?256m of Retail and Office Property Sold

RNS Number : 5745B

British Land Co PLC

08 January 2015

 



British Land Sells £256m of Retail and Office Property

British Land has sold a retail and office portfolio in an off-market deal to Legal & General Property for £219.6m, ahead of September book value. The portfolio comprises:

-      Kingswood Retail Park, Hull (sold for £58.0m, at a 5.7% NIY)

-      House of Fraser, Birmingham (sold for £71.4m, at a 6.8% NIY)

-      Grenfell Island office, leisure and retail block, Maidenhead (sold for £90.2m, at a 5.9% NIY).

In addition, Green Lanes Shopping Centre in Barnstaple was sold before Christmas to a private client of Rockspring Property Investment Managers for £36.1m, also ahead of September book value, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.5%.

This activity is in line with our strategy to evolve the portfolio to meet the needs of our occupiers and their customers.  Throughout the financial year, we have taken advantage of strong investment markets to make selective disposals of more mature assets.  These latest deals bring total sales of UK income generating assets to c. £620 million (British Land share) over the last 12 months.  The net rental income associated with these assets is c. £16.6 million and the proceeds will be used to repay bank facilities. 

Kingswood Retail Park, Hull is a freehold out-of-town retail park totalling 130,000 sq ft.  It is fully let to 14 retailers for a weighted average unexpired lease term of 8.3 years.

House of Fraser, Birmingham comprises a 490,000 sq ft majority freehold department store let to House of Fraser.

Grenfell Island, Maidenhead is a 197,500 sq ft freehold office, leisure and retail block which was completed in 2000. The 112,804 sq ft of office accommodation is let to Hutchison 3G with an expiry in October 2020 and the remaining leisure and retail space is fully let until 2025.

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail for British Land, said:  "Our focus in retail is to allow consumers to shop in a way that suits them, so we are evolving our portfolio to match their expectations.  At the half year, we said we would be making selective disposals and we are pleased that the deals announced today were all achieved at prices ahead of book value, and have generated attractive returns for us."

British Land was represented by CBRE and Knight Frank on Hull, Birmingham and Maidenhead and Lewis & Partners on Barnstaple.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                            020 7467 2942

Media

Jackie Whitaker, British Land                                                     020 7467 3449

Emma Hammond, FTI Consulting                                              020 7269 9347

Pip Wood, British Land                                                               020 7467 2942

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                                              020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.0 billion (British Land share of which is £12.8 billion), as valued at 30 September 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 340 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 54% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across retail parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 46% of our portfolio is focused on London.  We have an attractive mix of high‑quality buildings in well‑managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.9 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier city office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

 

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