Investment Programme in London and SE Accelerates

RNS Number : 5084B

British Land Co PLC

04 April 2013

 



British Land Accelerates Investment Programme in London and the South East

British Land is pleased to announce the purchase of its joint venture partner Tesco's 50% holding in the 300,000 sq ft Surrey Quays Shopping Centre for £48 million.  Following the purchase, British Land's ownership in the centre will be 100%.  As part of the deal, Tesco has committed to a new long-term lease on its store and the petrol filling station, which account for a significant part of the centre's income.  This increases the weighted average lease length of the centre to 9.4 years.

Surrey Quays Shopping Centre in Canada Water, South East London is anchored by a 115,000 sq ft Tesco Extra with key retailers including Bhs, River Island, New Look, JD, Boots, Burton and Dorothy Perkins.

British Land intends to progress plans in 2014 (subject to planning) for a £38 million upgrade of the shopping centre which will include a 100,000 sq ft extension, the extensive refurbishment of the existing centre along with improvements to public spaces and connections to Surrey Quays and Canada Water tube and bus stations. 

Canada Water, which is in the Rotherhithe Peninsula and close to Canary Wharf, has been designated as one of London's major regeneration areas. We have long-term interest in the area through our partnership with Southwark Council, investment in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre and ownership of the 14.6 acre Harmsworth Quays printing works site where we are planning a residential-led mixed use re-development.  We bought our original 50% stake in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre in 2009.

The acquisition follows our recent successful £493 million share placing which has given us additional capacity to take advantage of an increased flow of more attractive investment opportunities, particularly in London and the South East.  Other recent acquisitions in London include Wereldhave's London portfolio (principally Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre) for £180 million and the Hempel Hotel in Notting Hill for £33 million.  

Chris Grigg, Chief Executive of British Land, said: "British Land's scale, access to finance, extensive relationships and expertise in planning, asset management and deal execution put us in a strong position to continue to source attractive acquisitions and to deliver superior total returns for our shareholders."

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail at British Land said: "We intend to create a modern retail environment to attract the growing, affluent local catchment.  We are aiming to take the scheme beyond its current functional shop by broadening the tenant mix and introducing larger retail units alongside a more attractive food offer.  All this should increase overall spend."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                    020 7467 2942

Media 

Pip Wood, British Land                                       020 7467 2838

Jackie Whitaker, British Land                              020 7467 3449

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                        020 7251 3801

Guy Lamming, Finsbury Group

Notes to Editors

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £16.3 billion (British Land share £10.4 billion), as valued at 30 September 2012. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our UK occupancy rate of 97.7% and average lease length to first break of 11 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 60% of our portfolio with around 28 million sq ft of retail space across 82 retail parks, 92 superstores, 13 shopping centres and 9 department stores. The retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats and our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers. 80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 35% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality offices includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. Over the last 2 years, we have committed £1.2 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Managing our environmental, economic and social impacts is central to the way we do business and deliver value for our shareholders. We assess the issues that matter most to us and our stakeholders on an on-going basis and, where appropriate, adjust our strategic focus to reflect this. We focus on managing our buildings efficiently, supporting communities, developing sustainable buildings and engaging our staff. For each of these priorities we are targeting our efforts and resources at initiatives where we can achieve the biggest impacts.

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

 

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