BCPT Agrees Sale of Portfolio's Largest Office Asset

To:                               RNS
Date:                           14 February 2024
LEI Number:                213800A2B1H4ULF3K397                      
From:                           Balanced Commercial Property Trust Limited

Sale Activity

BCPT agrees sale of portfolio’s largest office asset

Balanced Commercial Property Trust Ltd (‘BCPT’ or the ‘Company’) today announces that, as part of its stated strategy to reduce its exposure to the challenged UK offices sector and rebalance its portfolio, the Company has exchanged contracts on the sale of the Leonardo Building in Crawley, a 110,000 sq. ft. out-of-town business park office. The sale has been exchanged unconditionally based on a headline price of £26.1m, representing a 6.1% discount to the December 2023 independent valuation. The net realisation is subject to the deduction of rental top-ups calculated at the date of completion in March 2024.  

The property, which BCPT has owned since 2015, is the largest office holding within the Company’s portfolio by capital value, is located in the Manor Royal Business District and occupied in its entirety by Virgin Atlantic until 2032.

The sale will reduce BCPT’s portfolio exposure to offices from 24.4%[1] to 22.2% by capital value (based on the December 2023 independent valuation). Further targeted disposals are planned and the Company is in active discussions with several potential buyers.

Since the beginning of the year, BCPT has announced the disposal of four office holdings, raising capital proceeds totaling £68.865m delivered at an aggregate discount of 2.6% to the preceding independent valuation[2]. Three of these sales are regional out of town offices, which is a structurally challenged sector of the market.

Richard Kirby, Fund Manager of BCPT, said: “Our investment process has always focused on high quality real estate with strong fundamentals. The value in this approach is underlined by our ability to execute the disposal of non-core office holdings at resilient pricing.

Throughout 2024, we will continue to re-balance our portfolio towards targeted growth sectors with resilient occupier markets, primarily select sub-markets within industrial & logistics and operational alternatives. We expect to announce further disposal activity in the short term as we continue to strategically reduce our exposure to the office sector.”

All enquiries to:

Richard Kirby
CT Real Estate Partners LLP
Tel: [phone]

Innes Urquhart
Winterflood Securities Limited
Tel: [phone]

Dion Di Miceli / Tom MacDonald / Stuart Muress / James Atkinson
Barclays Bank PLC
0207 623 2323
[e-mail]

 

[1] Following the sale of King Street, London on 19 January 2024

[2] Discounts are calculated against the last independent valuation prior to contracting the sale. Sales in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London King Street are compared to September 2023 valuation having contracted in December 2023 and the figures are as previously reported. The sale of Crawley adopts the headline price of £26.1m and is compared to the December 2023 valuation having contracted in February 2024.

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