Press Association
Saturday 11th February 2012
The distinctive Tudor-style building occupied by upmarket London department store Liberty has been sold in a deal worth £41.5 million.
In a sign of increasing demand for prime freehold property assets in central London, Liberty said the price represented a "significant surplus" on the valuation of £30.25 million placed on the flagship store in December.
Under the proposed agreement, it will lease back the building and continue to operate from the 125,000 sq ft site on Great Marlborough Street, off Regent Street.
Details on the new owner have not been disclosed, although reports said the buyer was a German private investor.
The sale-and-leaseback deal is expected to pave the way for a £40 million takeover of the Liberty retail business, which is 68% owned by property firm MWB. It is thought that Marco Capello, the former managing director of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, is in talks to buy the business through his investment fund BlueGem Capital Partners.
Liberty will use the proceeds from the proposed sale to repay bank debt and other liabilities, including short-term loans from MWB. It has agreed a 30-year lease on the building at an initial annual rent of £2.1 million.
It added that trading remained strong after it revealed in January that revenues for last year grew 20%, including a 16% rise at the flagship store following a particularly strong Christmas.
