Thames Valley: Chineham, Winnersh Triangle, Watchmoor business parks sold

Frasers Property International, a subsidiary of Frasers Centrepoint, has confirmed it has entered into sale-and-purchase agreements with Oaktree Capital Management to acquire a portfolio of four UK business parks for £686 million, as well as a separate deal to buy the Maxis business park in Bracknell for £57m subject to certain conditions.

The acquisition comprises 4.9m sq ft of built area across four freehold business park assets, including the 1.5m sq ft Winnersh Triangle in Reading (sold for £365m); Chineham Park, Basingstoke (£142m); Watchmoor Park, Camberley (£42m); and Hillington Park in Glasgow (£137m).

Separately, Frasers Property has also entered into a conditional agreement with Oaktree to acquire another business park, Maxis, Bracknell, subject to conditions relating to net operating yield and Maxis achieving an occupancy of at least 95%. If the conditions in the Maxis agreement are satisfied, completion of the acquisition will take place no later than 20 working days after June 29, 2018.

The net purchase price for the 199,000 sq ft Maxis development is £57m and Frasers Property intends to finance the deal in cash, funded from borrowings and internal resources.

Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, group chief executive officer of FCL, said: “The acquisition is in line with the group’s strategy to grow overseas presence and recurring income sources. The group has been in the UK and Europe for over 15 years, and we now extend our presence from the residential, hospitality, industrial and logistics sectors to include the commercial and business park sector."

He added: “We can also potentially benefit from the 'network effect', given that we are already in the industrial, logistics, commercial and business park sectors in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore and Thailand."

Standard Chartered Bank is the financial adviser to FCL for the acquisition.

Source: CoStar