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.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has completed the purchase of the 50% stake in the redevelopment of Croydon town centre that it does not own from joint venture partner Hammerson.
Hammerson and Westfield joined forces to redevelop a 24-acre portion of Croydon town centre a decade ago, planning a £1.4B retail-led scheme. But the decline in the retail sector and the financial fortunes of the two companies caused the plan to stall.
Westfield completed the purchase of Hammerson’s stake for an unnamed price, which it said was in line with the last valuation of the site. It will now draw up a new masterplan for the property, likely to involve a lot more residential and offices than previous iterations.
The site includes the Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres as well as high street retail frontage, office blocks and multistorey car parks in the designated GLA Opportunity Area in South London.
“The Croydon project is fully aligned with the group’s strategy of unlocking mixed-use development opportunities embedded in its portfolio,” URW said.
LEASING
Landsec and Taylor Wessing have agreed a renewed lease for 175K SF at 5 New Street Square, EC4, from 2025. The global law firm is investing in the future of its office, partnering with Landsec to carry out an extensive refurbishment of the building.
Refurbishment will commence at the end of 2023 and is expected to complete in mid-2025. During the refurbishment, Taylor Wessing will relocate into Hill House, EC4. The deal sees the firm take an extra floor, leasing a further 22K SF.
Landsec was advised by BH2 and Taylor Wessing by Savills.
INVESTMENT
Blackstone has bought two large industrial estates in the north west of England from U.S. real estate private equity firm Harbert for £480M.
Trafford Park is trading for about £280M, while Heywood Distribution Park is trading for about £200M, with the deals completing at yields of about 4%.
The two parks total about 6M SF. Harbert is more than doubling its money on the sale, having bought the two assets from Segro for about £205M in 2012.
FINANCE
Fiera Real Estate UK has launched an open-ended pan-European real estate debt fund that will invest into senior-secured, investment-grade real estate loans.
The fund is targeting a 10%-plus net internal rate of return and has secured £100M in seed commitments. This is in addition to £200M of commitments targeting higher yield UK opportunities across the debt platform.
The fund will be investing across multiple sectors such as residential, logistics, grade-A offices, leisure assets and hotels. The focus will initially be on the UK market before it expands to select European jurisdictions.
Classified as Article 8 under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the fund will promote environmental and social characteristics through its approach to lending, with its proprietary sustainable lending framework at the heart of the investment agenda. The framework will be built into all underlying loan and underwriting assessments to ensure the fund backs borrowers, sponsors and assets that align with Fiera Real Estate’s ambition to drive positive change and contribute to a low-carbon economy.
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Legal & General’s Suburban Build-to-Rent business has signed a £150M five-year revolving credit facility to finance its pipeline of 1,000 suburban build-to-rent homes. Backed by HSBC UK, Barclays and Natwest, the facility will help to address the significant demand for quality rental housing across the UK.
The loan follows LGSBTR’s recent announcement with Cala Homes on the exchange of 107 homes at Buckler’s Park, Crowthorne, in the south east of England. This was the first forward-funding transaction between LGSBTR and homebuilder Cala, which are both owned by Legal & General Capital.
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Waypark Capital, the London-based real estate lending platform, is launching a new fixed-rate lending product, backed with £300M of new institutional funding.
The product will provide residential and commercial real estate investors with fixed-rate loans of between £10M and £35M, with LTV ratios of up to 60% at a minimum margin of 2.65%. The new funding will have a particular focus on residential, student accommodation, build-to-rent, logistics and industrial sectors.
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TopHat, the modular-house builder, has raised £70M from new and existing shareholders as the company draws closer to opening Europe’s largest modular housing factory, which would manufacture up to 4,000 ultra low-carbon homes a year.
FTSE-100 housebuilder Persimmon and institutional investor Aviva, through its Aviva Capital Partners unit, have each made a substantial investment in the company.
Existing shareholder Goldman Sachs Asset Management also subscribed to TopHat’s latest fundraising round. Homes England, which funded TopHat’s development at Kitchener Barracks in Chatham, continues to explore the potential for additional support as part of its ongoing commitment to the sector.
