Update on Transactions

RNS Number : 6229E

Helical Bar PLC

11 April 2011

 



11 April 2011

Helical Bar plc ("Helical")

Helical continues sales programme in line with strategy and makes a further acquisition

Helical Bar plc is pleased to announce a number of further transactions in the UK, in line with its strategy to sell non-core property and build stable cash flow within the portfolio through strategic acquisitions.

The Company announces the sale of the following assets from its portfolio generating total proceeds of £24m. Combined, the sales were undertaken at a small discount to book value. They are:

·      St Andrew's House, Woking for £8.25m to Vantage Asset Management.  The property was originally acquired in June 2010 as part of the F3 portfolio.  Lambert Smith Hampton and Tudor Toone advised Helical.

·      Phase 2 development land at Southall has been sold to Chancerygate (Helical's current joint venture partner on the estate) for £3m to enable it to take forward the development outside of the joint venture arrangements.  Both parties were unrepresented.

·      Sale of Beacon House, Fleet.  This 6,000 sq ft vacant office was sold to CV Library for owner occupation for c.£800,000.  London Clancy and Hurst Warne acted for Helical.

·      Sale of 24,000 sq ft of vacant offices in Crawley to OCS, an owner occupier, for £3.9m.  Stiles Harold Williams and Knight Frank acted for Helical.

·      Since September 2010 the sale of a further 21 units at Bramshott Place Retirement Village, Liphook for £8.2m.

Following its recent shopping centre acquisitions, Helical has exchanged contracts on the acquisition of Langlands Industrial Estate, East Kilbride from Henderson for c. £6m, representing a 10% initial yield.

Langlands Industrial Estate is a freehold 150,000 sq ft modern estate with 26 units let to 18 tenants. The estate currently has a 16% vacancy rate by floor area and provides the potential for rental uplift.

Duncan Walker of Helical Bar, said

"We continue to look for opportunities to recycle equity from mainly non income producing property into higher yielding investment properties where we have identified the opportunity to apply  significant asset management to deliver future upside. We believe that re-focussing our equity in this way is creating an excellent platform for future performance."

For further information, please contact:

Helical Bar plc

Mike Slade

Tel: [phone]

Financial Dynamics

Dido Laurimore/Laurence Jones

Tel : [phone]

 

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