Abrdn has appointed Knight Frank to sell television shopping channel QVC's studios and headquarters on Chiswick Park in west London seeking £85 million or a 5% net initial yield, CoStar News can reveal.
Building 8 is a rare block that is not owned by Chinese sovereign wealth fund Chinese Investment Corporation at the 1.4-million-square-foot office campus.
Abrdn bought the building from Schroders in 2013. The latter bought it in 2010 as an office development with a prelet signed with global media giant QVC for a term of 21 years and a construction contract in place. QVC's lease on the space runs until 2033.
The building is being marketed as a mission-critical television studio leased at a low rent for the park of £38 per square feet. The sale price reflects a capital value of £675 per square foot.
The 126,000-square-foot building was the first on the park to be owned outside of the then Chiswick Park trust ownership. A term of the purchase agreement allowed the trust to buy back the QVC Building before July 2013 at a price which would crystallise a further profit.
Blackstone paid the trust £480 million for the remainder of Chiswick Park in March 2011. It then sold the majority of the 1.4 million square foot park to China Investment Corporation for £780 million in 2013. Blackstone stayed as asset manager and retained Building 7 before selling to Stanhope and Gingko Tree Investments for £312 million in 2020.
QVC UK is a television shopping channel broadcast from the UK to the United Kingdom and Ireland and based on a US original channel and idea. It was formed in 1993 when QVC agreed to a deal with Sky TV and first began broadcasting in October 1993.
Last year QVC sold five buildings including its US headquarters for $443 million to Oak Street. QVC reported that it had sold sites in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to Chicago-based Oak Street, which is owned by Blue Owl Capital of New York. QVC, which operates a video TV channel and also sells goods online, plans to lease those properties back.