with all transactional costs covered by the Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
Discussing their recent purchase, Virginya and Ansalam comments “As it was our first commercial purchase over £600,000 on a single transaction, we had to carefully assess all options of finance for this transaction. After approaching a number of brokers and with some recommendations, we decided to use Christie Finance.
“Looking back, we are very pleased with our decision to use them. Chris Field, Head of Corporate and Director at Christie finance was our point of contact. He went through every step of the process throughout the transaction, from our first call through to completion. Every aspect of the application was explained to us in detail before applying for finance.
“In the end, Chris managed to secure an amazing deal with the lender which surpassed our expectations and covered all the associated costs, and with an interest rate that we could not have secured anywhere else. The deal just kept getting better and better. At one point our funding facility expired, due to a delay in the legal work however, Chris was not afraid to use his magic wand once again and get the facility reapproved. He even managed to get the lender to improve their terms and we are delighted that the purchase has now successfully completed; with Chris supporting us every step of the way. We will recommend Christie Finance to anyone who is seeking to secure the best business finance and will use them in our next deal without any hesitation.”
Chris Field at Christie Finance who secured funding and successfully got the deal over the line comments “It was an absolute pleasure to support my clients in sourcing the finance they needed to purchase the store. An experienced buyer with extensive knowledge of the retail sector, was required for a business of this calibre. I truly believe Ansalam and Virginya will be very successful as the new owners of Copnor Road Nisa Local. There were several obstacles we had to navigate in order to get the deal through, but with perseverance and not taking no for an answer, we now have an extremely satisfied vendor and purchaser. It would be an honour to work with Cinnamon Ventures Limited again in the future.”
Tom Glanvill, Director at Christie & Co, was the agent acting on behalf of the previous owners, Mr and Mrs Sandhub. He comments “I am delighted to have completed this transaction allowing the vendors to take their well-earned retirement from the sector. The business they have built up over the last four years is an exceptional platform for the new buyers and I am sure that the business will flourish under the new ownership. From a broader perspective the sale is yet more evidence of the confidence within the convenience retail sector. Our Retail team, who specialise in the sale of going concerns, have had an exceedingly busy year with the volume of transactions considerably higher than in 2019, fuelled by new entrants to the sector and current operators seeking expansion of their portfolios.”
