Arada Acquires Regal And Plans To Triple Pipeline: The London Deal Sheet

The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email mark.faithfull@bisnow.com.

United Arab Emirates-based developer Arada has completed the acquisition of a 75% stake in residential-led mixed-use developer Regal.

Arada is committing an initial £500M of capital to acquire and invest in the Regal business, accelerating the delivery of its residential-led pipeline in London over the next two years. The move is Arada’s entry into the UK and second international expansion.

Regal will become Arada London, and the delivery of Regal’s existing 10,000-unit residential pipeline is expected to be more than tripled over the next three years, Arada said.

“London is one of the world’s leading cities, and our expansion into this market represents a strategic step for Arada in response to the strong demand for residential space,” Arada Chairman Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi said in a statement.

The value of Arada’s projects across both the UAE and Australia amounts to more than £19B, featuring over 42,000 units, with more than 10,000 of those already delivered, the company said. 

DEALS

Royal London Asset Management Property has acquired a 54-acre logistics site in Northampton’s Brackmills Industrial Estate. The acquisition will anchor a major new development within the company’s logistics portfolio with an estimated gross development value of £340M.

The site will become Royal London Asset Management Property’s largest logistics development. Working with Graftongate, the industrial and logistics development manager, Royal London Asset Management Property plans to deliver over 1.25M SF of prime logistics space. 

The freehold site includes an existing 313K SF distribution warehouse, available for lease on short, flexible terms.

Royal London Asset Management Property has £3.2B in industrial assets across the UK.

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Target Healthcare has disposed of nine UK care homes for £85.9M, above carrying value, to an unnamed institutional purchaser and completed its debt refinancing.

The transaction is the company’s largest disposal since its initial public offering and was transacted at an 11.6% premium to the group’s carrying value as at 30 June, with an implied net initial yield of 5.24%.

The care homes totalled 537 beds and circa 8.3% of the group’s overall portfolio value as at 30 June. The deal reduces exposure to its current largest tenant, HC One/Ideal Carehomes, from about 16% to about 9% based on rental income.

FUNDING

QuadReal Property Group has expanded its commercial real estate debt platform in the UK and Ireland. Over the next three to five years, QuadReal intends to commit more than £2.5B, with the potential to further expand into other European markets.

The expanded platform, focused solely on direct lending, follows the model of QuadReal’s North American debt business, which manages more than £7.5B in investments.

“In alignment with QuadReal’s high conviction investment strategy and global experience, the expanded platform will focus on key sectors including multifamily, student housing, data centres, industrial and self storage,” QuadReal Managing Director Debt Investments Prashant Raj said in a statement.

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Schroders Capital has launched a new self-storage investment platform called The Self Storage Partnership.

It has launched with an initial investment of more than £100M from existing institutional and wealth clients, including local government pension scheme investors and the Schroders Capital Semi-Liquid Global Real Estate Total Return Fund. Clients will be able to invest in a private REIT structure, enabling it to scale and grow efficiently.

The launch provides investors, including existing Schroders Capital clients and funds, with access to dedicated self-storage investment and operational expertise, the company said.

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Canada Life Asset Management has completed a £60M senior real estate loan to existing borrower Hargreaves Group. The new facility provides the Hargreaves Group with additional resources to support further acquisitions and a development pipeline and invest in the existing portfolio for its commercial property portfolio across the south-east of England. 

The loan is secured against a portfolio of commercial assets, including trade counters, industrial and logistics units, retail warehouses and offices. The facility is on a nine-year term with a fixed interest rate extending to 2034. 

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Fiera Real Estate Debt Strategies, an affiliate of Fiera Capital Corporation, has provided a £36M senior development facility to a partnership between Chancerygate and Bridges Fund Management for the delivery of a new urban logistics and multilet industrial scheme in Erdington, Birmingham.

The project, named Torque, will transform a 12-acre former factory site into a Grade A development comprising 22 units across 270K SF, with individual unit sizes ranging from 4,500 SF to 33K SF. The scheme will target BREEAM Excellent and EPC A+ ratings as a minimum. 

PLANNING

Planning approval has been granted for the expansion of Sky Studios Elstree, Sky’s film and TV studio, financed and developed by L&G. The approval, which will add a further 10 stages to the complex in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, is expected to attract £2B of production investment to the UK within the first five years of operation.

Sky Studios Elstree will grow to 22 stages across 65 acres for a total of 470K SF of stage space for filming, having first opened in 2022 and having already hosted productions including Wicked starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Paddington in Peru, and Jurassic World: Rebirth.

PEOPLE

M&G Investments has appointed Ruth Jackson as head of UK investment management in its £34B real estate investment division.

Jackson will be responsible for managing bespoke mandates and creating new investment solutions as well as driving asset management performance across M&G’s UK commercial property portfolio. She will report to Peter Riley, head of UK commercial and capital solutions at M&G Real Estate. Jackson has joined M&G from Hines, where she was managing director, investment management.

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Aviva Investors has appointed Hannah Butler as assistant fund manager within its real estate equity team. In the newly created role, she will be based in London and report to Ed Fuller, senior fund manager, real estate, with a focus on supporting performance delivery across Aviva Investors’ UK real estate equity funds.

Butler has joined Aviva Investors from Knight Frank, where she spent four years in its portfolio investment team.