Canmoor buys business parks in £70m deal

COMMERCIAL property group Canmoor has bought a pair of business parks in Leeds and Birmingham for £70m, allowing the previous owner to pay off £46.5m of debt, according to Property Week.

Arlington Business Parks Partnership, a specialist fund for business parks that was launched by Goodman and Legal & General Property in 2003, has sold its remaining stake in Birmingham Business Park to Canmoor. Canmoor has also bought 150,000 sq ft of office space at Lawnswood Business Park in Leeds, which was also owned by Arlington.

Bupa Care Homes, Zurich Insurance, Lloyds and Kuehne & Nagel are among the West Yorkshire park’s tenants.

London’s Canmoor has formed a joint venture with private investment fund JCAM to invest in business parks. In August, the pair bought multi-let industrial estate Saxon Way near Heathrow from M&G Real Estate for around £20m.

A stock market announcement made earlier this month revealed Arlington Business Parks Partnership had been able to make a £46.5m debt repayment to Wells Fargo as a result of the sales.

The payment follows an £800m refinancing, which was undertaken by the partnership in 2007.

Tudor Toone acted for Canmoor.