Capco joint venture sells last asset

By Nick Hedley

London- and JSE-listed Capital & Counties Properties (Capco) said on Wednesday that its joint venture with London-listed Great Portland Estates had sold its last remaining asset.

The joint venture‚ known as The Great Capital Partnership‚ sold its mixed-use Park Crescent West asset in London’s west end to PCW Property Holding for £105m.

Great Capital Partnership chairman and Capco CEO Ian Hawksworth said that following the sale of Park Crescent East in April 2012‚ this disposal represented “the culmination of The Great Capital Partnership’s asset sales”.

“In line with the strategy‚ it allows significant capital to be returned to the joint venture partners for reallocation within their respective groups‚” Hawksworth said.

Capco said the sale price was 8.6% ahead of both the December 2012 and March 2013 valuations‚ “and reflects a net initial yield of about 2% and a capital value of £813 per square foot on the net internal area”.

Park Crescent West includes 77/83 Portland Place‚ 16 Park Crescent‚ 18/25 Park Crescent‚ 22 Park Crescent and 26 Park Crescent.

The crescent is a mix of commercial‚ court and residential properties and has a net internal area of 129‚165 square feet.

Current tenants include the Royal Institute of British Architects‚ the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators‚ and the Secretary of State for the Environment.

The properties generate an annual income of about £2.2m and are held on a long lease from The Crown Estate expiring in December 2157 at a current ground rent of £15‚000 a year.

Capco’s JSE-listed shares were 2.05% higher at R48.75 on Wednesday afternoon while Great Portland Estates’ shares on the London Stock Exchange were 1.48% better at £5.13.

In May Capco acquired control of 100% of the Empress State Building‚ a skyscraper office building in London. It exchanged contracts with Land Securities Group for the 50% it did not already own‚ for £117m.

Capco’s core portfolio consists of Covent Garden — a retail‚ leisure and residential district in London — and the mixed-use Earls Court & Olympia‚ also in London.

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