UK - British Land has sold Abbey's London headquarters to the banking giant for £115m (€126.4m).

Abbey, a division of Spain's Grupo Santander, is the sole occupier of the 200,000ft building at 2-3 Triton Square in Regent's Place and holds a lease expiring in April 2011.

"The sale is in line with our strategy to recycle capital towards opportunities which will offer greater risk-adjusted returns in the future," said Tim Roberts, director of British Land and head of offices.

The sale of Triton Square reflected a net initial yield of 7.2% and follows British Land's announcement in February that it was launching a £740m rights issue and selling a 50% interest in the freehold of the Meadowhall Shopping Centre near Sheffield, to boost the company's liquidity.

Jones Lang LaSalle and SJ Berwin, a European law firm, acted on behalf of British Land.

Abbey's passing rent is currently £8.68m per annum.

Regent's Place is currently made up of five buildings and includes one million sq.ft of office, retail and leisure space, although this is set to double.

The latest developments, Regent's Place One and Regent's Place Two are due to be completed later this year.

British Land will continue to manage and maintain all the properties in Regent's Place.

As of December 2008, British Land had £13.7bn of assets owned or under management, making it one of the largest Real Estate Investment Trusts in the UK.

Its portfolio is made up of 59% retail properties, 39% offices and around 5% new retail and office developments.

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