Legal & General Property (LGP) has spent almost £160m in less than 24 hours to acquire a regional shopping centre and a west London office block.
Adding the Grafton Centre in Cambridge and the capital’s First Central 200 (FC200) office complex to LGP’s portfolio brings its recent spend to around £372m, which includes taking control of Priory Court and Temple Court in Birmingham and The Overgate Centre in Dundee.
Bought from M&G Real Estate for £99m, the half-a-million square feet Grafton Centre has more than 80 retail and leisure units, anchored by Debenhams and Bhs. Other top name tenants are H&M, Next, New Look, Topshop and Boots.
The first floor of the Grafton building, one of the three main shopping centres in Cambridge, houses an eight-screen Vue cinema and food court with tenants such as Bella Italia, Burger King and Café Lavazza.
Strutt & Parker and Bidwells advised LGP on the Grafton Centre transaction, while Cushman & Wakefield acted for M&G Real Estate.
In west London’s Park Royal, LGP’s UK Property Income Fund (UK PIF II) paid private real estate investor Wainbridge £59.8m for the 2009 constructed First Central 200 office building.The property offers 167,435 sq ft Grade A space across seven floors, with the ground to third storeys let to Bechtel Limited, a market leading engineering and construction company, until 2024.
“Both purchases complement the existing assets in the portfolio and come hot on the heels of the final closing of our second closed-ended UK Property Income Fund, which provides over £610 million of firepower,” explained Charlie Walker, a director and fund manager of UK PIF II.
“Going forward, we continue to seek out opportunities to deploy capital into attractive UK acquisitions where we see good quality income potential.”
Thought to be the largest volume of capital raised by a diversified UK closed-ended property fund for more than 12 months, the UK PIF II closed in April this year having secured £403m in equity — giving it a geared war chest of £610m.
Knight Frank represented LGP on the FC200 transaction, while CBRE advised Wainbridge.
Source: LGP Press Release
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