?118m of Foodstores Recycled At Current Valuation

RNS Number : 7842M

British Land Co PLC

21 September 2012

 



British Land Recycles £118 million of Foodstores at Current Valuation

British Land has sold seven foodstores for £118 million (British Land share £62 million) to institutional purchasers at net initial yields of between 4.95% and 5.7%, in line with March valuations.

Tesco in Wembley (Tesco JV) was bought by private clients of Orchard Street for £61.9 million representing a net initial yield of 5.5%, while Sainsbury's in Leicester (Sainsbury's JV) was sold to Sainsbury's for £21.7 million representing a net initial yield of 5.2%.

Sainsbury's in Chadwell Heath (Sainsbury's JV), Waitrose in Frimley (Sainsbury's JV) and Aldi in Gorton were sold to clients of CBRE Global Investors for £19.2 million, £9.6 million and £3.2 million respectively, representing net initial yields of 5.2%, 4.95% and 5.7%.

Co-Op stores in Barton and Cleethorpes were bought by consumer co-operative Lincolnshire Corn Exchange & Markets Ltd for £2.9 million representing a net initial yield of 5.4%.

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail for British Land, said: "On the back of good demand in the foodstore sector, we have sold over £100 million of foodstore investments featuring a variety of ages, rent levels and lease expiries.  The sales were in line with, or above, our March valuations, reflecting the income security and growth prospects for the various stores.  This is very much in line with our stated strategy of capital recycling to maximise our portfolio returns."

British Land is the largest owner of foodstores outside the occupiers themselves with £2.5 billion of foodstores under management, of which its share is £1.3 billion.

British Land was represented by Morgan Williams, Jones Lang LaSalle and Colliers International.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                0207 467 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                                             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.

 

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