Spinningfields blocks sold in £300m deal
M&G Real Estate has acquired 500,000 sq ft of office space across two blocks in Spinningfields in a deal which could be worth around £300m, said to be Manchester’s biggest ever property investment transaction.
The 350,000 sq ft 1 Hardman Boulevard and the 150,000 sq ft 1 Spinningfields Square, both occupied by the Royal Bank of Scotland, were up for sale after the nominee companies that owned them on behalf of London investor Matrix went into administration.
Both offices are let to RBS for another 23 years and are said to have attracted strong interest as the investment market in the city heats up. The value of the deal has not been disclosed but is understood to be around £320m – a Manchester record and the largest regional investment deal of the year. The Matrix companies had an exposure to their lender, which was RBS, of £400m.
1 Spinningfields Square has been bought on behalf of a client fund of M&G Real Estate and 1 Hardman Boulevard was purchased on behalf of a third party institutional client of M&G Investments. The EY Real Estate corporate finance team and Savills were appointed to handle the sale.
Alan Bloom, Ben Cairns and Craig Lewis of EY were appointed joint administrators to Plot 101 Nominee Limited, Plot 101 Nominee 2 Limited, Plot 403-405 Nominee Limited and Plot 403-405 Nominee 2 Limited. They are all owned by London-based Matrix Spinningfields, a joint venture between Robert Randall and Matrix Securities which went into administration in 2012.
Ben Cairns, joint administrator, said: “I am pleased to have exchanged on the sale of the Spinningfields assets. The sales process has achieved an excellent outcome for the creditors and the timescale within which the transaction has been concluded has resulted in minimal disruption for the tenant, for whom these are strategically important operational assets.”
A creditors’ report into the collapse of the companies said RBS was owed nearly £400m because it funded the acquisition and development of the properties by Matrix in 2002. Its loans matured in June 2013 and RBS appointed an administrator in April when repayment talks stalled.
