The new team at Grainger, led by Helen Gordon, who formally took the reins as chief executive yesterday, says that the remodelling of the business, the country’s biggest quoted private residential landlord, has nothing to do with the arrival on the shareholder list of Amber Crystal, the activist investor, in the summer.
The restructuring is certainly continuing apace. Grainger has sold its 25 per cent stake in its German joint venture for £34 million. The wholly owned German homes are up for sale. Germany was initially seen as a useful market to get into because of the high percentage of the housing stock that is rented, but owning and administering assets there was difficult.
Meanwhile, the move towards renting in the UK has made