British Land is thought to be close to offloading a 50% holding in Meadowhall, Sheffield, for about £550m to a joint venture between an Abu Dhabi fund and London & Stamford, while LandSec is close to completing a deal to sell a one-third stake in the Bullring, Birmingham to an Australian fund for £200m.
Hammerson is rumoured to have put its one-third stake in the Bullring up for sale, too.
Morgan Stanley thinks British Land could follow up with a share issue of about £1.4bn although British Land would not comment.
Goldman Sachs has added British Land, off 14p at 431p, to its “conviction sell” list on the basis that the company is too highly geared for “unprecedented” property price declines and would need to make the largest amount of disposals by value.
Goldman was also negative on Liberty International, down 5.25p to 375p.
Liberty was rumoured to have asked shareholder Simon Property Group for extra capital.
Goldman was negative on Derwent London, down 9.5p to 590.5p. The broker said the sector would need to sell £15bn of property over the next two years to repair balance sheets.
LandSec fell 23p to 634p, Hammerson, 5p to 393p. Henderson rose 0.25p to 63.75p.
28/01/09 Financial Times 38
Times 38, 39, 40, 47
Daily Telegraph B2
Independent 44
