SINGAPORE (Sept 11): Frasers Centrepoint Limited is acquiring four income-producing business parks in the United Kingdom for a purchase consideration of £686 million ($1.2 billion).

The acquisition comprises 4.9 million sf of built area across four freehold business park assets located near London and Glasgow. They are Winnersh Triangle, Reading; Chineham Park, Basingstoke; Watchmoor Park, Camberley; and Hillington Park, Glasgow.

With a total of 432 tenants, the properties have a total contracted rent of £46.5 million p.a. and 1.4 million sf in development area. Each property has an average WALE of 5.9 years. The properties also enjoy occupancy rates of over 85% and retention rates of around 80–85%.

Post-acquisition, FCL will have around $4.2 billion of assets in the UK and Europe, and commercial properties as a proportion of FCL’s $26.8 billion of total assets will increase to around 30% from 27%.

Frasers Property International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of FCL, signed the sale and purchase agreements with their sellers, each of which are subsidiaries of a fund or account managed by Oaktree Capital Management.

Frasers Property also entered into a conditional agreement with the vendor to acquire another business park, Maxis, Bracknell, subject to Maxis achieving a certain net operating yield and an occupancy of at least 95%.

Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, Group CEO of FCL, says, “The acquisition is in line with the group’s strategy to grow overseas presence and recurring income sources. The group has been in the UK and Europe for over 15 years, and we now extend our presence from the residential, hospitality, industrial and logistics sectors to include the commercial and business park sector.

This story, written by PC Lee, first appeared on The Edge Singapore