Great Capital Partnership offloads £79.1m of retail & office assets

Joint venture sells Kensington retail scheme and Midtown offices

Article posted: 21 Jul 2011

Great Capital Partnership, the joint venture between Capital & Counties Properties and Great Portland Estates, has sold 26/40 Kensington High Street, London W8 and 67/75 Kingsway, London WC2.

26/40 Kensington High Street has been sold to The Khoo Teck Puat UK Foundation for £62.5m. The price agreed is 10.5% ahead of the 31 March 2011 book value and reflects a net initial yield of circa 4.5%. The freehold property is situated at the corner of Kensington High Street and Kensington Palace Gardens and comprises over 120,000 sq ft of mixed use accommodation let to tenants including TK Maxx, Urban Outfitters, Wagamama and Virgin Active. The property produces an income of approximately £3.0m per year.

Retail and office space in Midtown at 67/75 Kingsway has been sold to Threadneedle UK Opportunities Property II LP for £16.58m. The freehold property, situated on the western side of Kingsway, comprises over 30,500 sq ft of retail and office accommodation. Tenants include Signature Restaurants trading as Belgo, Subway, SV Life Sciences and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Europe Ltd.

Ian Hawksworth, Chairman of GCP and Chief Executive of Capco said, “These sales are in line with our ongoing approach of recycling capital from mature assets and represents a continuation of the joint venture’s strategy to focus on its core West End holdings on Piccadilly, Regent Street and Park Crescent.”

In November last year the partnership announced the refocusing of their joint venture, through the disposal of four properties to GPE and the appointment of Capco as residential and retail strategy advisor to the joint venture.

GPE purchased office space in the City of London at 24/25 Britton Street, EC1, offices in EC4 at 12/14 New Fetter Lane/43 Fetter Lane plus Tasman House, Wells Street, W1 and retail property 183/190 Tottenham Court Road, W1 for a combined price of £45.05m.

Capco took on a residential and retail strategy advisory role allowing the joint venture to draw on its extensive skills alongside those of GPE in working up various development opportunities across the business.

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Posted by Jo