British Land offloads non-core assets, acquiring new ones

(Sharecast News) - Real estate investment trust British Land revealed £350.0m of "capital activity" on Thursday, with the group offloading non-core assets and acquiring new ones.
British Land said it has acquired the Peterhouse Technology Park in Cambridge for £75.0m, representing a net initial yield of 4.15%, and stated it had also exchanged papers for the acquisition of the Priestley Centre in Guildford for £12.0m and bought the Finsbury Square Car Park in central London for £20.0m.

During the current quarter, British Land sold or received offers for roughly £160.0m worth of assets at prices roughly 6.0% ahead of book value - including the recent sale of a Virgin Active in Chiswick for £54.3m and the part sale of the Woodfields Retail Park in Bury for £37.5m.

Chief executive Simon Carter said: "We are delighted with the momentum we are delivering across our business as the economy reopens. Leasing activity at our London campuses has been strong, with a significant amount of space going under offer to a broad range of occupiers in the last two months.

"At the same time, we are continuing to deliver against our strategic priorities. We have sold off-strategy mature assets and will actively redeploy capital into opportunities that allow us to maximise our competitive advantage in asset management and development."

As of 0900 BST, British Land shares were up 0.19% at 529.80p.