Royal Bank of Scotland has found a buyer for an £800m portfolio of 63 properties at 10% lower than originally expected but indicates that real estate deals are possible despite the credit squeeze. Financial Times
The preferred bidder on the RBS portfolio is understood to be Prudential, the insurer, which has joined forces with William Pears, a private family-run investment group.
The sale and leaseback agreement comes after several other property deals have been abandoned in recent weeks, including the attempted sale of Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield by British Land.
William Pears and Prudential beat competition in the final round from Nick Leslau, the private property entrepreneur, working with HBOS. Other interested bidders had included Moorfield and Delancey, both private companies.
The 63 properties cover 2.1m sq ft and produce about £47m of annual rent, a yield of 5.5%.