Helical Bar raises £24m through disposals

11th Apr 2011 18:07

Property business Helical Bar has got the pruning shears out again as it continues to reshape its property portfolio.The company has raised £24m through five disposals made at a combined small discount to book value. The disposals are: St. Andrew's House in Woking; some phase 2 development land in Southall; Beacon House in Fleet; 24,000 square feet of vacant office space in Crawley plus 21 more units (since September 2010) at Bramshott retirement village in Liphook.Coming through the in-door is Langlands Industrial Estate in East Kilbride, which Helical Bar is acquiring from Henderson for around £6m, representing an initial yield of 10%.Langlands Industrial Estate is a freehold 150,000 square foot modern estate with 26 units let to 18 tenants. The estate currently has a 16% vacancy rate by floor area and provides the potential for rental uplift, the company said. "We continue to look for opportunities to recycle equity from mainly non-income producing property into higher yielding investment properties where we have identified the opportunity to apply significant asset management to deliver future upside," said Duncan Walker, senior development executive at Helical Bar. ---jh