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SJ Berwin Advises British Land on £120 Million Sale in the City

Monday 5th December 2005

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin's real estate division has advised The British Land Company PLC on the sale of 1 Fleet Place, Ludgate EC4 to Legal & General for £119.5 million, reflecting a 5% yield.

The 170,500 sq ft headquarters of law firm Denton Wilde Sapte was sold after Dentons agreed to restructure its lease. One Fleet Place is a modern well let building, primarily of office space and some retail.

The SJ Berwin team advising British Land was led by real estate partner Lewis Myers, assisted by Darren Rogers. L&G was advised by Ian Waring, partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner.

Notes:

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership. SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Munich and Paris.
• SJ Berwin LLP was named 'UK Firm of the Year' at the 2005 Legal Week Awards on 30 November.  The awards recognised SJ Berwin's five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 22 are partners (3 of which are tax partners), and 50 assistants, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax. There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate. The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005. It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue.

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