Media centre

Wednesday 27 May 2015

New partner for Solum Regeneration

Region & Route:

National

Capital & Counties Properties PLC (Capco) has exchanged contracts to acquire Kier Limited’s share of its Solum Regeneration joint venture with Network Rail.

Solum was established in 2008 by Network Rail to attract private investment into the rail network and take forward development projects to regenerate under-used railway land around major station sites.

Kier Property will continue to take forward existing projects including at Guildford, Twickenham and Bishops Stortford stations.

Solum will explore opportunities for future redevelopments on and around significant railway station sites in London.  It is anticipated that the transaction will complete around the end of June.

Stuart Kirkwood, propert development director, Network Rail, said: “Network Rail’s partnership with Kier has already delivered three major mixed-use developments at Christchurch, Epsom and Walthamstow Central and secured planning permission for three more.  Capco’s expertise will help us unlock further regeneration opportunities in London in the next phase of Solum’s work.”

Gary Yardley, managing director and chief investment officer, Capco, commented: “Our London-focused business has provided us with valuable experience in creating places and bringing forward ambitious schemes. We are delighted to be entering into this joint venture with Network Rail, which offers the opportunity to take forward significant urban regeneration schemes at key transport interchanges in London.”

Note to Editors

1. A copy of the Voluntary Transparency Notice is available at http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:130498-2014:TEXT:EN:HTML

2. In 2008, Network Rail created a 50:50 joint venture property regeneration partnership with Kier Limited. The joint venture can contract with Network Rail to take a transfer of a portfolio of sites, to be developed in accordance with the objectives of Network Rail, to deliver profit to both parties in the joint venture and to improve facilities for Network Rail.

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing £38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.

About Capital & Counties Properties PLC

Capital & Counties Properties PLC is one of the largest investment and development property companies that specialises in central London real estate and is a constituent of the FTSE-250 Index. Capco’s landmark London estates are valued at £3.0 billion (as at 31 December 2014): Covent Garden, which has assets valued at £1.6 billion including the historic Market Building; and Earls Court Properties including the Empress State Building together with the Venues business with aggregate property assets of £1.4 billion. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

About Kier

Kier Group is an integrated property, residential, construction and services group operating across a range of sectors including defence, education, housing, industrials, power, transport and utilities. The Group employs over 15,000 people worldwide and recorded turnover of £3bn in the past financial year.

Kier Property manages the development risk of creating new space on projects covering all market sectors across the UK. These include office, industrial, retail, leisure, health, education, residential and mixed-use developments. A company that’s passionate about property, Kier Property is committed to helping improve the overall quality of the built environment by reinvesting in tired land and buildings to transform them into national assets with a future.

Notable projects include:

-           Currently working on the £240m Watford Health Campus project to regenerate land around Watford General Hospital and deliver 375,000sq ft of mixed-use development in the area

-           Recently began work on the £65m Walsall Waterfront leisure scheme development, which includes an eight-screen cinema and four restaurants

Capital & Counties Properties PLC:

Sarah Hagan	Group Director of Communications & Marketing	+44 (0)20 3214 9185
Michelle McGrath	Director of Investor Relations	+44 (0)20 7297 6093