Birchwood Park changes hands in £430m deal
MEPC, the property developer, has sold the 1.2m sq ft Birchwood Business Park near Warrington as part of a £430m deal which has seen it also dispose of assets in Basingstoke and Glasgow.
The new owner is funds managed by US fir, Oaktree Capital Management and German investorPatrizia Immobilien. MEPC instructed JLL to sell Birchwood, Chineham Park in Basingstoke, and Hillington Park in Glasgow in May and has achieved an initial yield of 7.3% with the deal.
Chris Taylor, chief executive of Hermes Real Estate and chairman of MEPC said: “We are delighted to confirm the sale of these three relatively mature estates, which have been well managed by the MEPC team for many years, at a point in the cycle when we are seeking to redeploy capital and invest into estates that will benefit from what we regard as the emerging growth sectors of the UK economy.”
MEPC, which is keen to invest in science and technology parks, will continue to manage four business parks including the £500m technology park at Silverstone. It has also began development at Wellington Place, Leeds.
Rob Brook of Patrizia Immobilien said: “This considerable acquisition adds three high quality assets to our expanding UK-wide portfolio. Each of the three parks provide significant development opportunities within growing regional markets, which, working alongside Oaktree, we aim to maximise over the next few years through additional investment and asset management initiatives.”
Hermes Real Estate was represented by JLL, while Strutt & Parker and Ryden acted on behalf of Oaktree and Patrizia Immobilien.
MEPC acquired the 72-acre site from the Atomic Energy AUthority in 1998, and began an extensive development of Birchwood, which is home to 5,000 people working at 150 companies based across the 123-acre site.
