Sale of Westwood and Westwood Gateway Retail Parks

RNS Number : 2971G

Hammerson PLC

26 May 2017

 

Hammerson plc

Disposal

26 May 2017

Disposal of Westwood and Westwood Gateway Retail Parks, Thanet

Hammerson plc ("Hammerson") has exchanged contracts for the sale of Westwood and Westwood Gateway Retail Parks, Thanet, to clients of BMO Real Estate Partners for £80 million, having transformed the retail offer since acquisition and significantly increased rents.

The retail parks, covering a total of 24,900 m², are located in Kent in the South East of England and benefit from a strong line-up of homeware retailers including Homebase, Wren, Tapi, SCS and Dunelm.

Hammerson acquired Westwood Retail Park in 2002 and since then has actively repositioned the asset through extensions and tenant engineering. The adjacent Westwood Gateway site was constructed in 2005 and a new retail terrace was added in 2009. A further extension of two units was added in 2016. Since acquisition, over 15,000 m² of new floor space has been added and the rental income has increased by over 200%.

The sale price represents a net initial yield of 6.5% and is slightly below December 2016 book value.

David Atkins, CEO Hammerson, commented: "We continue to actively manage our retail park portfolio, realising proceeds to recycle into higher growth opportunities. We are progressing with our planned disposal programme for the year and remain committed to reducing leverage ahead of progressing with our development pipeline."

For further information:

David Atkins, CEO

020 7887 1000

Rebecca Patton, Head of Investor Relations

020 7887 1109

Note: the announcement above has also been released on the SENS system of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Notes to Editors

Hammerson is a FTSE 100 owner, manager and developer of retail destinations in Europe. Our portfolio of high-quality retail property has a value of around £10 billion and includes 23 prime shopping centres, 18 convenient retail parks and investments in 19 premium outlet villages, through our partnership with Value Retail and the VIA Outlets joint venture. Key investments include Bullring, Birmingham, Bicester Village, Oxfordshire, Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin and Les Terrasses du Port, Marseille. 

 

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