National Grid said on Friday that it has decided to cancel the £700 mln sale of its UK property portfolio because it did not receive high enough bids. The UK power network operator said the bids received for its property business, National Grid Property, did not match the value it believes can be extracted from the business.
National Grid said on Friday that it has decided to cancel the £700 mln sale of its UK property portfolio because it did not receive high enough bids. The UK power network operator said the bids received for its property business, National Grid Property, did not match the value it believes can be extracted from the business.
Earlier in the month, US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) was tipped as frontrunner to win the auction for National Grid's mixed use property portfolio. AIG was reportedly vying with Telereal for the 500 brownfield development sites and 675 buildings.
'As the process has gone forward, the property and credit markets have deteriorated and the bids we received do not match the value we are confident that we can extract from the business,' National Grid chief executive Steve Holliday said. 'Thus we have had no hesitation in deciding to retain the business and look forward to continuing with our highly successful track record in remediating and selling on our attractive portfolio of brownfield sites.'
National Grid put the 2,500 acre portfolio on the market in September as part of its strategy to sell non-core assets. National Grid's property business employs 80 people and reported operating profit for 2006/07 of £86 mln.
DTZ advised National Grid.
