Workspace Regulatory News (WKP)

11 Apr 2006 07:00

Workspace Group PLC11 April 2006 WORKSPACE ANNOUNCES FIVE ACQUISITIONs AND SUCCESSFUL PLANNING CONSENT Workspace Group PLC ("Workspace"), the leading provider of flexible businessaccommodation to small and medium sized enterprises in London today announces anupdate on property investments made in the last quarter of its financial year. Acquisitions Since 1 January 2006, Workspace has invested £32 million in five new propertyacquisitions which compliment its existing portfolio of sites in London. Theproperties are: •Sundial Court, Tolworth in Kingston upon Thames - a modern courtyard office scheme of twenty units totalling 26,174 sq ft bought for £5.15 million and yielding 7.5% with rental guarantees on the vacant units. •Horton Road Industrial Estate, West Drayton, Hillingdon. This property comprises a 1950s industrial estate of 41,495 sq ft in nine units on a site of 1.9 acres. The purchase price was £4.037 million. The initial yield is 7.2%. •Park Royal Portfolio, NW10 - a portfolio of five small unit industrial and office buildings, including the well known Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road. The total floorspace is 85,568 sq ft which produces a rental income of £827,645 per annum and is currently 89% occupied. This represents an average passing rent of £10.80 sq.ft. The purchase price was £14 million. The net initial yield is 5.6% rising to a potential of 7.2%. The property also benefits from planning consents for roof top extensions, which will increase the scale of the lettable space by 32,262 sq ft. €10 Bowling Green lane, Clerkenwell, EC1 - a former late Victorian school which has been converted to provide 13,933 sq ft of small unit offices in eleven units. The property is situated immediately adjacent to Workspace's Clerkenwell Workshops scheme on Clerkenwell Close. The building has been acquired for £4.5 million. The initial yield is 5.5% with one unit vacant. This is expected to rise on rent reversions to 7%. •Langdale House, 11 Marshalsea Rd, Borough, SE1 - This property has been acquired from Spacia. It comprises a late Victorian warehouse which has been converted into forty two office suites and five meeting rooms totalling 12,282 sq ft. The acquisition cost was £4 million. Workspace expects that the property will generate a net income of £278,000 the first year, representing a net initial yield of 6.6%. This is expected to rise to in excess of 8%. Planning Approval Workspace also announces that working with its partner Ashford DevelopmentsLimited, its planning application for a mixed use scheme at its site on theThurston Road Industrial Estate, Lewisham, SE13 has been conditionally approved. The Lewisham Planning Committee has resolved to grant outline consent forWorkspace's plan to redevelop the 2.6 acre site to create a scheme that includes98,642 sq ft of retail space laid out on two levels, 18,051 sq ft of live-workspace and 271 residential units. The new scheme will be one of the firstdevelopments in the UK to combine large format non-food retail in a mixed usescheme in a town centre location. Harry Platt, Workspace Chief Executive commented, " We have continued to invest the proceeds from the £42 million disposal of theportfolio of properties outside the M25, which we completed in January. Our aimhas been to invest in properties in our core market in central London that offersignificant scope for improvement in rental income and a subsequent increase incapital values. I am confident that these properties which we have added to theportfolio, will respond well to our style of intensive management. " We are delighted to have secured outline planning for our development schemein Lewisham. This is another example of the group's ability to realise furthervalue from our property portfolio. We have a number of other schemes in thepipeline and we expect to accelerate progress on a number of projects during theyear. " Looking forward, we continue to track a large number of properties in centralLondon that match our requirements. We are continuing with our strategy ofgrowing the scale of our portfolio, together with expanding the range of stylesof accommodation that we can offer. In the past few years, we have focused oncreating clusters of properties in areas of London that are particularlyattractive to SMEs. We have a number of sites under offer and I look forward toupdating shareholders on further progress in the near future." -ends- Date: 11 April 2006 For further information contact: Workspace Group PLC cityPROFILEHarry Platt, Chief Executive Simon CourtenayMark Taylor, Finance Director Andrew Harris020-7247-7614 020-7448-3244e-mail: info@workspacegroup.co.ukweb: www.workspacegroup.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange