Acquisitions
Great Portland Estates PLC
18 July 2007
18 July 2007
Great Capital Partnership - acquisitions totalling £159.5 million
Great Portland Estates plc ('GPE') and Liberty International subsidiary Capital
& Counties Ltd ('C&C') announce that their 50:50 central London joint venture,
The Great Capital Partnership ('GCP'), has agreed to acquire six properties in
four separate transactions for £159.5 million in aggregate as follows:
• In Regent Street, W1, three properties have been acquired from WELPUT
for £111.8 million. The properties are 100 Regent Street & 33 Glasshouse
Street; Regent Arcade House, 19/25 Argyll Street; and Spirella House, 266/
270 Regent Street. They are held leasehold from the Crown Estate ('The
Crown') for an average unexpired term of 88 years at an average ground rent
of 13.5% rents received, comprise 128,100 sq ft of commercial space and
produce a current annual rent, net of ground rent, of £5.43 million. The
average office rent is £44 per sq ft and the average retail rent is £257 per
sq ft Zone A. The buildings have an estimated total net rental value of
£6.92 million per annum in their current un-reconfigured state.
Elsewhere three buildings have been acquired adjacent to existing holdings
in the West End and Midtown in three separate transactions for a total price
of £47.7 million as follows:
• 54/56 Jermyn Street, London, SW1, has been acquired for a price of
£19.5 million and comprises 28,400 sq ft of commercial space let to
Wilton's restaurant and Standard Chartered Bank. The building is held on
a lease from the The Crown with 72 years remaining and adjoins GCP's
104,000 Piccadilly Estate also held on similar leases from The Crown.
The current net rent, having deducted the ground rent, is £1.0 million
per annum with a rent review outstanding.
• 43 Fetter Lane, London, EC4, is a freehold vacant building which
currently comprises 28,840 sq ft, has the benefit of planning
consent for 39,500 sq ft and has been acquired for a price of £20.5
million. It is adjacent to GCP's existing ownership at 12/14 New
Fetter Lane, EC4 and together they form a 0.25 acre island site with
good potential for a larger scale scheme.
• 10/12 Park Crescent, London, W1, is a 21,000 sq ft office
building let to Adobe Systems producing a net annual rent of
£318,000 rising to £598,000 in November 2008 and has been
acquired for a price of £7.7 million. The property adjoins GCP's
existing Park Crescent holdings and is also held on a lease from
the Crown.
This brings the total assets in GCP to £621 million, of which 63
per cent is on or in the immediate vicinity of Regent Street.
Robert Noel, Property Director of GPE said: 'We announced the
creation of GCP with £460 million of assets at the end of March.
These transactions bring six further properties in first class
locations with asset management opportunities and very good
prospects for rental growth from the current base. Three of the
assets, when combined with their neighbouring properties,
provide larger scale development opportunities which further
augment our near and medium term development pipeline'.
Contacts:
Great Portland Estates plc
Toby Courtauld Chief Executive 020 7647 3042
Robert Noel Property Director 020 7647 3043
Finsbury
Gordon Simpson 020 7251 3801
Capital & Counties
Gary Marcuccilli 020 7887 7037
Notes for Editors
LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL PLC is one of the UK's largest listed property
companies and a constituent of the FTSE-100 Index of the UK's leading
listed companies. Liberty International converted into a UK Real Estate
Investment Trust (REIT) on 1 January 2007.
Liberty International owns Capital Shopping Centres ('CSC'), the premier UK
regional shopping centre business and Capital & Counties, a retail and
commercial property investment and development company.
At 31 December 2006 Liberty International held £8.2 billion of investment
properties of which UK regional shopping centres comprised 80 per cent and
retail property in aggregate 92 per cent. Shareholders' funds (diluted) amounted
to £5.0 billion.
CAPITAL SHOPPING CENTRES has interests in 14 UK regional shopping centres
amounting to 12.4 million sq.ft. in aggregate including 8 of the UK's top 21
regional shopping centres. CSC's largest centres are Lakeside, Thurrock;
MetroCentre, Gateshead; Braehead, Renfrew, Glasgow; The Harlequin, Watford; and
Manchester, Arndale. CSC has three major development projects underway or with
planning permission in Cardiff, Oxford and Newcastle.
CAPITAL & COUNTIES held assets of £1.65 billion at 31 December 2006 amounting to
6.7 million sq.ft. in aggregate. Following recent purchases C&C now has around
£620 million invested in the Covent Garden area including the historic Covent
Garden Market, and a further £350 million in Central London. In addition to some
£450 million invested in other retail and commercial properties in the UK,
Capital & Counties has interests in the USA amounting to around £350 million
(2.4 million sq.ft.), predominantly comprising retail assets in California,
notably the 856,000 sq.ft. Serramonte Shopping Centre, Daly City, San Francisco.
Capital & Counties is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty International PLC.
GREAT PORTLAND ESTATES plc is a central London investment and development
company and a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. It aims to deliver superior
returns to shareholders through active management, the application of
development skills to create value and the maximising of equity returns through
efficient capital structuring and flexible financing. GPE converted into a UK
Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) on 1 January 2007.
At 31 March 2007 GPE's portfolio, including its share of joint ventures, was
valued at £1,535 million of which 82% was in the West End and 18% in the City
and Southwark markets.
Great Capital Partnership was formed in April 2007 and is the third joint
venture for GPE following the Great Victoria Partnership, formed with Liverpool
Victoria Friendly Society in January 2005 and the Great Wigmore Partnership
formed with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership in July 2006. These
acquisitions will increase assets under management to £2.2 billion based on the
31 March valuation.
This press release includes statements that are forward-looking in nature.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of
Liberty International PLC and Great Portland Estates plc to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. Any information contained in this
press release on the price at which shares or other securities in Liberty
International PLC or Great Portland Estates plc have been bought or sold in the
past, or on the yield on such shares or other securities, should not be relied
upon as a guide to future performance.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange