Acquisition of One Sheldon Square for £210m

RNS Number : 0747K

British Land Co PLC

14 April 2015

 



British Land extends ownership at Paddington Central with the acquisition of One Sheldon Square for £210 million

British Land announces it has completed the acquisition of One Sheldon Square, Paddington Central, for £210 million from the Employees Provident Fund, Malaysia. This brings our total investment at Paddington Central to 800,000 sq ft with a further 146,000 sq ft currently under construction at 4 Kingdom Street and 210,000 sq ft of consented future development at 5 Kingdom Street.

The acquisition is in line with our strategy of expanding in London and the South East including in and around our existing assets.  Acquiring One Sheldon Square, which is prominently located at the entrance to Paddington Central, allows us to develop a wider vision for the campus as an attractive mixed use destination.

One Sheldon Square comprises nearly 200,000 sq ft of freehold office space, arranged over nine floors. It is fully let to Visa Europe Services until December 2022 with a rent review in December 2017. Total annual contracted rent is £9.5 million reflecting an average rent of £48.70 per sq ft which is reversionary.

We are working with Hopkins Architects on a new Masterplan for Paddington Central. Phase 1 of a programme of public works improvements is already underway and we are on site at 4 Kingdom Street which will complete in 2017, ahead of the opening of the Crossrail station at Paddington in 2018. We are also progressing the concept design at 5 Kingdom Street in order to improve the existing consented scheme.

Tim Roberts, Head of Offices, British Land, said: "Paddington Central is full and we are progressing our vision to create a more attractive and engaging environment which better meets the changing needs of our customers. We have started on extensive improvement works to the public realm and are also now on site at 4 Kingdom Street. One Sheldon Square is a strategic piece of the campus which helps us to achieve our vision."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                      020 7467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                         020 7467 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury                                                   020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

About Paddington Central

Paddington Central is an 11 acre mixed use estate in London's West End comprising seven separate modern buildings, and a retail and leisure cluster, totalling 1.2 million sq ft. The area is well served by Paddington Station, a major London rail and tube interchange with excellent connections to Heathrow airport via the Heathrow Express which will further benefit from the opening of Crossrail in 2018. Paddington will be one of only three Crossrail stations in the West End, which will improve connections from the West End to the City and Canary Wharf.

British Land bought a majority ownership of the campus in July 2013 comprising three of the seven buildings and the retail and leisure cluster, totalling 610,000 sq ft along with 350,000 sq ft of consented development. As part of the acquisition British Land also acquired the freehold in respect of 200 residential units sold to St. George on long leases which sit above the retail area.

Following the acquisition of One Sheldon Square, British Land owns four buildings and 800,000 sq ft of space.   

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.0 billion (British Land share of which is £12.8 billion), as valued at 30 September 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 340 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 54% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across retail parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 46% of our portfolio is focused on London.  We have an attractive mix of high quality buildings in well managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.9 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier city office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com  

 

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