Hansteen sells industrials fund in £190m deal
HANSTEEN, the property company chaired by Hambro Bank scion James Hambro, has sold a second batch of UK industrial estates to former Camden Lock Markets owner Brockton Capital.
Brockton will join forces with Dunedin Property to take control of the 76 estates in Hansteen’s UK industrial property unit trust II as part of the £192m deal.
Hansteen launched the second of its unit trust range armed with £107m of equity firepower exactly two years ago as a joint venture with Aviva Investors.
Hansteen director UK James Havery said it was “hugely satisfying” to return the cash back to people who invested in the trust with “significant out-performance”.
Yesterday’s exit comes on the back of the sale of its first industrials fund last November, which was also sold to Brockton for £110.5m.
The sale will expand the size of Brockton’s industrial portfolio, which it began building three years ago in a joint venture with Dunedin. It had 115 estates totalling 10m square foot at the start of this year.
Brockton is well known for selling its stake in Camden Locks Market to Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi but it also hit the headlines last year with a development of high end residential flats close to Buckingham Palace.
FTSE 250-listed Hansteen was launched a decade ago by joint chief executives Ian Watson and Morgan Jones. It currently owns properties across UK, Germany, Holland, Belgium and France worth about £1.6bn.
Hansteen’s UK director Mark Ovens said yesterday’s unit trust sale would release cash back into the group for further investment.
“We are delighted with this result,” he said.