Prominent banker Stephen Kirkpatrick has joined Northern Ireland property group Corbo as its new Chief Executive, the company has announced.

Mr Kirkpatrick is moving from his role as head of retail credit at Bank of Ireland, where until last year he was in charge of the bank's Northern Ireland business.

Corbo Chairman Sam Morrison said the appointment was an "integral part" of the property company’s future plans and comes at a time when it is seeking to develop growth opportunities from both inside and outside its retail-focused property base.

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Corbo is Northern Ireland's largest property company and owns a range of shopping centres and fashion parks across the UK and has total assets of £700m.

The group said it has "several significant property deals" in the pipeline which are expected to be announced in the coming months.

Mr Kirkpatrick said of Corbo: "It is a financially robust company with a healthy income stream and, having successfully completed a major debt refinancing last year it, is strongly positioned to take advantage of opportunities |throughout the UK to acquire additional profitable assets."

Corbo owns a controlling part of the share capital of three other companies: Murray House, Lemon Quay group and ASM (NI) Developments.

It's pre-tax profits - after interest is deducted - in 2008-9 amounted to £23.8m.

(BMCC/GK)