Orchard Street has recruited six staff after winning an investment management mandate for St James's Place Wealth Management. The mandate is for £800 mln (EUR 932 mln) of property funds which brings Orchard Street's total funds under management to £2.5 bn.

In recent days Orchard Street has carried out two transactions on behalf of the St James’s Place (SJP) mandate.

Richard Walters and Michael Cecil have joined Orchard Street's asset management team and will report to Phillip Rodger. Lawson Shepherd has taken on the newly formed role of head of distribution reporting to John Humberstone.

Walters and Cecil joins directly from Invista Real Estate, the former investment manager for the SJP mandate. Shepherd comes from Insight Investment, but was previously director of distribution at Invista.

In addition, Ian Gibson, Subnum Vawda and Charlotte Foley from the SJP accounting team have joined Orchard Street. They report to finance director David Lee.

The SJP mandate includes the St. James's Place UK Property Fund, an open-ended life and pension fund and the St. James's Place Authorised Property Unit Trust. Combined, the funds comprise a diversified portfolio of assets including office, industrial and retail properties located throughout the UK.

Orchard Street now has a team of 17 professionals.