BRITISH
LAND announces sale of its 50% meadowhall STAKE
In line with its strategy to focus
on retail parks and reduce exposure to covered shopping centres,
British Land announces that it has exchanged contracts for the sale
of its 50% stake in Meadowhall Shopping Centre to its partner
Norges Bank Investment Management for £360m. This follows the sale
of some ancillary land by the Joint Venture for £7m (British Land
share) earlier this year. Together these deals value the entirety
of the Meadowhall Estate at £734m, 3% above September 2023 book
value.
Proceeds after net debt of c.£200m
are expected to total c.£156m. The impact of the transaction on
FY25 NTA per share is expected to be negligible and the FY25 EPS
dilution is estimated to be 0.6p prior to reinvestment. The
transaction would reduce HY24 proportionally consolidated LTV by
2.7ppt. As part of the transaction, British Land will remain as
asset manager of Meadowhall shopping centre, for which it will
continue to earn fees in line with current terms.
The transaction is expected to
complete in July 2024 and the proceeds will be used for general
corporate purposes including reinvestment into retail parks.
Simon Carter, Chief Executive of British Land,
said:
"We have had a successful
partnership with Norges over many years and are delighted to
continue to work alongside them as asset managers of the
centre.
Following the sale of Meadowhall,
93% of our portfolio is now in our preferred segments of retail
parks, campuses and London urban logistics.
We will continue to grow our retail
park portfolio; with low capex requirements parks offer attractive
cash returns and at 99% occupancy we are delivering strong rental
growth."
- ENDS
-
Investors:
Sandra Moura, British
Land
07989 755 535
Sean
Pearcey-Stone
020 7467 3519
Media:
Charlotte Whitley, British
Land
07887 802 535
About British Land
Our portfolio of high quality UK
commercial property is focused on London Campuses and Retail &
London Urban Logistics. We own or manage a portfolio valued at
£12.7bn (British Land share: £8.7bn) as at 30 September 2023 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
& London Urban Logistics.
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 5m sq ft of residential,
commercial, retail and community space over 53 acres. Our Campuses
account for 62% of our portfolio.
Retail & London Urban Logistics
accounts for 38% 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. Our approach is focused on three key
pillars where British Land can create the most benefit: Greener
Spaces, making our whole portfolio net zero carbon, Thriving
Places, making a long-lasting, positive social impact in our
communities and Responsible Choices, advocating responsible
business practices across British Land and throughout our supply
chain, and maintaining robust governance structures. Further
details can be found on the British Land website at
www.britishland.com.
About Meadowhall
Meadowhall is 200 acre estate,
adjacent to the M1, located on the outskirts of Sheffield. The
estate comprises of a 1.5m sq ft shopping centre with around 280
occupiers, 60k sq ft of solus retail, 143k sq ft distribution
centre, 103 bed hotel let to Premier Inn and two plots of
development land totalling 50 acres. For the year ended 31 March
2023 the Joint Venture generated net rental income of
£59m.