Landsec
Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm switched to Real Estate Investment Trust status when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is headquartered in London, England, and traded on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.[2]
 | |
| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| LSE: LAND FTSE 100 Component | |
| Industry | Property |
| Founded | 1944 |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
Key people |
|
| Products | property development, property investment |
| Revenue | £748 million (2019)[1] |
| £521 million (2019)[1] | |
| £119 million (2019)[1] | |
| Website | www |
History
The Group traces its origins to 1944, when its founder Harold Samuel purchased Land Securities Investment Trust Limited, which owned three houses in Kensington and some government stock.[3] Further acquisitions followed shortly afterwards and from 1947 the company concentrated on commercial property.[3] In the early days some non-UK investments were acquired, but in 1971 these were sold off and the company has concentrated solely on the UK market since then.[3] The company name was changed to Land Securities plc in 1982.[3] After buying Trillium in 2000,[4] it formed a 50/50 JV company Telereal in 2002 with William Pears Group (WPG) to buy the property portfolio of British Telecom:[5] after selling its shares in Telereal to WPG in 2007, Land Securities sold Trillium to WPG in 2009.[6]
On 31 March 2012, Francis Salway was succeeded as chief executive by Robert Noel. Noel was managing director of the company's London properties, having joined Land Securities in January 2010 from Great Portland Estates plc, where he had been property director since 2002.[7]
On 12 June 2017, Land Securities rebranded as Landsec. The registered company name remains Land Securities Group PLC.[8]
Robert Noel stepped down as CEO on 31 March 2020. Martin Greenslade, the company's chief financial officer, acted as interim CEO until 14 April 2020, when Mark Allan joined Landsec as its new CEO.
In November 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Landsec wrote down the value of its portfolio by £945m, or 7.7%, to £11.8bn, and announced plans to sell £4bn of assets in the next four to five years, including hotels, leisure properties and retail parks affected by pandemic.[9]
Operations
Landsec owns and manages more than 24,000,000 sq ft (2,200,000 m2) of commercial property, from London offices and high street shops to major shopping centres and out-of-town retail parks. At 31 March 2019 the company's property portfolio was valued at £13.5 billion.[1] The company owns the Piccadilly Lights in Piccadilly Circus in London.[10] It has also led Project Nova, the development of the area around London Victoria station.[11]
References
- "Annual Results 2019" (PDF). Landsec. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- "Company overview"
- "The Land Securities story - Land Securities". landsecurities.com. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- "Land Securities agrees to buy Trillium". Daily Telegraph. 3 November 2000. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- BT selects Land Securities Trillium as preferred bidder for property portfolio BT Group, 10 April 2001
- "Land Securities defends £750m Trillium sale". Daily Telegraph. 8 January 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- "Land Securities CEO Salway Is to Step Down for London Manager Robert Noel". Bloomberg. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- "Land Securities, meet Landsec | Landsec". landsec.com. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
- Kollewe, Julia (10 November 2020). "Land Securities writes almost £1bn off property portfolio". Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
- "Hyundai in lights at London's Piccadilly Circus". Daily Telegraph. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- "Victoria's £2-billion transformation as its coach station becomes a cultural quarter with homes, shops and arts venues". Evening Standard. 20 August 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
