TIDMBLND
RNS Number : 8116J
British Land Co PLC
26 August 2021
26 August 2021
British Land delivers further strategic progress with GBP350m of
capital activity
-- Exchanged on the acquisition of Peterhouse Technology Park,
Cambridge and The Priestley Centre, Guildford, increasing our
exposure to innovation sectors
-- Acquisition of the Finsbury Square Car Park and the Thurrock
Shopping Park, creating development opportunities for urban
logistics
-- Sale of Virgin Active Chiswick and part sale of Woodfields
Retail Park, Bury and under offer on the sale of Wardrobe Court,
EC4
Our strategy is to more actively focus our capital on two
strategic themes, Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment.
Our recent acquisitions align to our strategic themes and
demonstrate further significant progress against our priorities.
Proceeds from our disposals are being recycled into acquisitions
and value accretive development including more than 1m sq ft of new
development commitments since November 2020, as well as our 53 acre
development project in Canada Water where we have recently opened
our marketing suite.
Simon Carter, CEO, British Land said: "We are delighted with the
momentum we are delivering across our business as the economy
reopens. Leasing activity at our London campuses has been strong,
with a significant amount of space going under offer to a broad
range of occupiers in the last two months.
At the same time, we are continuing to deliver against our
strategic priorities. We have sold off-strategy mature assets and
will actively redeploy capital into opportunities that allow us to
maximise our competitive advantage in asset management and
development."
Campuses
In line with our strategy to target innovation sectors, we have
exchanged on the acquisition of The Peterhouse Technology Park in
Cambridge for GBP75m, representing a net initial yield of 4.15%.
This 8.25 acre site, just outside the centre of Cambridge comprises
four buildings covering 140,000 sq ft, and is fully let to
technology business Arm for its global headquarters at a passing
rent of GBP26 psf. The buildings are held on a long leasehold with
significant reversionary potential and benefit from their location
in an emerging part of south Cambridge, close to the Cambridge
Biomedical Campus.
We have also exchanged on the acquisition of The Priestley
Centre in Guildford, located on the Surrey Research Park for
GBP12m. The 7.8 acre site provides an attractive opportunity to
deploy our campus proposition and development skills to deliver
high quality space for the fast growing industries in this affluent
town, which includes satellite technology, life sciences, video
game development and digital technologies.
Retail & Fulfilment
Aligned to our strategy to progress development-led urban
logistics opportunities in Central London, we have acquired the
Finsbury Square Car Park for GBP20m. This underground car park is
close to the Broadgate campus and provides an excellent opportunity
to create a last mile logistics hub in the City of London where
supply for last mile logistics is highly constrained.
As announced in our operational update on 13 July, we recently
acquired the Thurrock Shopping Park for GBP82m. This presents a
clear urban logistics development opportunity, given its prime
location just off the M25 and proximity to east London. In its
current use, it has a strong occupier line up including Decathlon,
Adidas, Nike, TK Maxx, Iceland Food Warehouse and Pets at Home. It
also benefits from an excellent catchment where significant
population growth is expected.
Capital recycling
In line with our strategy to crystalise value from more mature
and off-strategy assets, in the quarter, we have sold or are under
offer on c.GBP160m of assets, overall 6.0% ahead of book value.
This includes the recent sale of Virgin Active in Chiswick for
GBP54.3m in line with book value and the part sale of the
Woodfields Retail Park in Bury for GBP37.5m, 18% ahead of book
value. We are also under offer on the sale of Wardrobe Court, a
standalone residential building in the City of London.
We are pleased that Fitch recently affirmed all our credit
ratings, including our Senior Unsecured rating at 'A', with a
Stable Outlook.
ENDS
Enquiries:
Investors & Analysts:
David Walker 07753 928 382
Jo Waddingham 07714 901166
Media :
Charlotte Whitley 07887 802 535
About British Land
Our portfolio of high quality UK commercial property is focused
on London Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment assets throughout
the UK. We own or manage a portfolio valued at GBP12.7bn (British
Land share: GBP9.1bn) as at 31 March 2021 making us one of Europe's
largest listed real estate investment companies.
We create Places People Prefer, delivering the best, most
sustainable places for our customers and communities. Our strategy
is to leverage our best in class platform and proven expertise in
development, repositioning and active management, investing behind
two key themes: Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment.
Our three Campuses at Broadgate, Paddington Central and Regent's
Place are dynamic neighbourhoods, attracting growth customers and
sectors, and offering some of the best connected, highest quality
and most sustainable space in London. We are delivering our fourth
campus at Canada Water, where we have planning consent to deliver 5
million sq ft of residential, commercial, retail and community
space over 53 acres. Our campuses account for 70% of our portfolio.
Retail & Fulfilment accounts for 25% of the portfolio and is
focused on retail parks which are aligned to the growth of
convenience, online and last mile fulfilment. We are complementing
this with urban logistics primarily in London, focused on
development-led opportunities.
Sustainability is embedded throughout our business. In 2020, we
set out our sustainability strategy which focuses on two
time-critical areas where British Land can create the most benefit:
making our whole portfolio net zero carbon by 2030, and partnering
to grow social value and wellbeing in the communities where we
operate.
Further details can be found on the British Land website at
www.britishland.com .
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
UPDBIGDIGBDDGBU
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 26, 2021 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Grafico Azioni British Land (LSE:BLND)
Storico
Da Mar 2024 a Apr 2024
Grafico Azioni British Land (LSE:BLND)
Storico
Da Apr 2023 a Apr 2024
