Chelsfield sells Riverside House for

Chelsfield has sold Riverside House, its office scheme on Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1, to a consortium of Israeli investors for around £97m.

Riverside House was developed by Chelsfield in 2002 and comprises 170,000 sq ft of office space. In 2001, the company signed up FT.com as a tenant, in one of the biggest pre-lets ever seen on the South Bank. However, earlier this year, FT.com decided that it did not want the building after all and assigned its lease to the communications regulator, Ofcom.

The disposal of the building forms part of Chairman Elliott Bernerd’s attempts to reduce Chelsfield’s gearing ahead of his £895.5m recommended management buyout of the company.

Chelsfield’s gearing was estimated at 113% by CSFB last September. The sale of Riverside House, plus the disposal of a 50% stake in its White City retail scheme to the German fund, CGI, would reduce its gearing to around 70%.

Chelsfield Director, David Phillips, confirmed that the company had exchanged contracts with a buyer but declined to comment further.

Michael Elliott advised Chelsfield on the disposal.

Source: Freeman News

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