Minerva sells Sampson House and Ludgate House

Minerva has completed the sale of Sampson House for £150.5 million and Ludgate House for £78.5 million to a private investor.

Sampson House in Hopton Street comprises 386,288 sq.ft. of office space let to IBM UK. The lease expires in December 2025 and includes a mutual break clause in June 2018. The current rent is £8 million per year, rising to £9.5 million in December this year.

Ludgate House – formerly the home of Express Newspapers – comprises 173,633 sq.ft. and is let to United Business Media at £4.87 million per year until March 2015 with a landlord's break clause in 2010.

"In the last four months we have entered into agreements for the sale of £634 million of property, effectively resulting in a significant reduction in our gearing to a nominal level," says Salmaan Hasan, chief executive of Minerva. "The total value of these sales is overall slightly ahead of our last published year end valuation figures for these properties as at 30th June 2004. With the substantial cash that these disposals have generated along with the arrangements in respect of The Walbrook and Park Place, I believe that the company is well set to deliver future growth for shareholders."