Helical sells share in JJ Mack Building for £71.4m

Helical announced on Friday that it has completed the sale of its 50% interest in the JJ Mack Building, London EC1, to joint venture partner AshbyCapital for £71.4m.

The London-listed firm said the transaction valued Helical’s stake in the property at £139.2m, and resulted in a 4p per share dilution to its EPRA net tangible assets (NTA) as of March.

It said the sale proceeds would support its development pipeline, as the company continued to focus on high-quality assets.

The JJ Mack Building, which was completed in September 2022, stands as a 10-storey property with 200,611 square feet of office space, 9,172 square feet of terraces, and 5,474 square feet of retail area.

It is 90% occupied, with tenants including Sainsbury’s and Partners Group, alongside three retail units let to Sainsbury’s and E-on Next.

The building generates contracted rent of £17.4m, with Helical’s share representing £8.7m.

“The JJ Mack Building is truly a ‘best-in-class’ office building, demonstrated by the rents we have achieved being significantly ahead of competing buildings in its sub-market,” said chief executive officer Matthew Bonning-Snook.

“This sale is very material to Helical as it releases sufficient cash to ensure that the equity requirements of our entire exciting development pipeline, totalling over 685,000 square feet of offices, and a 429 unit purpose built student accommodation scheme, are now fully funded.

“We are already making good progress in delivering this, with construction underway on three new office schemes - 100 New Bridge Street EC4, Brettenham House WC2 and 10 King William Street EC4 - and plans progressing at our future development projects at Paddington and Southwark.”

Bonning-Snook said the JJ Mack Building was purchased and developed with AshbyCapital, adding to Helical's track record of working in partnership.

“We will continue to recycle our portfolio, as market conditions allow, as we seek to grow the current pipeline whilst focusing our near term attention on delivering best-in-class space into a supply constrained 2026 market.”

At 0903 GMT, shares in Helical were up 0.29% at 200.18p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.