Hugo Clark is a Managing Director with Teneo in London, having joined Teneo as part of its purchase of Deloitte’s UK Restructuring business.

Hugo is a Chartered Surveyor and a senior commercial property asset manager and consultant specialising in distressed real estate situations with a particular focus on the retail sector. Hugo’s experience at Deloitte has focused on turnaround and managed exit strategies in respect of distressed property investments and value realisation and disposal strategies on large leasehold portfolios within the context of major, high profile retailer administrations.

Hugo was formerly a partner at Cushman & Wakefield Investors where he was Head of Tactical Asset Management for the £1.5bn Hermes shopping centre portfolio. Prior to re-joining Deloitte, Hugo was Managing Director of Derwent Estates in Manchester. Derwent Estates is the asset management platform for a £500m commercial property investment portfolio of the Derwent Group in Manchester. Upon the death of the business’s founder, in 2016 the group and its property holdings were left in trust to the Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation with the purpose of generating profits that could be distributed to good causes and philanthropic projects. Hugo’s role at Derwent was to oversee the restructuring and day to day management of Derwent Estates to create a modern, fit for purpose, internal asset management platform for the Derwent Group property investment portfolio in preparation for acceptance for full UK charitable status.

Selected Project Experience

• Arcadia Group Limited – Led the property workstream through the administration of Arcadia, liaising with landlords, supporting trading and lockdown strategies and overseeing the disposal of a substantial portfolio of freehold properties.
• Victoria’s Secret – Following the appointment of administrators, led the property workstream and undertook direct negotiations with landlords to secure rent-free deals required to ensure that the store portfolio could reopen following the Covid lockdown. Provided advice to the administrators, the Chief Executive and Next plc as the JV partner on the property strategy for the JV to ensure that the cost profile of the portfolio was sustainable.
• Drake & Morgan – Appointed by D&M and their private equity backers to develop and coordinate a consensual rent negotiating strategy, assisting management with individual negotiations. The project significantly exceeded the original rent saving targets.
• Clarks/Pizza Hut – as part of wider contingency/CVA planning projects, led reviews of the property portfolios to identify the key areas of leverage that could be used to pursue a consensual rent reduction strategy with landlords and designed processes for engaging with a large number of landlords in a short period of time, tracking the contact and monitoring and reporting benefits.
• Oasis & Warehouse/ HMV / Comet / Bank Fashion/ Rileys Sports Bars (in administration) – Following the collapse of the businesses, acted as interim property director leading the respective property workstreams for the joint administrators with responsibility for maximising the returns to creditors from the leasehold portfolios, liaising with landlords and mitigating all property related outgoings to support the business sale processes.
• Mind / Alzheimers Society /Barnardos – Supported all three charities with the delivery of comprehensive operational property portfolio reviews designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their retail portfolios and support key decisions in connection with their head office and core operational properties.
• The Rock Shopping Centre – Bury & Market Gates Shopping Centre – Great Yarmouth – Acting on behalf of the lending Banks and the Administrators, provided strategic advice to support the development of the hold/exit strategies in respect of both shopping centres. Worked closely with the property and asset managers, letting agents and other professional advisors to provide clarity and direction on the Bank’s options for these assets and worked with all parties through to the successful exit of the lenders’ positions on both assets.
• Ethel Austin Investment Property Ltd (In Administration) – Acting as lead property advisor preparing and implementing the realisation strategy on a retail investment portfolio extending to 300 properties governed by 87 separate Joint Venture agreements with 21 funding Banks. Role focussed on leading negotiations with JV partners and banks with a view to realising value back to creditors.