LONDON (Alliance News) - LXB Retail Properties PLC on Wednesday said it has completed the sale of its Rushden Lakes investment to property developer The Crown Estate, and has signed a number of pre-lets since the end of April.
The real estate investment company, which focuses on retail assets, said the contract for the sale of Rushden Lakes was exchanged more than a year ago, but completion has been conditional on satisfaction of a number of criteria, largely relating to planning, lettings and highways.
The contract is a forward funding arrangement whereby The Crown Estate will fund the future development costs with LXB retaining responsibility for overseeing the development and lettings.
A number of revisions to the contract, in terms of costs and the terms of the pre-lets, has reduced the initial completion proceeds to GBP65.2 million from GBP75.0 million, which has been received in cash by LXB. "Although the initial cash proceeds are lower than originally anticipated, the majority of the reduction relates to timing differences," LXB said.
LXB said, in principle, the bulk of the initial completion proceeds will be returned to shareholders.
LXB added that it has made further progress on pre-lets since April 25, signing pre-lets with fashion chain Joules at Rushden Lakes, restaurant Coast to Coast and apparel store Save Our Soles at Stafford and Costa Coffee in Sutton.
Shares in LXB were down 0.2% at 102.00 pence on Wednesday.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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