New Office Lettings in West End Secured

RNS Number : 3057S

British Land Co PLC

30 November 2012

 



BRITISH LAND SECURES NEW OFFICE LETTINGS IN WEST END

British Land signs Aramco at 10 Portman Square

British Land has announced that Aramco Overseas Company UK Ltd, UK affiliate of the Saudi Arabian oil company, has agreed to let 24,392 sq ft of office space at its new West End development at 10 Portman Square.  The company has agreed to lease the fifth and part fourth floors at a headline rent of £92.00 per sq ft on the fifth floor and an overall average rent of £90.76 per sq ft, on new 15 year leases, without break, and with 24 months rent free.

The announcement comes a week after it was confirmed that investment manager Aspect Capital Limited has also taken 24,520 sq ft of office space on the top two floors of the building.  The two lettings mean that the offices at 10 Portman Square are now 43% pre-let with the development on schedule to be completed in April 2013.

Designed by London based architects Jestico+Whiles, 10 Portman Square, located in London's West End comprises 113,000 sq ft of modern office space over eight floors.  The building also features innovative glass fins on its exterior to reflect soft natural coloured light, as well as a curved roof providing open terraces to the fifth and seventh floors.

James Danby, Director of London Leasing at British Land said: "We are delighted that Aramco Overseas Company and Aspect Capital have chosen 10 Portman Square as their new London home, and we look forward to welcoming them to the building next Spring.  British Land has long had a reputation for providing high quality buildings and we pleased to be attracting such world leading firms to 10 Portman Square."

These lettings mean that British Land's Central London committed development programme is now 57% pre-let.

Fifield Glyn advised Aramco in the transaction, while Knight Frank and Jones Lang LaSalle acted on behalf of British Land.

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Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                            020 7467 2942

Media

Ant Moore, FTI Consulting                                                          020 7269 7267

Sue Brown, FTI Consulting                                                         020 7269 9341

Pip Wood, British Land                                                                020 7467 2942

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                                               020 7251 3801

About British Land 

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £16.3 billion (British Land share £10.4 billion), as valued at 30 September 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 97.3% and average lease length to first break of 11.1 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 60% of our portfolio with around 28 million sq ft of retail space across 82 retail parks, 92 superstores, 13 shopping centres and 9 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.  80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 35% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments).  Our 7 million sq ft of high quality offices includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End.  Over the last 2 years, 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.  We 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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