Derwent London Plc (LON:DLN) today announced it has exchanged contracts to sell the freehold of The Buckley Building, 49 Clerkenwell Green EC1 to clients of CBRE Global Investors for £103.0m before costs. The 85,100 sq ft office building is multi-let producing a ‘topped-up’ income of £4.87m representing a net yield to the purchaser of 4.43%. The disposal price net of costs and potential top-ups is £99.6m, 4.8% above December 2018 book value.
The building was acquired in 2007 and completely refurbished in 2013. The refurbishment with architects Buckley Gray Yeoman increased the lettable area by c.10,000 sq ft utilising redundant atrium space, added new external terraces and repositioned the entrance to face Clerkenwell Green. The sales price was achieved following recent active management initiatives increasing income through rent reviews and a lease extension.
Paul Williams, Chief Executive at Derwent London, said:
“The disposal of The Buckley Building is a further example of our strategy of selling mature assets. This disposal takes our total sales so far this year to over £180m, proceeds of which will be recycled into our substantial on-site development programme.”
