10th Jan 2006 14:16
Slough Estates PLC10 January 2006 Busy New Year for Slough Estates In Continental Europe Slough Estates International ("SEI" or "the Company") has today announced anumber of transactions in France, Germany and Belgium. FranceSEI has entered into a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Capital & Continentalto develop the 26,500m(2) Portes de France office scheme in St Denis,overlooking the Stade de France, Paris. The highly specified scheme will providetwo interconnected office buildings either side of the A86 motorway. The projectwill be visible from both the motorway and the Stade de France and will benefitfrom a particularly high profile in the market, with the Rugby World Cup takingplace in France in late 2007. SEI has also signed a new 5/9 year lease with high fashion retailer "Paul andJoe" on 1670m(2) at its new light industrial park in Le Blanc Mesnil to thenorth of Paris. GermanyOver the Christmas and New Year period SEI agreed to sell a light industrialproperty in Hamburg to Halverton for a gross disposal price of €12.3 million,resulting in a 2005 profit of €2.5m. The property - part of the Group's tradingportfolio in Germany - provides a total of 12,368m(2) of light industrialaccommodation and is let to 19 tenants. BelgiumIn a 50:50 joint venture with KBC, SEI has agreed to acquire two lightindustrial properties in the Brussels periphery with strong medium and long-termredevelopment potential for a gross purchase price of €5.25 million, reflectinga net initial yield of 8.4%. The properties provide a total of 5,640m(2) ofoffice and light industrial accommodation and are let to nine tenants. Theycurrently produce €441,000 per annum. SEI's Managing Director in Europe, Walter Hens, said:"This is a busy beginning to the year for Slough Estates cementing our positionas one of the leading providers of flexible business space in ContinentalEurope. We continue to expand our footprint in key markets, includingparticipating in flagship developments such as the Portes de France officescheme in St Denis, which complements our existing development pipeline in thesuburban Paris office markets. The recent acquisition of Grontmij Real EstateInternational also demonstrates our commitment to the high growth markets ofdeveloping Europe. We look forward to further expansion in 2006." Elsewhere in Continental Europe, SEI's main interests are in Brussels,Dusseldorf, Paris and Amsterdam and, through the recent acquisition fromGrontmij, operations in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. During 2005 SEI acquired a major site close to Schiphol airport which provides a100,000m2 development opportunity. More recently in December last year, SEIacquired a sale and leaseback portfolio in Germany of €163 million from KarstadtQuelle AG and acquired the Central European development arm from Grontmij bv. Further information:Slough Estates The Maitland ConsultancyMichael Waring Colin Browne07775 788 628 020 73795151 Notes to editors 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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