Re Joint Venture

British Land Co PLC
2 October 2000











                                                             2nd October, 2000




            WESTLB AND BRITISH LAND IN £357 MILLION JOINT VENTURE




WestLB and The British Land Company PLC have formed a joint venture to acquire
four British Land properties in the City of London. WestLB has invited
Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank and Provinzial-Feuerversicherungsanstalt Der
Rheinprovinz-Versicherung Der Sparkassen to join the JV.


The consideration for the transaction is £357.5 million. WestLB has
underwritten a loan to the JV in the amount of £265 million, and will
syndicate the loan in due course.


British Land retains a 50% interest in the venture and receives £307.5 million
in cash.


The properties are as follows:


1 Fleet Place, Ludgate, London EC4


An office building with ancillary storage, retail and car parking, constructed
in 1992 and comprising circa 170,000 sq ft net lettable area. The offices are
fully let and principal occupiers are Denton Wilde Sapte, Babcock & Brown and
Rowe & Maw. British Land holds the virtual freeholds interest on a peppercorn
lease from Railtrack for 999 years.


10 Fleet Place, Ludgate, London EC4


Office building with ancillary storage, retail and car parking, constructed in
1992 and comprising circa 182,000 sq ft net lettable area. The offices are
fully let and principal occupiers include Scottish Widows, Dow Jones, BTG,
Telerate and MCI WorldCom. British Land holds the virtual freeholds interest
on a peppercorn lease from Railtrack for 999 years.


100 New Bridge Street, Ludgate, London EC4


Office building with ancillary storage, retail and car parking, constructed in
1992 and comprising circa 166,000 sq ft net lettable area. The offices are
fully let to Baker & McKenzie, the international law firm, and retail tenants
include Boots the Chemist and Pret a Manger. British Land holds the virtual
freeholds interest on a peppercorn lease from Railtrack for 999 years.


                                                                       / . . .


Watling House, 33 Cannon Street, London EC4


Office building with ancillary storage, retail and car parking, constructed by
British Land in 1998 and comprising circa 96,000 sq ft net lettable area. The
offices are fully let to CrestCo and Bryan Cave LLP, whilst the retail units
are let to Bass Taverns and Kinkos. British Land holds a 150 year headlease
granted by The Salters' Company.


                       _______________________________


WestLB Group is one of the largest financial institutions in Europe, with
total assets of over Euro400 billion and current ratings of Aa1 by Moody's,
AA+ by S&P and AAA by Fitch IBCA. WestLB was advised by FPD Savills in respect
of this transaction.


British Land is one of the largest UK property companies with £9.5 billion of
assets under management.

Contacts

John Godfrey, WestLB, 020 7970 3335

John Ritblat, Chairman          ) The British Land Company PLC

John Weston Smith, Finance Director) 020 7486 4466