50% Stake in SouthGate, Bath Acquired for ?101m

RNS Number : 1584N

British Land Co PLC

04 September 2013

 



4 September 2013

British Land Acquires 50% Stake in SouthGate, Bath for £101 million

British Land is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to purchase 50% of SouthGate in Bath from Multi Southgate (LP) Limited for £101 million.  The remaining 50% is owned by Aviva Investors. The acquisition is expected to complete by the end of September.

SouthGate is a new 430,000 sq ft, prime open air retail scheme next to Bath Spa railway station which forms the south east quadrant of Bath city centre. It first opened in 2009 (phase 1), with the final phase completing in summer 2013.  The scheme has 55 retail units, 14 leisure units (including the Vaults restaurant area and public square adjoining the railway station), a car park and 25,000 sq ft of office accommodation.

The scheme, anchored by Debenhams, H&M, Topshop and Boots, has also attracted several new, high profile retailers to the city including Hollister, Apple, Urban Outfitters, All Saints and Boux Avenue.  SouthGate, which is 93% let, offers some of the best configured retail space in Bath, with two-thirds of the units being larger than 5,000 sq ft.  The car park is the largest in the city, with 860 parking spaces which combined with the top eight retailers, accounts for more than 50% of the rental income from SouthGate.

Bath is a historic city with a UNESCO world heritage status. It is a top five tourist spend location outside London, attracting 4.65 million tourists a year.  The centre is locally dominant, with a large and affluent catchment of 1.8 million including more than 20,000 university students. The scheme is well located between the railway and bus stations, and the rest of the city, and already benefits from a high annual footfall of 18 million visitors.

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail for British Land, said: "SouthGate's strong fundamentals, the lack of out of town competition and footfall make it one of the best centres in the South of England.  It is well let, modern and excellently located in a prime market with significant tourist spend.

The scheme has dramatically altered the retail offering in an area historically undersupplied with good quality, well configured retail space.  We will build on these fundamentals by completing the final lettings post development, broadening the tenant mix to appeal to a wider customer base, and improving the scheme's presence and experience."

British Land was represented by CBRE and Morgan Williams.

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

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £16.9 billion (British Land share £11.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2013 but adjusted for recent acquisitions and disposals, notably a major interest in Paddington Central.

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 receive over 300 million visits each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Following our purchase of Paddington Central, our occupancy rate is 96.2% and average lease length to first break is 10.6 years.

Retail assets account for 58% of our portfolio, around 80% of which are located at prime out of town sites. Comprising around 28 million sq ft of retail space across 79 retail parks, 89 superstores, 17 shopping centres and 13 department stores, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 38% 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 and Paddington Central in the West End. Since 2010, we have committed £1.2 billion to deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space in London 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.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate vision of building the best REIT in Europe.

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

 

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