British Land sells off £694m stake in Paddington Central to Singapore state-fund
British Land has sold off a majority stake in its London Paddington Central assets to Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.
The London-headquartered firm, one of the largest property developers in the UK, will wrap up its majority ownership over the next three months, British Land confirmed in a regulatory filing today.
The state-backed fund will pay out £694m to the FTSE 100 firm, which is around one per cent lower than its book value in September last year.
The sold assets do not include Five Kingdom Street, its final plot of the Paddington Central development in Westminster.
British Land plans to use the proceeds to invest further into logistics spaces in London, and so-called innovation campuses, which are cropping up across the capital following work-from-home measures.
British Land first bought Paddington Central, a cluster of three buildings, retail and leisure sites and two development spaces, in 2013 for £470m. It has since sold 1 Sheldon Square for £210m in 2015 and 4 Kingdom Street in 2017.
It is the second deal between the pair, after GIC invested in the Broadgate development, another central London campus.
“We are pleased to invest in Paddington Central, a high-quality office-led mixed-use campus with retail and leisure uses,” GIC chief investment officer Lee Kok Sun said. “It is very well-located with connectivity to national rail services and key transport links to Heathrow, West London and Oxford.”
Tracy Stroh, Europe’s regional real estate lead at the sovereign fund, pointed to rising demand for new office space in London, as workers flock back to the city after a pandemic-induced hiatus.