British Land sells portion of retail and office portfolio

8th Jan 2015 07:02

Real estate investment trust British Land has sold a retail and office portfolio in an off-market deal to Legal & General Property for £219.6m.Kingswood Retail Park in Hull was sold for £58m, with House Fraser in Birmingham sold for £71.4m, while the Grenfell Island office, leisure and retail block in Maidenhead fetched £90.2m."This activity is in line with our strategy to evolve the portfolio to meet the needs of our occupiers and their customers," the group said in a note on Thursday."Throughout the financial year, we have taken advantage of strong investment markets to make selective disposals of more mature assets."British Land, which also sold Green Lanes Shopping Centre in Barnstaple to a private client of Rockspring Property Investment Managers for £36.1m, said the latest deals brought the total sales of UK income generating assets to around £620m over the last 12 months."At the half year, we said we would be making selective disposals and we are pleased that the deals announced today were all achieved at prices ahead of book value, and have generated attractive returns for us," said Charles Maudsley, the group's head of retail.