Land Securities and Slough Estates Agree
Slough Estates PLC
SLOUGH ESTATES plc
LAND SECURITIES GROUP PLC
Land Securities Group PLC ('Land Securities') and Slough Estates plc ('Slough
Estates') announce today that they have exchanged contracts for the property
swap announced on 24 August 2004. The transaction will involve an exchange of
the majority of their respective retail and industrial property portfolios with
a combined value of approximately £700 million.
Following completion of the transaction Land Securities will own The Howard
Centre in Welwyn Garden City, the Lewisham Centre in South London, the Bishop
Centre in Taplow and a 50% interest in Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow. The
portfolio totals some 91,300 sq. m. of retail space and has a rent roll of £20.4
million.
In return Slough Estates will increase its industrial portfolio by some 300,000
sq. m of space. Slough will be acquiring a total of 23 properties, with a rent
roll of approximately £22 million including a rental guarantee. The difference
in the relative values of the portfolios will be met by a cash consideration of
£18.5 million, payable to Slough Estates.
Land Securities will retain industrial properties with a value of £56 million
(31 March 2004), the majority of which have medium term potential for
development for alternative uses and Slough Estates will retain its share in
shopping centres in York and Surrey Quays, which will be sold in due course.
Francis Salway, Land Securities Chief Executive said 'A property swap is an
effective way to acquire additional retail assets off market - given our
decision earlier this year to focus our activities on sectors where we had
market leading positions. While the industrial portfolio has performed well it
proved too small to impact substantially on the Group's overall performance. We
are very pleased with the scope the new assets offer in terms of asset
management and development opportunities.'
Ian Coull, Chief Executive of Slough Estates, added: 'This swap is a good deal
for Slough as it sharpens our sector focus at a time in the cycle when it is
right for us to increase our exposure to industrial property and to prepare
ourselves for a possible REIT structure in the next couple of years. We had an
excellent portfolio of retail assets but it was too small a portfolio to give us
meaningful sector diversification whereas this swap was a one-off opportunity to
acquire a substantial and first class portfolio of industrial assets in the
South of the UK.'
For further information:
Ian Coull Andrew Best/Emily Bruning
Slough Estates Shared Value
01753 537171 020 7321 5022 / 020 7321 5027
Francis Salway/Emma Denne Jonathan Brill/Stephanie Highett
Land Securities Group Financial Dynamics
020 7413 9000 020 7831 3113
Notes to Editors
Slough Estates
Slough Estates is a leading provider of flexible business space in business
parks in Western Europe and North America, with over 1700 customers occupying
2.9 million sq.m. of business space, with a total value of £3.6 billion. Slough
Estates' properties are in suburban locations in close proximity to the main
business centres, where there is long term demand for business accommodation to
serve these key economic regions. The company's main activities are currently
based around London, Brussels, Paris, Düsseldorf, San Francisco and San Diego
and the company continues to develop new business parks with the long term
objective of building shareholder value and enhancing its reputation for quality
buildings offering excellent value to customers.
www.sloughestates.com
Land Securities
Land Securities is a FTSE 100 company, quoted on the London Stock Exchange. It
has been at the forefront of the UK's commercial property industry for 60 years.
Today, the Group maintains its market leading position as the UK's largest
quoted property company by providing commercial accommodation and property
services to a wide range of occupiers. The Group's objective is to create
attractive and sustainable returns for its shareholders through its activities,
which include property investment, development and property outsourcing.
Land Securities holds a market leading position in three areas of the UK
commercial property market:
-- Retail,
-- London offices and
-- Property outsourcing.
Its £8 billion investment portfolio includes more than 810,000 sq.m. of office
space in Central London and substantial retail holdings in Oxford Street,
Tottenham Court Road and Notting Hill Gate. In addition the Group owns 15
shopping centres and 24 retail parks located across the UK.
It has a substantial development programme with a number of development
projects; these include regeneration schemes in historical British cities, three
major retail-led urban regeneration schemes and eight Central London
developments. The Group is also masterplanning one of Europe's largest
regeneration schemes in Kent Thameside.
The Group leads the market in property outsourcing where, through Land
Securities Trillium, it provides accommodation and property-related services to
the Department for Work and Pensions, the BBC, Norwich Union and through a joint
venture, Telereal, to BT.
The Group is committed to environmental initiatives and community involvement.
This has been recognised by the Group's inclusion in the BiTC Corporate
Responsibility Index, FTSE4Good Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Its environmental performance has been recognised by the award of three Green
Apple Environment Awards and receiving ISO14001 accreditation for its work with
the DWP.
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