Frasers Centrepoint is in talks to buy Farnborough Business Park in Hampshire in a deal that would take its UK business park investments beyond £900m this year.
Frasers Property International, along with another subsidiary of the Singapore-listed firm, has placed Harbert and XLB’s 554,000 sq ft campus under offer.
The purchase price of the fully let asset, put up for sale through CBRE in June, is understood to be around £170m – a yield of around 7%.
Frasers is amassing a significant portfolio of business parks in the UK, having already agreed a deal to buy five parks totalling 5.1m sq ft for £743m from Oaktree Capital Management and Patrizia in September –Winnersh Triangle, Reading; Chineham Park, Basingstoke; Watchmoor Park, Camberley; Maxis in Bracknell; and Hillington Park, Glasgow.
Harbert and XLB acquired Farnborough business park from SEGRO in 2012 for around £80m, with a vacancy rate of 24%. The joint venture partners acquired a number of existing built assets and 18 acres of development land, which was then sold on to owner-occupiers, and speculatively developed more than 100,000 sq ft of offices.
With those buildings fully let at the beginning of 2017, the partnership put the 125-acre park up for sale.
Frasers, which has $24bn (£18bn) of assets under management, entered the UK market 15 years ago, but focused on residential, hospitality and industrial. It is only now beginning to expand its reach into business parks, with a focus on well let income-producing campuses.
If the Farnborough deal completes, Frasers will control 5.5m sq ft of UK parks valued at more than £850m. It is expected to selectively sell over the next few years, rather than hold the assets for the long-term.
To send feedback, e-mail nick.johnstone@egi.co.uk or tweet @n_johnstone or @estatesgazette
