Sky share price: Broadcaster looks to sell London home

Sky (LON:SKY) is set to sell its headquarters and studios in west London for £545 million, The Telegraph has revealed. The broadcaster is reportedly looking to reinvest the money it has spent on real estate into its core business.

Sky’s share price has fallen deep into the red in today’s session, having fallen 2.39 percent to 999.50p as of 12:34 BST, and underperforming the FTSE 100 which currently stands 1.29 percent lower at 6,095.52 points. In the year-to-date, the shares have lost about 10 percent of their value, as compared with a 2.31-percent drop in the benchmark index.
Sky has reportedly instructed agents at BNP Paribas Real Estate to find a buyer for its buildings in Osterley, which it then plans to rent back in an expected 30-year deal. As first reported by Estates Gazette, the blue-chip group is said to be looking to reinvest the money it has spent on developing the campus into core areas of its business, rather than having the funds tied up in real estate.

The Telegraph quoted a spokesman at BNP PRE as confirming that the property division had been appointed by the broadcaster to sell its newly developed Sky Campus in a sale and leaseback deal. A spokesman for Sky separately told the newspaper that the company had “appointed BNP Paribas to manage the sale and leaseback of its West London campus”.
“The site has been Sky’s home for 27 years and will remain so for many years,” the spokesman added. Early stage discussions with investors have reportedly started, with the FTSE 100 group having set a target completion date for the sale at the end of June.
Sky is scheduled to update investors on its nine-month performance to March 31 on April 21.
As of 12:59 BST, Friday, 01 April, Sky Plc share price is 999.00p.

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