Helical Bar is looking to raise £70m through the sale of its retirement home development division as it retrenches to focus on its core commercial development and investment business.
The listed developer, led by Mike Slade, has appointed Deloitte to advise on a sale of the assets it develops through its joint venture with land and property management consultancy Urban Renaissance Villages.
Helical owns the assets and pays a share of the profits to its development partner, run by chief executive Bill Gair.
The division has a portfolio of five sites including the 151-unit retirement development under construction at a former hospital site at Bramshott Place Village in Liphook, Hampshire.
It has planning approval for a further three sites in Milton, near Cambridge, St Loyes in Exeter, Devon, and Faygate in Horsham, West Sussex, and an application pending for a site in Stratford-upon-Avon. The total pipeline stands at more than 800 beds.
In a trading statement last month, Slade said: “With one village under construction, three with planning permission and one going through the planning process, we are now considering our options for taking these developments forward.”
It is expected that rival retirement village businesses, opportunity funds and housebuilders looking to expand will run the rule over the business.
Helical raised £29m in a share issue at the end of last year and is focusing on City development and secondary investment assets outside London. The company declined to comment.
