News on 8 February 2001
Blue Circle Industries (BCI) is to sell Whitecliff Properties
- its wholly-owned property arm - together with a 4m sq m (43m sq ft)
portfolio of properties in North West Kent and a site in Cambridge,
for £60m to Land Securities.
As part of the transaction, BCI will form a joint venture with Land
Securities to develop Ebbsfleet, the domestic and international passenger
station on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link as well as the Swanscombe Peninsula.
BCI will receive payment for the land and a share in development profits
while Land Securities will provide development expertise and funding.
Rick Haythornthwaite, chief executive of Blue Circle, commented on the
sale: “This is a further important step in the disposal strategy
that we set out to shareholders last year. We are very pleased to have
reached agreement with such a major and respected property company as
Land Securities who will ensure that the projects continue to be world-class.”
