This Week's London Deal Sheet
The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email mark.faithfull@bisnow.com.
The merger of Capital & Counties Properties and Shaftesbury UK has been cleared by the Competition & Markets Authority, which confirmed that it will not refer its merger to a Phase 2 investigation.
The court sanction hearing should now take place on 2 March, with the merger expected to complete on 6 March. It has already been approved by both Capco and Shaftesbury shareholders.
London-focused real estate investment trust Shaftesbury and property firm Capco, which has investments in London's West End and Covent Garden, agreed terms for an all-share merger in June 2022 to create a London-focused property investor with a combined portfolio value of circa £5B.
The UK CMA subsequently launched a merger inquiry in December, questioning whether the move would result in a "substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK".
LEASES
British Land has signed an agreement to lease 83K SF over seven floors to Virgin Media O2 at 3 Sheldon Square, a newly refurbished office building at Paddington Central.
The building will act as the telecoms company’s new headquarters and takes the 140K SF 3 Sheldon Square to 60% let, ahead of its opening in February 2024.
It is currently undergoing a full refurbishment, significantly reducing the embodied carbon through retention and reuse of the existing structure and materials. The building will be all electric, including the installation of air source heat pumps, which will reduce operational energy demand by more than 40%.
In addition, new terraces, improving the facade, will be installed overlooking Sheldon Square. The refurbishment will deliver a BREEAM Excellent certification and is targeting an EPC rating of A. An extensive upgrade to the public realm at Paddington Central is also underway, the company said.
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Fora, a flexible workspace provider that forms part of The Office Group, has entered into a management agreement with Oxford Properties to open a new workspace at the Blue Fin Building, Bankside.
The Blue Fin Building is owned by a joint venture between Oxford Properties and Temasek. Fora has partnered with the landlord to provide flexible workspace in the building, as well as conference space and event facilities.
The space will span level one and part of level two of the property, covering 43K SF in total. Opening is currently scheduled for autumn 2023. Once complete, the workspace will offer private offices, boardrooms and event space, which will also be available to nonresidents to book.
The new location will be Fora’s 19th and The Office Group’s 73rd.
INVESTMENT
SAV Group has sold the Northern and Shell Tower at Canary Wharf for £85M. The company bought the building as a vacant office and secured planning permission for its extension and conversion in to 209 C3 flats with over 6K SF of communal roof terrace and green roof space.
The refurbishment significantly reduced embodied carbon, and the planning permission achieved a 91% saving on Part L of the 2013 Building Regulations.
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The Grand Hotel in Brighton has been acquired by the owner of Leonardo Hotels UK & Ireland for £60M.
Fattal Group has purchased the seven-floor venue, which first opened in 1864, and plans to invest in upgrading the rooms and facilities at the 201-room hotel, plus a restaurant and bar and meeting and banqueting space.
The acquisition of the Grand follows Fattal Group's recent purchase of the Dilly Hotel in Piccadilly, London, as well as the 2018 acquisition of the Midland Hotel in Manchester.
The company also bought six hotels in Spain in 2022, for more than €165M, and recently acquired nine hotels in Austria, Salzburg and Linz. Leonardo Hotels currently operates 52 hotels across the UK and Ireland, while Fattal Hotels owns and operates over 200 hotels in more than 100 destinations.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Retail and leisure specialists MMX Retail and Fawcett Mead have merged, with the newly amalgamated practice renamed FMX Urban Property Advisers.
MMX Retail and Fawcett Mead were both founded in 2010, with both firms operating in all subsectors of the retail and leisure market but focused on different parts. The merger provides the opportunity to broaden its market presence, the companies said.
FMX will combine its two London offices in the near term. Operations in Bristol and via consultancy support in Yorkshire will remain in place.
PEOPLE
Real estate investor and developer Firethorn Trust has launched its Firethorn Living Platform with the appointment of Marcus Weeks, focusing on student accommodation and build-to-rent.
Weeks will head up the new platform, following more than a decade of experience in the sector, most recently as acquisitions and development director at Unite Group for six years.
In his new role, Weeks will be responsible for sourcing and executing new UK-based opportunities. Firethorn acquired Quay House in Canary Wharf in 2018, and it obtained planning permission for its redevelopment into a high-rise hotel and aparthotel building, and a 55-acre allocated residential site to deliver circa 500 new homes in Bicester in 2019.
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London-focused residential and mixed-use property developer Telford Homes has appointed Lesley Chen Davison as chief operating officer.
In the role, she will join the firm’s executive committee and be responsible for supporting the execution of Telford Homes’ business strategy.
She will lead on the execution of investment and development management, reporting to CEO Anne Kavanagh.
Davison has previously been involved in some of the UK’s earliest purpose-built BTR projects, including East Village and Elephant Central during her time at Delancey, where she was a senior director for 14 years.
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European real estate investment and asset manager Valesco has appointed Stephen Cahoon as managing director, head of asset management. With more than 16 years of commercial real estate experience, he will lead the asset management activities and business plan execution for Valesco’s growing €2B+ portfolio.
Cahoon is the latest addition to Valesco’s senior team following the appointments earlier this year of Ross McCaskill as chief financial officer and Derek Williams as head of investor relations.
Based in London, he will be responsible for strategic asset enhancement initiatives, placemaking, asset repositioning and ESG performance.
