As experts predict a huge boom in property values in the UK, Minerva appears to have made the most of growing hopes in the market by processing the formalities for the sale of its building on Wigmore Street. The deal involving deskspace in London’s West End, an area that is gaining favour once more as recession begins to wear off, will be critical for Minerva given the takeover attempt that looms over it.

The building will now be sold for £40m as soon as all formalities are done with. The building earlier earned a valuation of £39m. The buyer is however not known, as Minerva hopes to keep this a secret until the sale is done. The deal will help Minerva battle the £85m takeover bid from Nathan Kirsch, a South African investor.

As part of its defence, Minerva has been presenting its growing property and share values over the past few months. Property values rose by 10pc since June this year while the NAV of shares has come up to 95pc, which is almost twice that of what Kirsch is offering.

Considering that Minerva’s share NAV dropped to 5.47 pc during the recession, this is a huge recovery by the company. Back then, the company was struggling to fill up two vacant office space projects during the low tenancy period. The company has recently refinanced and does not have any other major debtors until its 2012 maturity loans.

In addition, Minerva hopes to be able to find tenants for about 1m square feet of office space available in The Walbrok and St. Botolphs developments, which will also bolster the finances significantly.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 11:38 am and is filed under Business, PR, Real Estate Hall. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.