Frasers Property Buying Cisco UK Headquarters for £135M

Frasers Property is betting on the UK’s tech sector as it adds another commercial asset to its Great Britain portfolio, according to an announcement today to the Singapore stock exchange by the developer controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.

The developer has signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire Lakeshore, a business park in suburban London, for £135 million ($177.44 million), according to the statement, with Mingtiandi having identified the seller as UK private investment bank Evans Randall.

Frasers will be adding the property’s 272,000 square feet (25,270 square metres) of lettable area to its existing set of six UK business parks, as the Singapore-based firm continues to seek out European property assets.

Adding a Seventh UK Business Park

Frasers is funding the purchase of the office complex in Bedfont Lakes, Feltham, Middlesex from its own internal resources, according to the statement, with the purchase price equal to £496 per square foot of lettable area. The three building freehold property is leased on a long-term basis to networking giant Cisco Systems, which uses the business park as its UK headquarters campus.

Evans Randall, which has invested in such high profile UK projects as the Gherkin in the City of London and 5 Canada Square on Canary Wharf, had purchased the Lakeshore in 2006 for £156 million, in what was then a record deal.

The purchase of the Lakeshore, which is located just over 20 miles (32 kilometres west of central London along the Great South-West Road, comes over two years after Frasers bought a set of five business parks near London and Glasgow for £686 million.

In purchasing that set of properties from US fund manager Oaktree Capital Management, Frasers CEO Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi commented at the time that, “The Acquisition is in line with the Group’s strategy to grow overseas presence and recurring income sources.”

Singapore Still Loves the UK

With this latest acquisition, Frasers has continued a string of European property purchases as the company, like many of its Singapore competitors, looks for value in property assets in the UK and in continental unit.

Earlier this month, Frasers’ industrial division completed the purchase of a pair of industrial properties in Germany that were part of a set of 22 assets acquired through its $353 million takeover of developer Alpha Industrial in 2018.

In December, Singapore Press Holdings added to its portfolio of UK assets by purchasing a portfolio of student housing near some of the country’s top universities for £448 million to add 2,383 beds to its existing set of student properties.

That late year deal was preceded in July 2019 by Singapore’s Stamford Land Corporation, in a joint venture with a private firm controlled by its chairman, acquiring 8 Finsbury Circus in the City of London for £260 million to make its UK debut.