Laing Puts Property Division Up For Sale

LONDON-The troubled construction group John Laing has put its property division up for sale as part of its bid to raise £120 million ($170 million) from asset disposals. Laing Property itself made a pre-tax profit before of £13.2 million ($18.5 million) for the year ended 31 December 2000 and the decision has been made to sell it as a going concern rather than liquidating its portfolio.

Rupert Clarke, head of Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Finance is advising Laing and he said: ‘Laing Property has an impressive management team, property portfolio and development pipeline.’ And he hinted that the buyer could come from overseas. ‘There is currently a significant amount of international capital seeking to invest in opportunities with high returns such as this, and we have already received a number of unsolicited expressions of interest’, Clarke said.

Laing Property currently has a £600 million ($850 million) development programme including a major town centre retail scheme in Enfield, North London, which is being developed in partnership with the Dutch institution ING and a number of office schemes in the Western Corridor being developed in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland.