Australian construction and development giant Lendlease is exiting its UK, U.S. and European businesses, a move that will see several huge projects sold or passed on to new developers.
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Lendlease said in a stock exchange announcement that it would focus on its Australian construction and development business as well as its international real estate investment management business.
The move will mean exiting its UK and U.S. construction interests and its development businesses in those two countries and continental Europe. The construction business will be put up for sale in the next 18 months.
In a presentation to analysts, Lendlease said it had put assets and schemes it will exit into three buckets.
Some land will be sold straight away, along with completed units at residential projects it has already built. In the UK, this includes land and units at Deptford Landings in south east London and completed units at Elephant Park, south London; Wandsworth in south west London; and Potato Wharf in Manchester.
In the U.S., land and units will be sold at Southbank and Lakeshore East in Chicago and Hayes Point in San Francisco.
The second bucket comprises schemes that it is undertaking with joint venture partners. Some of those will be sold, and some will be transferred to its investment management business. Those projects include the Stratford Cross office scheme in east London; the Elephant Park for-sale apartment project in south London; 1 Java Street, a residential project in New York; Habitat, a mixed-use scheme in Los Angeles; and Forum, a life sciences scheme in Boston.
It will also continue to buy existing assets in the UK and U.S. if its investors agree.
The final bucket involves large projects where Lendlease is master developer, often those in which public sector bodies or governments own the land. The company said that it would continue to manage these schemes to achieve planning permission or undertake remediation works before handing them over to new developers.
These projects include Euston Station, Thamesmead, Silvertown, Stratford Cross and High Road West in London. They also include Smithfield in Birmingham.
Lendlease will sell its U.S. military housing business with immediate effect.
Lendlease said it was making the changes to focus on its interests in Australia, where it makes a higher margin, and to free up capital from markets where investment returns are not as high.
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