British Land share price: Group exchanges on Sainsbury’s stores disposal

British Land (LON:BLND) has exchanged on the sale of 12 superstores from its joint venture with Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY), the property group has said. The London-listed company explained that the move was part of its strategy to trim its retail exposure.

The news has failed to lift the British Land share price, with the stock having given up 1.41 percent to 587.20p as of 10:39 BST and underperforming the blue-chip FTSE 100 index which is currently 0.39 percent better off at 7,488.82 points. The group’s shares have given up more than 11 percent of their value over the past year, as compared with about a 1.2-percent gain in the Footsie.

Sainsbury’s stores disposals

British Land announced in a statement today that it had exchanged on the sale of 12 superstores from its joint venture with Sainsbury’s for £429 million. The company expects its share of the proceeds to be £193.5 million, representing a modest premium to September 2018 book value. The net proceeds are estimated at about £95 million following the repayment of debt and associated break costs.

The company explained that the move was part of its long-term strategy to build an increasingly mixed-use business focused on three core elements: campus focused London offices; a smaller, refocused Retail business and Residential, principally build to rent. As a result, British Land expects Retail to comprise between 30 and 35 percent of the assets of its business, down from around half today.

Analysts on British Land

The 17 analysts offering 12-month targets for the British Land share price for the Financial Times have a median target of 620.00p, with a high estimate of 740.00p and a low estimate of 444.00p. As of April 19, the consensus forecast amongst 19 polled investment analysts covering the blue-chip property group advises investors to hold their position in the company.