Acquisition

Great Portland Estates PLC
19 August 2004


19 August 2004

      Great Portland Estates plc buys St Lawrence House in Soho for £37.73m

Great Portland Estates plc 'GPE' by way of a corporate purchase has acquired the
freehold of St Lawrence House, 26/34 Broadwick Street, 10 Livonia Street and 1a
and 1b Poland Street, London W1, from Capital and City plc for £37.73 million in
cash (of which £25.75 million has been used to discharge debt), reflecting a
yield of 6.4% on cost.

The four prime Soho properties extend to approximately 70,500 sq ft over
basement, ground and six upper floors and are arranged around a large central
courtyard over a total site area of 0.5 acres. The main building, St Lawrence
House was built in the early 1980s and offers good quality air-conditioned floor
plates of 9,000 sq ft, on a corner site.

The properties are let to five tenants on eight leases for a weighted average
period of approximately 8 years producing £2.46 million per annum, which
reflects £34.90 per sq ft overall.

Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive of GPE said, 'In the short to medium term, this
acquisition gives GPE a good running yield in a prime Soho location. The
buildings are let at a conservative rent, offering healthy growth prospects as
the West End market recovers. In the longer term, we have the potential to
develop a significantly larger building on a prominent corner site'.


Contacts:

Great Portland Estates plc
Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive                         020 7612 1442

Capital & City plc                                      020 7499 0583
Albert Hay
Geoffrey Shaw

Finsbury                                                020 7251 3801
Gordon Simpson


                      This information is provided by RNS
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