8th Dec 2005 07:02
Slough Estates PLC08 December 2005 SLOUGH ESTATES AGREES MAJOR ACQUISITION IN GERMANY Slough Estates International ("SEI") has agreed to acquire a substantiallogistics and ancillary office portfolio and a major development land bank fromKarstadtQuelle AG in a sale and leaseback transaction - at a gross acquisitionprice of €163.2m (including acquisition costs). Subject to necessary approvals,completion is anticipated within a few weeks. The portfolio comprises 260,000 m2 of let warehouse accommodation, 63,000 m2 oflet office accommodation and 53 hectares of development land, producing a totalrent income of €13.1m per annum. The main development properties are primestrategic sites at locations in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Dusseldorf/Essen andAlzenau - all with good potential for the provision of business park or logisticfacilities. KarstadtQuelle AG and its subsidiary companies have entered into long-termleases on those assets currently being occupied for their operations.KarstadtQuelle AG is one of Germany's largest retail conglomerates, ranging fromlarge department stores to mail order. It had gross sales of €13.4bn in 2004 andhad 92,500 employees. KarstadtQuelle is selling these properties as part of aGroupwide financial restructuring. Linked to this transaction, DHL - with whomSEI has relationships at a range of its existing sites in Continental Europe -has taken over contracts to run the logistics at five of the KarstadtQuelleoperations. SEI's Managing Director in Europe, Walter Hens, said: "This acquisition provides significant income, much of it secured until 2017,and unlocks substantial development opportunities. It combines the strength of our expertise as an established developer in theindustrial market in Germany with a strong cash flow generated from the leasedback element. Our General Manager in Germany, Dr Udo Titz, and his team now havea major opportunity to take our existing German operations onto another level." Ian Coull, Slough Estates' Chief Executive, added: "This transaction plays to our strengths and builds on our growing presence inthis region. It is an excellent fit with our strategy and takes our focus onflexible business space further into Continental Europe, in particularreinforcing and building on our position in the key German market." This deal is a quantum leap forward for SEI's Dusseldorf based German operations- existing interests in Germany include a trading portolio valued atapproximately €100m as at the end of the first half of 2005. The scale and thedevelopment focus of this transaction therefore bring SEI's German portfoliofirmly into line with its wider European strategy. Existing German sites includefacilities in Neuss, Monchengladbach, Frankfurt, Kapellen, Ratingen, Dormagen,Hamburg and Krefeld. Elsewhere in Continental Europe, SEI's main interests are in Brussels, Paris andAmsterdam. SEI's investment assets in Belgium and France were valued at £186mand £107m as at the time of its 2005 interim results. During 2005 SEI acquired amajority shareholding in Dutch based Mainland JV - including a developmentpipeline of 130,000 m2. In November this year the JV partners subsequently bought a major site close to Schiphol airport for €16.5m, providing a further 100,000 m2 development opportunity. Slough Estates Maitland Michael Waring Colin Browne07775 788 628 Liz Morley 020 73795151 Notes to editors Slough Estates plc(Listed on the London Stock Exchange - stock code: SLOU.L)www.sloughestates.com Slough Estates is a leading provider of flexible business space in businessparks in Western Europe and North America, with over 1500 customers occupyingapproximately 3m square metres of business space. Slough Estates' properties arein suburban locations in close proximity to the main business centres, wherethere is long term demand for business accommodation to serve these key economicregions. The company's main activities are currently based around London, Brussels,Paris, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, San Francisco and San Diego and the companycontinues to develop new business parks with the long term objective of buildingshareholder value and enhancing its reputation for quality buildings offeringexcellent value to customers. www.sloughestates.com At its interim results this year Slough Estates highlighted increaseddevelopment starts in Europe with 5,509 sq m completed in H1, 64,029 sq m underconstruction at the end of the first half of 2005 and with 56,112 sq m ofpossible starts in the second half of 2005. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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