St. Modwen 30 Years : A Generation of Regeneration 1 | Page 4

ST. MODWEN | A GENERATION OF REGENERATION | INTRODUCTION

St. Modw en at
The same month St. Modwen floated on
the stock market, in April 1986, The
Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks as a
hapless house renovator topped
the box office. In cleaning up 10,000
acres of brownfield land over the past
30 years St. Modwen has become
the most skilled company in Britain at
extracting brass from muck, rather than
the reverse, as this 84-page anniversary
celebration demonstrates.

Peter Bill, former editor
of Estates Gazette and
author of Planet Property

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Development is a risky business at the
best of times. The worst of times have
cycled in twice since 1986. Once in 1990,
then again in 2007. First time around I was
editor of Building magazine. In late 1988
I suggested that “smoke signals coming
from the construction industry are puffing
the same story… material shortages, price
rises or even the mythical £100 a day
bricklayer, the message is… the industry
is overheating.”
St. Modwen survived. Many didn’t have
the simple guts to do what Sir Stanley
Clarke did. His words from 1990 on p.46
say much for the man. “Everyone was
running scared, and the banks got after
us. They said we’ve got to close offices,
got to do a rights issue… I was so cross, I

stood up to my full height… and I took my
fist… and I banged it down on the table...
They could never understand what we
were doing, those City boys.”
What’s easy to understand is Sir Stanley,
his successor from 1989 Anthony
Glossop, and then from 2004 Bill Oliver,
continued to tackle seriously daunting
projects such as Coed Darcy p.8 and
Longbridge p.20. The second time round
I was editor of Estates Gazette. In April
2006 I worried that “there is now a darker
and scarier feel that (the commercial
property sector) is now detached from
the reasonable view that markets go
down as well as up.”
When the next economic hurricane hit in
2007 St. Modwen withstood the storm.
Between June 2007 and June 2009 real
estate values fell 45% and land values
fell further. Most developers bust their
banking covenants. A few big house
builders teetered close to bankruptcy.
As I say in the profile of Bill Oliver p.79
“What is extraordinary to trouble-seekers
(like me) is how well St. Modwen charted
the deepest property recession in
modern history.”

Today the Company stands strong, feet
firmly planted on the ground laid by Sir
Stanley Clarke. As Andrew Catmur of
consulting engineers Andrew Catmur
Engineering Ltd suggests p.58 “Over
many years St. Modwen has acquired
land that others saw no value in or
considered too risky.” Why this strategy
works is clear and best put by Heraclis
Economides, of Numis Securities p.26.
So let’s leave the last word to
St. Modwen’s eyes and ears in the City:

“What I like about the people at St.
Modwen is that they have maintained the
principles and virtues that were instilled
at the time of their stock market floatation.
They are about taking long-term views,
being very collegiate with their staff.
If someone had invested £1,000 in St.
Modwen in 1986 that would now be
worth £62,000*. That works out at a 15%
compound annual return, that even beats
buying a Mayfair flat in 1986!”

*Correct at time of interview

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