British Land may sell Vodafone-leased data centres for £100m

British Land is in talks to sell a number of London data centres currently leased by Vodafone. The potential buyer is US real estate company Realty Income.

First reported by The Sunday Times, the deal would include six data centres and offices, as well as three shopping centres.

The agreement could be worth up to £300 million ($380 million). In July, the six data centres occupied by Vodafone were valued at £100 million ($128.3 million).

Vodafone’s lease is expected to expire in April 2032.

The data centres up for sale include a former glass factory at Smale and Solaglass House, a multi-story data centre at Mobility House on Croft Street previously run by Cable & Wireless, and a former telecoms facility at Dock Street previously owned by Mercury Communications in the 1980s.

EGI reported that the sites are being marketed with scope for medium to long-term redevelopment potential for student and residential use, as well as more data centres and offices.

Realty Income entered the UK market in 2019 through a joint ownership with British Land of 12 Sainsbury’s supermarkets, worth more than £400 million ($509 million).

More recently, Realty Income has expanded its portfolio to include more supermarkets, DIY stores, and more than 30 retail parks, worth in excess of £2 billion ($2.5 billion) in investment.

Last year, Singapore’s Keppel DC REIT acquired a Vodafone data centre in London through sale-leaseback transaction worth $57 million ($76.9 million).

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