Capital & Counties pulls trigger on Covent Garden demerger – Capital & Counties has today announced its intention to launch its Covent Garden holdings as a central London focused REIT.
Under the proposals Capco will create two central London estates, Covent Garden London and EC Properties, which will be made up of its Earls Court estate. The company said Covent Garden was now of a scale and income profile to be strongly positioned as a central London focused REIT.
It said EC Properties aims to optimise and realise the value of the land interests over time. The company said it had received a broad range of interest from investors to acquire Earls Court at a range of discounts to the balance sheet value.
Subject to shareholder approval, completion of the demerger is expected by the end of the year.
Under the proposals, current Capco chief executive Ian Hawksworth would become chief executive of the new REIT with current Capco chairman Henry Staunton in the same post.
EC Properties would be led by Mike Hood, the current managing director of Earls Court. The chairman would be Gerry Murphy, who is currently a senior independent non-executive director at Capco.
The plans were announced alongside full-year results which showed a 3.3% decline in NAV to 315p over the past six months. The value of the Earls Court estate fell by 11.5% to £599m over the period.
CAPC : Capital & Counties pulls trigger on Covent Garden demerger