Workspace Announce JV

Workspace Group PLC 12 June 2006 WORKSPACE ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT JOINT VENTURE Workspace Group PLC ('Workspace'), the leading provider of flexible business accommodation to small and medium sized enterprises in London has announced that it has formed a joint venture with Glebe, a private property development company, founded in 2004 by ex Chelsfield Director David Phillips. The joint venture, in which Workspace will have a 50% equity share, will promote the redevelopment opportunities for a number of properties contributed to the joint venture by Workspace and Glebe. Under the terms of the agreement Workspace and Glebe are contributing £20.0 million of equity each into the joint venture. Non-recourse debt financing of £126 million has been provided by Bank of Scotland Corporate. Initially, Workspace is selling a portfolio of eleven properties into the joint venture for a cash consideration of £146 million. This represents a surplus of £8.6 million over the book value at the last external valuation in March 2006 of £137.4 million. The properties are all located within Greater London and have a combined lettable area of 1.2 million sq ft and have a passing rental income of £7.2 million. The joint venture has also agreed to buy three properties from Glebe for a consideration of £9.1 million. Workspace will continue with the day-to-day management of the properties, whilst Glebe will apply its expertise to deliver change of use, extension and redevelopment projects. Workspace's core business is investing in and managing property let to SMEs. In 2005 the Group reported that up to 45% of its portfolio had the potential to add value through improvement initiatives. The joint venture enables the group to crystallise a portion of the value of its current portfolio and retain its focus on its key skills areas whilst retaining a significant interest and participation in the gains from development. Profits on the joint venture will be shared 55:45 in favour of Workspace (in respect of the original Workspace properties). Workspace and Glebe will continue to source and acquire properties some of which may be injected into the joint venture. The use of a leveraged, ring-fenced development vehicle will enable Workspace to maximise returns. Workspace will receive net proceeds of £123.2 million which it will use for general corporate purposes and to pay down debt. Workspace was advised by Rothschild. Harry Platt, Workspace Chief Executive commented, ' This a major step for Workspace. This partnership with Glebe will accelerate our programme for releasing further value from our properties, by driving through alternative uses or through re-development. I believe that our association with Glebe will add value to our business by expanding our scope of activity using their skills and expertise.' ' Our core business remains investing in and managing property that is suitable for letting to SMEs. This is where our key skills lie. Our market place is huge. There are over 150,000 SMEs in the capital and we are tracking many properties that meet our acquisition criteria. They all have the potential to improve income and capital growth performance through our style of active management.' David Phillips, Chairman of Glebe commented: ' We are very pleased to be in partnership with Workspace and believe there is significant potential to be extracted from this group of London assets. Our complementary skills and extensive experience will realise added value for both parties, and we intend to grow this joint venture into a major part of our overall business.' -ends- Date: 12 June 2006 For further information contact: Workspace Group PLC Harry Platt, Chief Executive Mark Taylor, Finance Director 020-7247-7614 e-mail: info@workspacegroup.co.uk web: www.workspacegroup.co.uk Glebe David Phillips, Chairman 020-7409-3741 e-mail: dphillips@glebe.com web: www.glebe.com Rothschild Alex Midgen Robert Waddingham 020-7280-5000 cityPROFILE Simon Courtenay Andrew Harris 020-7448-3244 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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