Drake Circus Acquisition

RNS Number : 9880Y

British Land Co PLC

06 January 2011

 



                                                                                                                         06 January 2011

British Land Acquires Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth for £240 million

British Land, one of the UK's largest retail property managers, today announces the acquisition of Drake Circus in Plymouth for £240 million. Located in the middle of Plymouth, the 425,000 sq ft shopping centre is the West Country's most popular shopping destination with an extensive catchment area covering Devon and Cornwall, and an annual footfall of nearly 19 million people.

The acquisition of Drake Circus further adds to British Land's prime retail portfolio in the UK and is in line with the Group's strategy of focusing on locations where it is able to provide its retail customers with high quality, accessible and flexible retail formats which are able to meet their current and future needs.

Drake Circus, which was opened in 2006, has over 70 retail units in modern retail formats with nearly three quarters of the space in units of over 7,500 sq ft. It is anchored by Primark, Marks & Spencer and Next with other key occupiers including established retailers such as Top Shop, New Look, Boots and H&M as well as newer fast growing retail brands such as Cult/Superdry and Republic.

The purchase price represents a net initial yield of 6.0% with significant potential for income growth through asset management initiatives.

Chris Grigg, British Land's Chief Executive said: "Drake Circus further adds to our strong portfolio of high quality income generating retail assets in the best locations around the UK.  We see significant potential to add value at Drake Circus over the coming years by leveraging our extensive asset management skills and retailer relationships."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                020 7467 2942

Media 

Pip Wood, British Land                                   020 7467 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                  020 7251 3801

Guy Lamming, Finsbury Group

Notes to Editors

About British Land

British Land is one of the UK's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts with total assets, owned or under management, valued at £14.0 billion (British Land share £8.9 billion), as at 30 September 2010. Our property portfolio is focused on high quality destination retail locations and central London offices which we believe are well placed to benefit from growing customer demand. We have among the highest occupancy rates and lease lengths of the major UK REITs at 98% and 12.5 years respectively. 

Retail assets account for 65% of our portfolio, around 85% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites.  Our portfolio comprises over 26 million sq ft of retail space across 93 retail warehouse properties, 100 superstores, 10 shopping centres and 10 department stores. Our portfolio benefits from flexible planning consents making the portfolio adaptable to a wide range of formats. This allows us to actively manage our portfolio and deliver the most attractive space to both retailers and consumers.

Central London offices currently comprise 33% of the portfolio. Our portfolio comprises over 6 million of office space and includes a 50% share in Broadgate, the premier office campus in the City and Regent's Place, an office estate in the West End. During 2010, we committed to a significant development programme in central London which on the basis of current estimates of values at completion, increase the weighting of offices in the group's portfolio from 33% to 40%. These developments, which will deliver 2.2 million sq ft of high quality space in the City and West End by 2014, include: a new 700,000 sq ft building for UBS at Broadgate; the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district; a 158,000 sq ft scheme in Baker Street; and the 500,000 sq ft NEQ building, which will complete the Regent's Place estate in the West End. The aggregate development cost, including land and interest is expected to be £1.5 billion, of which British Land's share is £1.0 billion.

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

 

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