Scottish properties bought in £240m deal

London and Scottish Property Investment Management purchased the collection of 30 mostly multi-let regional offices for £236m from Squarestone Growth LLP.

More than 90 per cent of the portfolio’s value comes from 27 regional office properties that provide around 1.6 million square feet of office space to 192 tenants.The balance comprises two industrial units of 120,000 sq ft, a residential property with 12 tenants, and a Tim Horton’s drive-thru restaurant at the St James Business Park in Paisley. The eight properties bought in Scotland include three offices in Glasgow (133 Finnieston Street, Buchanan Gate and Lightyear at Glasgow Airport), two in Paisley (St James Business Park and St James Business Centre), one in Edinburgh (Quantum Court) and one in Rosyth (Dundas House).

Stephen Inglis, chief executive of LSPIM, said: “This deal is a major milestone for us in terms of its scale, and sourcing it is testament to the strength of our network. Our asset management platform is based on a multi-disciplinary team of 62 professionals working across a range of disciplines including asset and property management, financial management, research, legal, corporate and corporate finance. Through the combined skills of our in-house team, we expect to achieve significant returns in terms of income growth and ongoing asset management initiatives.”

LSPIM declared that the deal “marks a significant step” in a strategy to focus its Regional REIT on “high-yielding office property that is either mis-priced in the market or offers significant asset management potential”.

It noted that more than 83% of its REIT portfolio, which was valued at £732.4m on December 31, is in office assets, adding that the small number of non-office assets in the Squarestone acquisition would be included in its ongoing disposal programme for non-core assets. The asset manager sold around £60m of industrial property in August.