Kennedy Wilson hits the ground running

Since the year-end it has acquired a further 180 properties in the Aviva-Gatsby portfolio for £503m and £25m in costs. This takes the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio up from 7 per cent at the year-end to 31.3 per cent. However, president and chief executive Mary Ricks says that given the low cost of borrowing - which is averaging 2.6 per cent for the group - she would be comfortable with an LTV ratio of 50 per cent. At the year-end the group had cash and undrawn facilities of £667m, giving plenty of firepower for further acquisitions.

The bulk of the portfolio is in the UK, but there is also a significant presence in Ireland, notably in rapidly recovering Dublin. But what runs through the whole business model is a tendency to purchase assets from financial institutions and receivers whose core business is not real estate. In Ireland, for example, the National Asset Management Agency, set up as a bad bank for distressed assets, still has around €16bn (£11.7bn) of assets on its book.

The group paid dividends of 6p a share last year, but has announced an initial dividend for the current year of 7p a share which, assuming favourable conditions, it plans to pay quarterly. That gives a potential yield of 2.6 per cent.

Analysts at stockbroker Davy expect adjusted net asset value to increase to 1,203p by the end of 2015.