Land Securities Trillium today sealed a phenomenal first quarter of investment activity by confirming the acquisitions of the Royal Mail and Accor Hotels portfolios for a total £509m.

Beating off strong competition from more than a dozen rival bidders, the outsourcing arm of the UK’s biggest REIT has bought 285 properties from the Royal Mail for around £70m.

Around 177 of the properties are freehold and will be leased back to Royal Mail on 15 year leases. The remaining 108 of the properties are vacant and surplus to Royal Mail’s operations. Trillium intends to refurbish these properties with a view to securing new occupiers.

Ian Elllis, chief executive of Trillium said: ‘We hope this [deal with the Royal Mail] will be the start of a long and mutually beneficial relationship. We have released capital for Royal Mail while providing them with a flexible operational structure and relieving them of the burden of surplus space.’

In the second deal, Trillium has bought 30 hotels from Accor for £439m.

It will lease each hotel back to Accor on 84-year leases and assume responsibility for the lifecycle maintenance of the core fabric of the buildings. The 30 hotels, which are

operated under the IBIS two-star and Novotel three-star brands, are located in established city centre locations across the UK, with a weighting towards London.

Ellis added: ‘This acquisition demonstrates the flexibility of Land Securities’ business model and advances our strategy of providing property solutions to leading corporations and government institutions.’