Johnston Press sells Telegraph House for £3.6m
Johnston Press has sold Telegraph House on York Street, Sheffield, for £3.6m.
It has been sold to Toscafield Property 2, based in London, part of a group controlled by Martin Brian Hughes, a real estate investor who has previously worked for Barclays Investment Management and Panmure Gordon as a banks sector research analyst, according to Bloomberg.
Completion is expected by 30 June 2017.
The grade II-listed house was constructed in 1890 and was originally home to the Sheffield Telegraph.
It houses retail units on street level with offices and commercial space above. It is currently home to some of the Johnston Press editorial and sales staff, who will remain in the building for a transitional period before moving to new premises.
The Sheffield property has a book value of £1.9m and the disposal will result in a gain on disposal of £1.7m before fees, said Johnston Press.
Johnston Press has introduced similar cost-cutting easures, including selling the Yorkshire Post building on Wellington Street in Leeds to occupy a few floors in a Whitehall Road site.
The publisher, which owns the Yorkshire Evening Post, the Scotsman and i newspaper recently wrote down the value of its publishing and print assets by £344m, an impairment charge turned a £2.2m pre-tax profit in 2015 into the £300m loss last year. Total sales fell 8% to £222m last year.
