Acquisition

18 Mar 2008 07:00

Safeland PLC18 March 2008 18th March 2008 Safeland Property Unit Trust/Flexspace Purchase of Business Centre in Crawley Safeland Active Management Ltd, today announces that the Safeland Property UnitTrust trading as Flexspace, the Jersey based unit trust of which it is UKproperty manager, has recently completed the purchase of Stanley/Kelvin Houseand Business Centres in Crawley for £4.94 million from ING Real Estate. The purchase of the business centres, ideally located on The Manor RoyalIndustrial Estate, Crawley, will be funded by £1.35m from cash resources, withthe remainder through debt finance from Barclays Capital. This is the first newacquisition Flexspace has completed since the expansion of the fund in September2007 which raised a further £55m of equity. Net income of over £390,000 per annum will be generated on purchase giving aninitial yield of 7.5%. The property, which totals 47,500 sq ft, is situated on Kelvin Way on ManorRoyal Industrial Estate in Crawley's premier commercial location just one milesouth of Gatwick Airport. This area is very popular with airport relatedbusinesses and Flexspace's more flexible leasing options should prove verypopular with the local SME market. The centres are currently divided into 32 separate units providing a range ofoffice suites, workshops and studios, with varying sizes starting from 400 sqft. Flexspace plans to undertake further subdivision works to provide one manoffice studios starting from 130 sq ft. This purchase brings to 11, the number of sites operated under the Flexspacemanaged workspace brand. Operational square footage now stands at c750,000 sq ft Larry Lipman, Managing Director of Safeland said: "I am very pleased to announce this new purchase as further proof that theSafeland Active Management fund is taking advantage of the opportunities thatare occurring in this sector. The substantial investment by Babcock and Brownand Electra Partners in 2007 has enabled the fund to increase its ability toacquire property and now with £200m available we are opportunistic in seekingfurther acquisitions throughout the coming year." Drivers Jonas acted for Safeland Property Unit Trust on the acquisition. Further information is available at www.flexspace.co.uk Contacts: Safeland plc Parkgreen Communications LtdLarry Lipman, Managing Director Paul McManusTel: 020 8815 1600 Tel: 020 7479 7933 Mob: 07980 541 893 www.safeland.co.uk paul.mcmanus@parkgreenmedia.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange