National Grid and Berkeley Group launch new property Joint Venture
National Grid plc ("National Grid") and The Berkeley Group Holdings plc ("Berkeley") have today launched a new joint venture, to be named St William Homes LLP ("St William"). This will create major residential and mixed-use developments across London and the South East.
National Grid (through National Grid Property Holdings Limited) has a significant portfolio of surplus brownfield land which it is committed to releasing for development. The launch of St William is intended to bring together land from National Grid's portfolio, initially from across the Greater London area, and combine this with Berkeley's development expertise.
The acquisition of sites by the joint venture will be conditional upon their unencumbered release for development and the receipt of necessary planning permissions. None of the sites is expected to be income generating when acquired by the joint venture. St William aims to commence development activity on its first site in 2016, with the first homes being delivered in 2017.
National Grid and Berkeley will become shareholders of St William, each owning 50% of the equity through SPVs. Funding will be through a combination of shareholder equity and bank funding at an equity to debt ratio of 50:50. The equity investment for each shareholder will be initially capped at £175 million. When combined with bank debt, this will result in the joint venture vehicle having available funding of up to £700 million. These funds will be drawn down to match the working capital requirements of the joint venture as they fall due. Sufficient working capital will be retained in the business to fund ongoing activity, with surplus funds returned to National Grid and Berkeley as agreed between them.
Rob Perrins, Managing Director of Berkeley, said:
"This is good news for house-building. St William will take these redundant sites and turn them into new communities. I am delighted to be working with a partner like National Grid which shares our values and has such a strong pipeline of land and assets."
For further information please contact:
The Berkeley Group Holdings plc Novella Communications
Rob Perrins Tim Robertson
T: 01932 868 555 T: 020 7630 3843
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