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Land Securities Group PLC on Monday said it has sold a London office block to Arora Group leaving its disposal programme ‘ahead’ of initial expectations. Shares in the London-based commercial property development and investment company were up 0.1% to 574.50 pence in London early Monday. The FTSE 100 listing said it has sold its Queen Anne’s Mansions office block in Victoria, London, to Arora for £245 million cash, a deal which is ‘immediately accretive’ to return on equity. Arora is a London Heathrow Airport-based firm that specialises in property, construction, hotel asset management. Land Securities said the sale marks significant early progress on its objective to release £2 billion of capital from offices by 2030, as part of its strategy to focus its portfolio on assets which can deliver ‘sustainable income and [earnings per share] growth over the long term.’ QAM was developed by Land Securities in the 1970’s and is currently fully let to the UK Ministry of Justice on a lease expiring in December 2028. The company said the the disposal will reduce EPRA earnings for financial 2026 by £7 million and for financial 2027 by £15 million. EPRA earnings from financial 2028 onwards are largely unaffected by the sale, with ‘upside potential as and when proceeds are reinvested in accretive acquisitions’. The sale, for which Landsec has received a 10% non-refundable deposit, is expected to complete in early December. The sale price compares to an expected book value at that time of £256 million. It reduces Landsec’s 38.4% pro-forma March 2025 loan to value by 1.3 percentage points. Chief Executive Mark Allan said: ‘This sale provides strong evidence of the continuing recovery in the central London investment market and allows us to crystallise a full value for this off-strategy asset much sooner than we had envisaged.’ Including QAM, overall disposals since March 31 total around £500 million, ‘ahead of our initial expectations’, Allan said. In March, Land Securities sold Lakeside Retail Park, Thurrock for a headline price of £114 million. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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