British Land to raise £500m development war chest

Developer British Land has announced plans to raise £500m to fund its continuing investment and development programme.

It said the issuing of shares would be used to pay for £213m of recent acquisitions and £150m of acquisitions in an advanced stage of negotiations, with the remainder used to fund other acquisitions and the build-out of the £250m of as yet uncommitted development opportunities in its existing pipeline.

British Land said: “The remainder of the proceeds of the Placing will be invested in the Company’s substantial pipeline of further acquisition opportunities, many of which have been monitored for some time, as well as potentially to some of the identified, but uncommitted development opportunities within the existing portfolio, which are concentrated in London, and currently stand at approximately £250 million.

The firm also announced plans to sell its recent Ropemaker development, now let, to a consortium of investors led by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers for £472m. It said these proceeds could also be re-invested in development.

Tim Roberts, head of offices at British Land said: “The sale reflects the attractiveness of our buildings to investors as well as occupiers and allows us to recycle capital to invest in our development programme.”