This Week's London Deal Sheet
A weekly compilation of Greater London’s and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email tim.clark@bisnow.com.
U.S. private equity group Apollo Funds has finalised the purchase of Scottish housebuilder Miller Homes.
Documents filed on Companies House show that the £1.2B sale by investor Bridgepoint completed on 31 March.
The housebuilder, which has annual revenue of £665M, aims to boost its current rate of housebuilding by 70% over the medium term. If realised the ambition would see up to 6,000 homes built per year, up from the 3,500 the housebuilder completed in 2019.
Miller is currently one of the UK's top 20 housebuilders and has taken steps recently to secure its land supply, acquiring strategic land firm Wallace Land Investment for £5M in May last year.
Miller has an estimated 38,000 potential housing plots under ownership. Bridgepoint acquired Miller Homes in 2017 for £655M from GSO Capital Partners.
INVESTMENT DEALS
AXA IM Alts has purchased a 1.9M SF UK logistics portfolio to further expand its assets under management in the sector. AXA paid a joint venture between Goldman Sachs and Canmoor £391M for the portfolio.
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Care home operator Hamberley has agreed a £100M sale and leaseback of its existing care homes with investment firm Rynda Healthcare. The operator’s five-strong chain of care homes in Eastleigh and Enfield have been sold, which collectively accounts for 353 beds. The group plans to have 28 homes by 2024.
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Primary Health Properties has acquired the Chiswick Medical Centre in west London for £34.5M. The property is fully let to HCA International with an unexpired term of just under 20 years. It is also subject to five yearly, annually compounded, RPI-led rent reviews.
According to PHP the acquisition brings its portfolio to 524 assets, of which 20 are in Ireland, with a contracted rent roll of just under £143M.
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Digital 9 Infrastructure has acquired GAData Holdings for £45M. GAData, which trades as Volta Data Centres, operates a 91K SF central London data centre and provides colocation data services.
The 6 MW centre has been operating since 2013 and has more than 100 clients ranging from banking to media, technology telecoms and energy companies. Volta owned the long leasehold on the property, which is located in Farringdon.
LEASES
The City of London Corporation has agreed a letting in its Mayfair development with Italian fashion house Del Core. The luxury brand has taken approximately 7K SF within the City Corporation’s development at 123/124 New Bond Street. Del Core was founded in Milan in 2020 by Daniel Del Core.
The brand stated that New Bond Street will be its first global flagship store.
FINANCE
LaSalle Investment Management has invested £50M on behalf of one of its clients into funding a 189-bedroom Premier Inn hotel in Hammersmith. The site was acquired from BMW's pension scheme, managed by Legal & General Investment Management, which was retained as the development manager.
The scheme provides Premier Inn with the first of two new hotels in central Hammersmith, a location it has been targeting for more than 10 years.
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The Pension Insurance Corporation has invested £50M to fund the development of the London School of Economics' 35 Lincoln's Inn Fields scheme. The building will be the university’s first carbon-neutral building and home to a high-computing facilities hub. The latest deal follows on from PIC’s £129M investment with LSE and DIF Capital Partners on a new 676-bed student scheme in Southwark.
PEOPLE
Schroders Capital Real Estate has appointed Rebecca Gates as Head of UK Asset Management. In this newly created role, Gates is responsible for overseeing asset management across all direct UK portfolios including the Schroders Capital UK Real Estate Fund and Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust, as well as new client portfolios such as the £700M Greater Manchester portfolio.
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London-based affordable housing provider Dolphin Living has appointed a financial controller from real estate firm CLS Holdings as its new chief financial officer.
Gary Preston, who worked at CLS for 10 years, has been appointed as financial director for Dolphin, which owns 800 homes for rent in London and has 300 further homes in development.
