The X-Leisure Unit Trust, the Capital & Regional and Hermes managed specialist leisure fund, is delighted to announce that it is welcoming four new unit-holders and has purchased Queen's Links Leisure Park in Aberdeen.
The four new unit-holders are John Lewis Partnership Pensions Trust Limited, Lloyds TSB Group Pension Scheme, Merrill Lynch Property Fund and Merrill Lynch UK Property Fund of Funds, investing a total of £37 million through primary issuance and secondary trades.
This week also saw the X-Leisure Unit Trust complete the purchase of Queen's Links Leisure Park, Aberdeen from the Legendary Property Company for £22.15m, at an effective initial yield of 6.48%. The leisure park is 128,000 ft² (11,891 m²) and the tenants include UGC, Pizza Hut, Frankie & Benny's, Chiquitos, Whitbread and Gala Bingo.
This purchase follows the acquisitions of Cambridge Leisure Park in March this year and the high-profile purchase of Brighton Marina in September 2004.
PY Gerbeau, X-Leisure Chief Executive, comments: "Queens Link Leisure Park is another excellent purchase for X-Leisure. The X-Leisure approach is all about creating industry leading leisure destinations that combine exciting sports and leisure activities with the best in retail, catering and entertainment to provide a truly regional attraction.
Our highly skilled leisure management team underpins this approach. The team has a strong understanding of our tenants needs and our unique asset management and development initiatives have proven to increase footfall and dwell time at our venues across the country.
We are confident that our active management approach will benefit Queens Link Leisure Park, as it does the rest of our portfolio, and enable us to continue to deliver outperformance for our investors."
Alasdair Evans, Hermes' Fund Director of X-Leisure, commented: "We are delighted to welcome these blue chip investors, confirming the X-Leisure Unit Trust as the leading leisure property fund. This continued expansion of the investor base enables us to grow the portfolio while maintaining strong returns for all investors."
Charles Whittle of McCafferty Management, advisors to the vendor commented: "We are delighted to have concluded the sale of Queens Link on behalf of Legendary Property Service, and wish X-Leisure every success in the future with this new acquisition"
X-Leisure, the leisure property division of Capital & Regional, is responsible for the management of the X-Leisure Fund and the Xscapes. It is the UK's fastest growing premier leisure brand, with 19 major leisure destinations around the UK including the award-winning Xscape attractions at Milton Keynes and Castleford Leeds, with the new Xscape Braehead Glasgow opening in Spring 2006 in addition to the 16 leisure parks in the X-Leisure Unit Trust. Other prestigious destinations within the portfolio include Brighton Marina, 02 Centre London, Star City Birmingham and the recently acquired 133,000 ft² Cambridge Leisure Park.
With a passion for providing the very best and most innovative family leisure and entertainment attractions, X-Leisure is behind the UK's largest indoor real snowslopes (Xscape Milton Keynes & Castleford), casino (StarCity) and largest multiplex cinema (StarCity). More than 45 million people visited X-Leisure attractions last year enjoying a wide range of facilities from bowling, cinema and casinos to waterparks and extreme sports.
Source: Capital & Regional
