Property developer Berkeley has acquired the National Grid’s stake in a realty joint venture for £412.5m.
The London-listed house builder snapped up the remaining 50 per cent interest in its St William Homes joint venture, it announced on Tuesday.
Rob Perrins, Berkeley’s chief executive said: “The vision of our innovative partnership was to take National Grid’s redundant gasholder sites and stitch them back into their local communities; transforming them into well-connected, nature rich, beautiful places with low carbon homes and new amenities.”
Now was the perfect time for the acquisition as there are now 24 sites in St William, Perrins added.
“The acquisition continues Berkeley’s philosophy of investing at the right time in the cycle for the long-term, securing unrivalled land holdings in London and the South-East,” he said.
Berkeley shares were down more than two per cent on Tuesday afternoon.
The developer said last week that it was on track to meet its performance targets despite a “volatile” trading environment with soaring costs and pressure on the company’s supply chain.
Berkeley said it expected forward sales to be above £1.7bn when it posted full year results, while net cash was forecast to be around £50m higher than the figure the firm reported at its half-year update in October.
Through the acquisition, Berkeley will gain full control of 19 sites already in its land holdings, two sites already in its near-term pipeline and three new long-term sites.
This represents more than 20,000 future homes across 24 sites in total.
The transaction will continue to support some 28,000 UK jobs directly and indirectly through the developer’s supply chain, bosses said on Tuesday.
In a note to investors, Investec described the acquisition as “a sensible and well-timed deal.”
The note said “risks around price paid and expected volume and profit delivery should be mitigated by the fact that the group knows the business well and has owned 50 per cent of the JV since it was established in 2014.”
This article was posted on www.cityam.com
National Tools UK is a digital procurement solution for the Construction industry. Connecting Contractors nationally, to Suppliers locally for Tool, Plant & Equipment Hire and Purchasing of Building Materials & Products for site.
The Construction industry has traditional problems to overcome during the procurement process such as too many Touch Points, Rising Costs, Lack of Compliance, Social Value requirements and servicing New Locations.
The National Tools UK platform allows seamless matching of Contractors and Suppliers, with simplicity at the core. Achieved by using an All in One Place Dashboard, Filtered Matching Process, Live Chat, Archives and data driven Reporting.
The platform offers an instant matching process for Contractors and Suppliers, makes the most of existing agreements and new relationships whilst allowing both parties to remain in control with an easy to use dashboard.
Visit our website here: www.ntuk.co.uk
