Land Securities Group Unloads Harbour Exchange Office For £196.5m
UNITED KINGDOM – Land Securities Group (Landsec) announced on Friday that it has struck a deal to divest the Harbour Exchange office complex in London to Blackstone Inc for £196.5 million pounds (US$262.82 million), reported Reuters on Saturday (13 November, SGT).
Strategically situated in the London Docklands area, Harbour Exchange consists of 2 redeveloped office buildings that contain workspace and a data centre. At present, the commercial property is leased to Equinix (UK) Ltd, which has a remaining lease tenure of almost 2 decades.
Land Securities Group revealed that the divestment of the commercial property to Blackstone European Property Income Fund is expected to be completed before the end of 2021.
The company, which is one of the top office landlords in the country, is reshuffling its real estate portfolio, as many commercial real estate (CRE) landlords here are considering to diversify into mixed-use assets and focus on properties with higher returns, as the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the valuation of office space and retail units, while the extended moratorium on rent reduce their income streams.
Through the sale of Harbour Exchange, “we are recycling capital into opportunities where we can bring to bear Landsec’s skills and expertise to drive growth and returns for our investors,” said Landsec Managing Director in Central London, Marcus Geddes.
Last week, Land Securities Group announced that it has purchased a 75 percent interest in MediaCity, the largest tech and media hub in the country that is outside of London, for US$580 million. That acquisition came merely 2 days after Landsec disclosed the US$260 million acquisition of regeneration firm U+I.
