St Martins has outsourced its property and corporate management across its E430m (£291m) French portfolio to CB Richard Ellis

The London Bridge based company which invests in Europe, Australia and the UK, and has a global portfolio valued at about £2.8bn, announced the appointment this morning.

CBRE has signed a three year deal to manage the French portfolio which stretches to more than 1.3m sq ft and has a rent roll of E32m (£21m). As a result, St Martin’s 18-strong property management team in France have transferred to CBRE’s France team.

Nigel Brown, managing director at St Martins, said: ‘We have a major programme of expansion planned for our European portfolio over the next five years and are therefore keen to concentrate our efforts on researching new markets and acquiring assets.

‘CBRE’s appointment will enable us to focus on seeking opportunities to increase our portfolio and as we have worked successfully in this way with CBRE in the UK it makes sense to extend their remit to our French portfolio.’