Investment company upbeat as it prepares to take over brownfield developer

PROPERTY investment company Coalfield Resources is upbeat about the health of the market as it prepares to take sole ownership of developer Harworth Estates.

Coalfield Resources announced in November that it would take the remaining 75.1% of the Rotherham-based developer, which has 27,000 acres predominantly made up of former coalfield sites and other brownfield land across the North and Midlands. It specialises in the regenerating those sites into employment areas, residential properties and low carbon energy projects.

The deal is valued at £150m, and will include a shareholding of between 25% and 29,9% in Coalfield Resources which will be created by a placing and open offer in the coming weeks.

Jonson Cox, chairman of Sheffield-based Coalfield Resources, said: “Re-establishing Harworth Estates within a single corporate structure will be a material step in the realisation of value from our brownfield property portfolio.”

Profits rose slightly in 2014, up £200,000 to £3.5m, while through Harworth it moved into the West Yorkshire market through its acquisition of the former RWE Npower power station at Skelton Grange, Leeds.

He added: “We continue to see good interest in the property sector. Harworth Estates is a beneficiary of this through the increased demand and improved prices for commercial and residential land.  This can be seen in both the valuation gains achieved and also the disposals made. The board is confident of the ability of our underlying asset, Harworth Estates, to deliver and grow shareholder value from the redevelopment of the former coalfields and other former industrial sites.”