UBS and British Land announce £300 million property deal

Thursday 6th May 2010

Swiss banking giant UBS is to remain in the heart of the City as commercial landlord, British Land, is set to develop a £300 million headquarters on their current site of 4 and 6 Broadgate, thereby keep them on as tenants.

Bluebutton Properties, established in 2009, is a joint venture between British Land and Blackstone Funds and is the parent company who owns the Broadgate Estate.

One of the premier City of London office estates, Broadgate already consists of 16 buildings and covers 4.4 million square feet of Grade A office, retail and leisure space – with UBS occupying six of the buildings.

Now Bluebutton Properties has entered into an exclusive, though non-binding, heads of terms to construct UBS a new building on the site.

The deal puts a temporary end to concerns for British Land that UBS would move, risking the landlords a loss of £40 million of annual rental income.

In November 2009, British Land sold a 50 per cent stake in the Broadgate Estate to Blackstone for £77 million plus £1 billion in debt.

Since that date, the group of companies which own the Broadgate Estate have been held by Bluebutton Properties; a 50:50 joint venture between British Land and BRE/Brick Limited, BRE/Brick is owned by Blackstone funds.