International law firm SJ Berwin is delighted to announce that its Real Estate practice has advised long standing client British Land on the sale of Ropemaker Place, London EC2 to a consortium of investors for £472 million. The consortium was represented by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers.

The offices are fully let on an average lease length of 14 years, with key tenants including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International, Markit, Liberum Capital and Macquarie Group, at a day one contractual rent of £24.05 million per annum, rising to £27.5 million per annum at first reviews.  At 30 September 2012, Ropemaker Place was valued at £455 million, with current passing rents of £0.9 million and accounting rent of £21 million.

The sale is in line with British Land’s strategy of rebalancing their portfolio between the West End and the City. British Land will redeploy the proceeds of the sale into new investments as well as into their existing development programme and we look forward to supporting British Land in implementing this strategy.

This sale demonstrates further the flourishing relationship between British Land and SJ Berwin across both office and retail portfolios.  We were delighted to secure the mandates for the key office development pipeline of 10 Portman Square, Marble Arch House and the Leadenhall Building in 2012 which complemented an exceptionally busy year at Broadgate with the regears of Herbert Smith and ICAP, new lettings at 10 Portman Square and the recent acquisition of Ealing Broadway shopping centre.

The transaction was led by Real Estate partners Bryan Pickup and Darren Rogers  and Corporate Real Estate partner Michael Goldberg assisted by associates Barri Mendelsohn, Patrick Williams, Rachel Burns and Elizabeth Calvert.

Bryan Pickup, International Head of Real Estate at SJ Berwin, said: “We are delighted to have completed this high value, high profile deal for British Land, who we cherish as a key client for the firm.”

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