Last year was a busy one for
Legal & General’s UK commercial property unit, Legal &
General Property (LGP), with 37 deals worth a total of £1.7bn
($2.6bn) completed.
The total was made up of 19
purchases totalling £970m, the largest being the Rolls Building in
London for £305m, and 18 sales totalling £710m.
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The high level of activity is
set to continue.
“With considerable fire power
at our disposal, we feel that we are well placed to continue to
capitalise on opportunities in the UK market as they unfold in
2012,” said Gordon Aitchison, LGP’s director of investment and
development.
He continued: “With strong
expectations of forced deleveraging, failed refinances and banks
required to raise capital, we believe that this year will not only
present some attractive investments but that there will also
continue to be more interesting opportunities where we can use the
depth and breadth of our platform to unlock potential.”
LGP reports that it raised
£1.4bn of new equity in 2011, including capital secured from new
sources which include major international institutional investors
in the Middle East, Asia and Scandinavia.
LGP is the third-largest institutional property fund
manager in the UK and at the end of 2011had total assets under
management of £10.5bn.
