Royal Bank of Scotland has sold more than £1bn worth of real estate in the past week, including the Strand office of the Queen’s bank, Coutts, in London. Sunday Telegraph
RBS has sold £800m of branches and offices to the Pears family through its Telereal vehicle and to Prupim.
The bidders are paying £400m each for RBS’s assets which are being split 50:50. Telereal, for example, will take the Coutts office, while 1 Princes Street in Edinburgh will go to Prupim.
The portfolio consists of about 60 properties, 2.1m sq ft overall, which generate £47m a year in rent. A quarter of the buildings are high street branches. Prupim bought its share in the deal, known as 'Project Acorn', with equity, while Telereal was backed by debt from Lloyds TSB and Eurohypo.
RBS has also sold a smaller portfolio of branches called Liberty 3, thought to be worth about £225m, to Joseph Ackerman, the private investor who bought the first two Liberty portfolios from the bank. Cushman & Wakefield advised RBS.