National Grid decides to retain UK property businessSource:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articl...13-22349539.htmLONDON, Jan. 18, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- National Grid PLC said it has decided to retain its UK property business, worth around 700 mln stg, after receiving bids that did not match its potential value.
The UK gas and electricity transmitter said the bids received for its property business, National Grid Property, did not match the value it believes can be extracted from the business.
'As the process has gone forward, the property and credit markets have deteriorated and the bids we received do not match the value we are confident that we can extract from the business,' National Grid chief executive Steve Holliday said. 'Thus we have had no hesitation in deciding to retain the business and look forward to continuing with our highly successful track record in remediating and selling on our attractive portfolio of brownfield sites.
Earlier in the month, US insurance giant American International Group (NYSE:AIG) (AIG) was tipped as frontrunner to win the auction for National Grid's portfolio of mixed use and residential property portfolio.
Following media reports, AIG was expected to be named as the purchaser of the portfolio of 500 brownfield development sites and 675 buildings by the end of January, beating competition from Telereal. Another short-listed bidder, property tycoon Jamie Ritblat's Delancey, had withdrawn earlier.
The UK power network operator put the 2,500 acre portfolio on the market in September as part of its sale of non-core assets, in what was thought to be the largest-ever property sale by a former publicly-owned company.
