Publishing multi-millionaire and Reading Football Club chairman John Madejski is selling his property portfolio, worth around £180m.
Madejski wants to dispose of a £130m portfolio bought by his property company Sackville Properties less than seven months ago, as well as “a handful of individual properties”.
Under the deal in October 2002, Sackville secured debt from Lloyds TSB. The £130m purchase price represented a yield of around 7.5%.
The wider portfolio, being offered quietly on the market, includes several properties bought prior to the October deal, and comprises almost all of Sackville’s holdings.
But a source close to the company said: “It is not a case of winding down. It’s more like working the existing assets and starting again.”
Among the 18 properties bought in the £130m portfolio from an overseas investor were:
- the 135,000 sq ft (12,542 sq m) Chesser House in Edinburgh, let to Edinburgh council
- the 110,000 sq ft (10,219 sq m) Telephone House in Sheffield, let to British Telecom
- the 62,000 sq ft (5,760 sq m) T-mobile call centre in Merthyr Tydfil
Madejski, who is estimated to have personal wealth of £260m, invested £20m of his own money in Sackville.
He made £174m in 1998 from selling his Hurst Publishing operation, based on the success of Auto Trader, the second-hand-car sales magazine.
His other assets include a stake in the Royal Palm, a luxury hotel on the Galapagos Islands.
Sackville, set up in March 2001, and chaired and backed by Madejski, is also trying to sell the 120,000 sq ft (11,148 sq m) Dencora Business Park in Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, as part of the package.
It bought the park last April from Dencora Properties for around £14m.
The source added: “Sackville’s agent is showing the details of the £130m portfolio, then showing individual papers for the other buildings owned by the company.
“It is all in play but it is hard to make an assumption on the value of the whole.”
Sackville is being advised by Bushe Gower Associates.
References: EGi News 31/03/03
