UK land and property regeneration group Harworth has sold a strategic land site in St Helens, Merseyside to Tritax Big Box Developments, in line with book value. Financial details were undisclosed.
Harworth stated that the transation further evidences that it is progressing with “key initiatives to create a simpler, lower-cost and higher-returning platform”.
The site is situated in a highly sought-after industrial and logistics location, with direct access to Junction 22 of the M6, close to the M62 interchange, and within the Liverpool City Region Freeport. The land is allocated in the St Helens Local Plan and will form part of TBBD’s plans for its Intermodal Logistics Park North Strategic Rail Freight Interchange.
Jonathan Haigh, chief investment officer at Harworth, said: “This transaction demonstrates continued strong demand for industrial & logistics strategic land and evidences Harworth’s acceleration of key initiatives to create a simpler, lower-cost and higher-returning platform.
“By crystallising value from a mature strategic land asset, we are now able to recycle the capital into higher-returning opportunities aligned to powered land and industrial growth sectors.”
Separeately, the board of London-listed Harworth rejected an increased cash offer for the group by Peel Bidco.
Peel Bidco inceased its offer from 172.5 pence per Harworth Share to 177.5 pence per Harworth Share.
On 17 September 2026, Peel Bidco announced that it had acquired Harworth Shares which resulted in its and its concert parties’ aggregate holding of Harworth Shares increasing from 29.96% to 30.00% and that, as a consequence, it is required under the Code to convert its voluntary offer into a mandatory offer under Rule 9 of the Code.
The board of Harworth remained “unanimous and unequivocal” in its rejection of the revised offer which, in its view, significantly undervalues Harworth and its near- and longer-term prospects.
The board said that at a 17.4% discount to its EPRA NDV of 214.8 pence per Harworth Share as at 30 June 2026, the revised offer “fails to recognise the potential embedded value across Harworth’s portfolio not captured in the EPRA NDV, including its hyperscale data centre pipeline, industrial & logistics development opportunities and other identified sources of incremental value”.
The board added that the revised offer “does not take account of Harworth’s acceleration of key initiatives to create a simpler, lower-cost and higher-returning platform, including Harworth’s cost savings programme which is expected to deliver at least £7.4m (€8.6m) of annualised run-rate savings by the end of 2028”.
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