Acquisition of property in Maidenhead

RNS Number : 3099J

British Land Co PLC

29 June 2011

 



British Land acquires modern, high quality property in Maidenhead for £74 million

British Land announces that it has purchased Grenfell Island, a prime office and leisure scheme totalling 198,000 sq ft in Maidenhead town centre, for £74 million representing a net initial yield of 7.5%.

The property comprises 113,000 sq ft of high quality, flexible office space let to Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, as the UK headquarters of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd a leading global telecommunications and data services provider. The unexpired lease term is 9.5 years.  There is an additional 85,000 sq ft of leisure accommodation in an adjoining building anchored by a 10-screen Odeon cinema and health club.  The weighted average lease length for the entire property is 10.7 years.   

Grenfell Island was completed in 2000 and is situated opposite Maidenhead's mainline railway station within the town centre's core commercial district.  Located just 30 miles from the centre of London, Maidenhead is considered to be one of the strongest South East office markets, attracting major occupiers such as Adobe, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson, as well as Hutchinson 3G.  Maidenhead will also be the western terminus for Crossrail, a high frequency rail service due for completion in 2018 which will provide the town with exceptional direct links not only to Heathrow Airport, but also to London's key business districts in the West End, City and Canary Wharf.

Tim Roberts, Head of Offices at British Land said, "Grenfell Island is a modern, well let property in a town which is expected to be a major beneficiary of the investment in Crossrail.  The acquisition provides British Land with an attractive income return in an improving occupier market and fits well within our strategic priority of creating sustainable and growing property rental streams. It also has significant capital appreciation potential given both the future benefits of Cross Rail and as the markets in the South East continue to improve."

Knight Frank represented British Land and Lambert Smith Hampton acted for the private vendor.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                           020 7467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                              020 7467 2838

Guy Lamming/ Gordon Simpson, Finsbury                                  020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

An image of Grenfell Island can be found along with this press release on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £14.9 billion (British Land share £9.6 billion), as valued at 31 March 2011. 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 byover 250 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 97.8% and average lease length of 11.5 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 66% of our portfolio, around 80% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites. Comprising some 27 million sq ft of retail space across 90 retail warehouse properties, 99 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores, the retail portfolio is generally modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Active asset management delivers the attractive space to both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 32% of the portfolio (rising to an estimated 37% on completion of current development). 7 million sq ft of office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We are also investing £1.1 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.2 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 the 500,000 sq ft NEQ building at Regent's Place.

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 aim 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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