Great Portland Estates has purchased £150m of West End buildings from its joint venture with Capital & Counties.
The 50/50 jv, the Great Capital Partnership, has exchanged contracts to sell five W1 buildings to GPE for £150m, or £75m for the half share GPE does not already own.
The assets are Kingsland House, 122/124 Regent Street (£11.2m); Carrington House, 126/130 Regent Street (£37.50m); Walmar House, 288/300 Regent Street, 13/14 Great Castle Street (£35m); St Lawrence House, Broadwick Street (£46.6m); 48/54 Broadwick Street, 10/16 Dufours Place (£19.8m).
Completion of the transaction is conditional upon approvals from both the freeholder and the lenders to GCP.
Toby Courtauld, chief executive of GPE, said: “While perhaps non-core to GCP, these are classic GPE assets, so it makes good sense to buy in the half we don’t already own. The acquisition both enables the refurbishment of Walmar House and 13/14 Great Castle Street in the near term, and provides medium-term repositioning opportunities in both Soho and Regent Street with a solid income return in the meantime.”
CBRE advised CapCo; Tudor Toone represented GPE.
In addition, GPE announced today that it had entered into a new £150m five-year unsecured revolving credit facility, provided by a group of four relationship banks.
This new facility replaces an existing £50m (previously £200m) facility that was due to mature in July 2012. GPE retains its existing £350m unsecured revolving credit facility, which matures in November 2015.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
