The brownfield land and property developer and investment company, Haworth Group plc has announced the purchase of two strategic sites. The new acquisitions are in the Midlands and will be good investments as part of the business’ strategic land bank. The company’s equity placing in March 2017 raised £27.1 million, which has been used, in part for the purchase of the two locations.
The sites are expected to exceed Harworth’s double-digit target rate of return and also have potential marriage value as they are both adjacent to other Harworth investments. The first site is located in Leicestershire, and is a 145-acre site. The second acquisition is 88-acres and situated in the Chatterley Valley of Staffordshire.
The two sites both have planning permission and are adjacent to other sites which have also been given planning consent, which means that the company have generated larger development sites and pipelines that have the potential to be incredibly lucrative.
The newly acquired Chatterley Valley site has been purchased for £2.6 million plus the costs of acquisition and neighbours a 24-acre freehold site already owned by the company. The total 112-acre site which has planning consent in place for the construction of a 1.2 million sq. ft. commercial development which has the added benefit of being a Government Enterprise Zone, an incentive for potential occupiers when the work is finished. The marriage value of these locations will be profitable for the company and with the planning permission in place, the locations have a 10-year development pipeline ready to create the commercial development.
The Coalville site cost £11.8 million plus acquisition costs and is located next to a major development site that, when combined, gives Harworth 2,016 residential plots that would offer a 15-year development pipeline for the company. The newly acquired site was purchased with consent in place for 914 residential plots and has marriage value with the existing Harworth site.
