Lovells real estate head Bob Kidby has been appointed as a non-executive director at property developer Welbeck Land ahead of his retirement from Lovells next year.

Bob Kidby

Bob Kidby

Welbeck has been a client of Kidby for some 20 years and when he leaves Lovells in April 2010 he will assume an executive role at the company.

“I’ve been watching what my property clients do for 30 years, but this is the first time that I’m crossing the line,” he told The Lawyer, anticipating that next year he would be involved in a string of acquisitions at the bottom of the market.

“Welbeck is one of the lucky companies that saw the recession coming and sold the majority of its development portfolio in advance. It’s one of the companies that’ll be looking to make acquisitions at the bottom of the market,” he said.

Lovells real estate partner Michael Stancombe has become joint real estate head alongside Kidby and will manage the department once Kidby leaves.

“Michael has been my friend and partner for 25 years so it seems sensible that we should be joint heads of real estate,” Kidby added.