Three bidders are competing to buy British Land’s £300m residential portfolio.
The UK’s biggest property company has been whittling down the contenders for its portfolio of 1,500 homes across the country.
Grainger Trust, the UK’s largest quoted residential property company, is vying with a US-based REIT said to be Archstone Smith, which has a market capitalisation of $14.4bn and a bidder represented by Knight Frank to buy BL’s entire residential portfolio, which has been valued at between £250m and £300m.
The company had planned last year to double its residential portfolio to £500m but decided to sell the lot off after director Nick Ritblat who had responsibility for the residential holdings announced his resignation in August.
The sale, which will be the year’s largest residential portfolio investment, is understood to be holding up at least three other sellers who are waiting for it to go through before offering more stock to the market.
BL refused to comment. An Archstone Smith spokesman would not comment on this deal but said: “We have someone on the ground looking at investing in Europe, including England.”
Meanwhile, Grainger expanded its continental portfolio this week with the purchase of a largely residential property portfolio from German investor Preussag Immobilien for ¤71.5m in cash.
The 1,400-home portfolio generates ¤4.5m pa, a 6.3% yield.
References: EGi News 31/10/05
