7:50 am, March 28, 2022
Dealer group Lookers has said it’s completed the sale and leaseback of its Battersea Volkswagen showroom.
The sale is of a three-storey Volkswagen showroom on York Road, Battersea, south London, and has generated £28m in cash.
The listed dealer group also confirmed it has agreed a 20-year lease of the property at an initial rent of £1.25m per annum with Urban Logistics.
The sale and leaseback will give Lookers ‘additional flexibility’ to fulfil its ‘aspiration to become the UK’s leading integrated automotive retail and services group’, it said.
The 95,000-square-foot dealership, which only opened in 2019, has a net book value of £10.3m as of December 31, 2021.
Lookers said under IFRS 16, right of use assets and associated leased liabilities worth circa £19m will be reflected on its balance sheet.
The business now holds property assets with a net book value of approximately £290m, representing 74p per share.
Lookers CEO Mark Raban said: ‘We’re pleased to have agreed the selective sale and leaseback of our Battersea property.
‘The transaction demonstrates the value of the group’s property portfolio, underpinning our strong balance sheet.
‘The proceeds give us additional flexibility to fulfil our aspiration to become the UK’s leading integrated automotive retail and services group.’
Lookers operates two showrooms on the site in Battersea.
Next door to the Volkswagen showroom, Lookers owns a Land Rover showroom on Lombard Road.
The Land Rover showroom opened in 2014 and was the first dealership in the UK to be built in Jaguar Land Rover’s then-new ‘Double Arch’ style.
