?72 million Stake In Hercules Income Fund Sold

RNS Number : 1701K

British Land Co PLC

16 August 2012

 



British Land Sells Stake in £72 million Hercules Income Fund

British Land has completed the sale of its 26.1% interest in the Hercules Income Fund to clients of LaSalle Investment Management which is now the sole owner of HIF.  The transaction, which represents a total property value of £72 million (British Land share £19 million) and net initial yield of 6.5%, is slightly ahead of the March 2012 valuation.

The 293,700 sq ft portfolio comprises seven retail warehouse properties (in Barnstaple, Evesham, Hove, Uddingston in Glasgow, Newton Abbot, Plymouth and Weymouth) and total contracted rent of £4.7 million per annum.  

Over the last three years British Land, as asset manager for the fund, has generated £1 million of additional rent through a number of successful initiatives, which have contributed to HIF's total property return outperforming IPD All Retail by on average over 400bps a year. 

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail for British Land, said: "This sale has allowed us to realise the benefits of our asset management at just above book value, as well as continuing to recycle British Land's capital in line with our overall approach."

British Land was represented by Wilkinson Williams and Savills acted for LaSalle. 

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 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                                   020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.8 billion (British Land share £10.3 billion), as valued at 31 March 2012. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited by over 300 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98.1% and average lease length to first break of 11.3 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 61% of our portfolio with around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 89 retail parks, 97 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores. The retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats and our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers. Over 80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 34% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We have committed £1.2 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Managing our environmental, economic and social impacts is central to the way we do business and deliver value for our shareholders. We assess the issues that matter most to us and our stakeholders on an on-going basis and, where appropriate, adjust our strategic focus to reflect this. For the coming year we have adjusted our priorities to focus on managing our buildings efficiently, supporting communities, developing sustainable buildings and engaging our staff. For each of these priorities we are targeting our efforts and resources at initiatives where we can achieve the biggest impacts.

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

About Hercules Income Fund

Hercules Income Fund ('HIF') is a Jersey based closed-ended property unit trust with a fixed life to 2014, subject to extension with unitholder consent. HIF's investment strategy is to acquire and own retail warehouse assets with values between £3 million and £25 million throughout the United Kingdom.

 

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