BAE sells Crewe Toll complex for £94m

BAE Systems has sold its former industrial and laboratory complex in north Edinburgh for £94 million to a syndicate of private investors in a sale-and-leaseback deal.

The two buildings, Crewe Toll West and East, cover more than 439,000sq ft of office, laboratory and industrial space.

The sale reflected a net initial yield of just over 5 per cent. The current rent for both properties is about 5m a year.

BAE Systems Electronics will let the buildings until November 2024, with rent increases capped at 3 per cent above the retail price index.

LaSalle Investment Management, which sold the property on behalf of BAE Systems Pension Fund Trustees Ltd, said the funds would immediately be reinvested into industrial assets, as well as alternative sectors, such as car parks.

Earlier this year BAE Systems transferred property worth 242m to its pension fund including the Crewe Toll buildings, along with 110m cash, to help plug a deficit of more than 4 billion.

BAE Systems has not occupied the site - established during the Second World War by electronics firm Ferranti - since early in 2005, after selling 75 per cent of its avionics division to Italian group Finmeccanica for 355m. However, it retained ownership of the building.

Kenny Waitt, director of investment with Jones Lang LaSalle in Edinburgh, which advised on the deal, said: "There is a lot of depth to the market where you have long leases and very good covenants with fixed uplets."