25 Apr 2016 07:00
25 April 2016 |
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LXB RETAIL PROPERTIES PLC
(the "Company" or the "Group")
Update on investment portfolio
LXB Retail Properties Plc, the Jersey resident closed-ended real estate investment company focused on edge of town and out of town retail assets, is pleased to report good progress with the investments at Stafford, Rushden Lakes and Sheppey.
Stafford
The Group has been in negotiations for some months to secure a pre-let of the proposed cinema at Stafford and, on 22 April 2016, contracts were exchanged with Odeon for a six screen cinema. Development will commence shortly and is expected to complete in spring 2017, enabling the cinema to open to the public in early summer of that year. The cinema will sit alongside the recently completed multi-storey car park which includes a number of restaurant units on the ground floor. Together, these will provide a comprehensive leisure offer fronting the River Sow and complement the major new retail facilities at Riverside Retail Park which are accessed by the new footbridge over the river. The Group has already announced pre-lets to Chiquito, Nando's and Prezzo and recently agreed a further pre-let with Coal Grill & Bar. In addition, an agreement for lease with another leading restaurant operator is in solicitors' hands and is expected to exchange shortly. At that point, just two units will remain available before the leisure scheme is fully pre-let.
The construction of Riverside Retail Park is virtually complete. The first unit was handed over to M&S on 15 April 2016 to enable fit out of their 65,000 sq ft store to commence. Practical completion of the other units is imminent. Six units remain available for letting although solicitors are instructed in connection with pre-lets for two of these. The Group anticipates that interest in the remaining four units will be boosted once a number of the UK's leading retail brands are on-site, fitting out their new stores. Riverside Retail Park is expected to open to the public in August 2016.
The Group was unable to commence the external works to the Morrisons foodstore at Kingsmead Stafford until the multi-storey car park was finished and available to complement the other town centre car parks in Stafford. The car park was handed over to Stafford Borough Council in March 2016 and the external works to the Morrisons foodstore are now well advanced; practical completion is anticipated in June 2016.
Rushden Lakes
The Group's plans to increase the leisure offer at Rushden Lakes received a significant boost on 20 April 2016 when the local Planning Committee unanimously supported the Group's proposals for a new leisure offer at Rushden Lakes which includes an 11 screen cinema complex which is pre-let to Cineworld.
As shareholders are aware, completion of the sale of Rushden Lakes to The Crown Estate is conditional on the satisfaction of a number of criteria concerned with securing the build contract and highways agreements and a target number of pre-lets.
The build contract and highways agreement are both now in agreed form and contracts will be exchanged shortly. The 2015 Annual Report which was released in December 2015 indicated that a large number of potential pre-lets were under discussion or in solicitors' hands and, since then, pre-lets have been agreed with a number of retailers including Paperchase, River Island, New Look, Schuh, Moss Bros, Fat Face and Holland and Barrett and solicitors are instructed in connection with a number of other potential tenancies. The Group also expects to instruct solicitors shortly in connection with pre-lets to three other leading retailers.
The Group anticipates that the remaining pre-conditions will be satisfied so that the sale to The Crown Estate may complete in the near future. The Group will make a further announcement on completion which will include details of a proposed return of capital to shareholders.
Sheppey
A letting has been agreed with Cancer Research and they will take access of their new 5,100 sq ft unit at Neatscourt Retail Park shortly. The Group announced in January 2016 that it had agreed a pre-let of a 10,000 sq ft unit at Neatscourt to a member of the Pepkor Group. Pepkor has selected that store as one of the locations for their new 'GHM' format and are currently fitting it out. GHM is expected to open to the public in June 2016.
For further information please contact:
LXB Adviser LLP Tel: 020 7432 7900
Tim Walton, CEOBrendan O'Grady, FD
J.P. Morgan Cazenove (NOMAD) Tel: 020 7742 4000
Bronson Albery/Paul Hewlett
Buchanan Tel: 020 7466 5000
Charles Ryland/Victoria Watkins/Patrick Hanrahan