Mailbox co-owner involved in £35.6m Birmingham business park deal
A JOINT venture between Mailbox co-owner Brockton Capital and property investor Hansteen has acquired Saltley Business Park in Birmingham for £35.6m.
Hansteen will continue to manage the scheme.
Saltley Business Park has a passing rent of £2.4m per annum, a contracted rent of £3m per annum and a void of 2.05% (20,920 sq ft).
Morgan Jones, joint chief executive of Hansteen, said: “We are delighted to have established a new partnership with Brockton Capital at Saltley Business Park and look forward to working with them on what is a significant and strategically important landholding in Birmingham.
“The site has a history of being traded at very high prices and whilst it falls into the zone of influence of HS2, we believe the property and its business plan has a strong future, not least because of its strong income profile based off conservative levels.”
The deal forms part of an announcement by Hansteen revealing the sale of the Hansteen UK Industrial Property Unit Trust, a UK multi-let industrial property portfolio, in two transactions for a total of £146.1m.
The 41 assets in HPUT other than Saltley Business Park have been acquired by a fund advised by Brockton Capital in a partnership with Dunedin Property for £110.5m.
HPUT was launched in July 2009 with £90m of equity from Hansteen and five institutional investors. On exit it comprised 42 assets across England, Wales and Scotland with a combined floor area of 3.04m sq ft.
Additionally the fund had 25.7 acres of development land.
Mark Ovens, director UK of Hansteen said: “We launched HPUT to take advantage of the economic downturn which had resulted in high levels of distress throughout the sector.
“Acquisitions were made up to December 2011, predominantly from situations where banks were involved. Intensive asset management and some smaller sales followed before the final exit.
“It is tremendously satisfying to have launched the fund, met the investment return objectives and returned the capital to unit holders within the timescale envisaged at the outset.”
Tony Edgley of Brockton Capital – co-owner of Birmingham leisure and retail scheme the Mailbox – said: ” This is a first class, geographically diversified portfolio with excellent credit risk and a wide range of properties for all types of light industrial, storage and business users across a range of sectors.
“It also gives us the opportunity of working in partnership with Hansteen at Saltley Business Park. This is the first in a number of light industrial estate acquisitions that we are likely to undertake.”
