Sale of Leamington Shopping Park for ?72 million

RNS Number : 6424I

British Land Co PLC

03 June 2014

 



Hercules Unit Trust ("HUT") and The Crown Estate Sell Leamington Shopping Park for £72 million

Gibraltar Limited Partnership (a 50:50 joint venture between HUT and The Crown Estate) today announces the sale of Leamington Shopping Park to Ignis UK Property Fund for £72 million, representing a net initial yield of 4.4%.

British Land's (the scheme's property adviser) asset management expertise has transformed the scheme from a traditional bulky goods retail park into a fashion-led shopping park. The scheme was extensively refurbished in 2009 and almost every unit has been either re-let or reconfigured. Debenhams opened a department store in October 2013 and Caffe Nero took its first out-of-town unit at the park. The original line-up included Focus, MFI, Harveys and Rosebys. Occupiers now include anchor Debenhams, Outfit, Next, New Look, Mamas & Papas, Boots, Clarks and Frankie & Benny's.

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail for British Land, said: "We have realised significant value at Leamington Shopping Park by transforming it into an attractive and successful shopping destination. That value has been recognised by the market and the sale demonstrates both the strong UK institutional demand for the right type of product and confidence in the prospects for the retail occupational market."

George Shaw, Investment Director at Ignis Real Estate and lead manager on the Ignis UK Property Fund said; "We are delighted to acquire such a high quality asset which offers further opportunity through asset management to increase and enhance the income profile and returns. The asset will prove a valuable addition the Fund's portfolio."

Gibraltar represented itself. Ignis was represented by CWM Out of Town LLP.

HUT is advised by British Land and managed by Schroders.

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

Hercules Unit Trust

Hercules Unit Trust (HUT) is a Jersey-based closed-ended property unit trust with a fixed life which has been extended to 2020, and is subject to further extension with unit holder consent.  HUT's primary investment focus is major retail warehouse or shopping park properties with a value in excess of £20 million in the United Kingdom and, in particular, those properties that dominate their catchment area, offer a critical mass of retailing and, where possible, have the benefit of Open A1 planning consent.

HUT is the UK's largest specialist retail warehouse property unit trust with a portfolio of £1.5 billion.  As at 31 December 2013, the Trust owned and managed 19 retail and shopping parks, including Glasgow Fort Shopping Park in Glasgow and 50% of Fort Kinnaird Shopping Park in Edinburgh, providing around 4.5 million sq ft of retail park space.  Key tenants include Next, Boots, Arcadia, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Kingfisher Group, Dixons, Home Retail Group and New Look.

British Land is HUT's property adviser and Schroder Property Managers (Jersey) Ltd is the Fund Manager.

Schroder Property

Schroders has managed property funds since 1971 and currently has £10.6 (€12.7 /US$17.2) billion of gross property assets under management (at 30 September 2013).

All of the property funds referred to are unauthorised collective investment schemes as defined in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Promotion of these funds is restricted and access to full information about these funds is only available to those exempt from the restriction. For further information about Schroders' property business visit www.schroderproperty.com.

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 £17.8 billion (British Land share of which is £12.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 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 53% 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 66 retail parks, 85 superstores, 15 shopping centres, 12 department stores and 77 leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 47% 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 7.3 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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