Lomond Capital, the rapidly expanding property group, has announced the purchase of a majority stake in a prominent south coast agency.

Brand Vaughan currently has three offices in Brighton and Hove, and will continue to trade under its own name.

The price Lomond has paid has not been disclosed but it would appear to be generous, with the aim of providing capital for Brand Vaughan to make its own bolt-on acquisitions.

It is the first purchase Lomond has made since the completion of a fund raising process last month which provided the group with £37.5m to fund expansion on the south coast and in London.

Lomond, which hit the acquisition trail seven years ago from a standing start – beginning in Scotland and working its way south – says that Brand Vaughan is the first of a number of acquisitions across the region.

Brand Vaughan manages more than 1,250 properties and sells more than £175m worth of property per annum throughout Brighton and the surrounding area.

The existing management team at Brand Vaughan will remain ‘significant’ shareholders while Lomond Capital chief executive Stuart Pender will become chairman.

Pender said: “Lomond has been interested in expanding the group into the south coast of England for some time and Brighton was a key target.

“We have got to know the experienced team at Brand Vaughan in recent months and very much look forward to working with them.”

Tom Ghibaldan, chief executive of Brand Vaughan, said: “We are very proud of the business we have built and are delighted to be in a position where we can continue to service our dedicated client base.

“We were encouraged by Lomond’s expertise in other regions and are thrilled to be working with the team to deliver our plans for the next phase of growth as a business.”

Lomond Capital was started in 2010, initially with the aim of consolidating the UK lettings industry although it has since expanded into the purchases of sales operations. It now manages residential properties worth in excess of £2.5bn and sells more than £600m worth of property per annum.

It currently has businesses in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Manchester.

Lomond Capital was co-founded in 2010 by two very big-hitters – Pender, previously chief executive of insurance business Paymentshield, and Roger Lane-Smith, senior partner of DLA Piper, the largest legal practice in the world.

Lomond has been accelerating its purchase programme since 2014, with many in the industry unaware of its existence let alone the scale of its acquisitions, as it does not seek to put its own brand in high streets. The businesses it acquires continue to trade under their own names, and are funded to make their own acquisitions.

* Separately, Romans and Leaders have announced that they are back on the acquisition trail across the UK. Group acquisition director Matthew Light said there had been a “short break to assess the changing market”.