Aldar plans to bid for UK property developer

Aldar Properties is planning to bid for one of the three biggest market-listed property developers in United Kingdom, according to a report.

The firm is understood to be running the rule over the big three FTSE 100 property developers – Hammerson, Land Securities and British Land – with Hammerson being the most likely fit, London-based Times reported.

Hammerson has £7.3 billion (Dh54bn) of property of which £1.9bn is in France and the bulk of the rest is in Britain. It also has long-term plans for a £1bn scheme of city offices and homes dubbed Northacre covering 100,000 square metres.

Aldar CEO Ronald S Barrott could not be reached for comment. However, he had told Emirates Business: “We are looking at projects in emerging and mature markets across the world.

There are various options that we are considering and analysing. We will only do an acquisition if it is commercially sensible for us to do so.
 

Aldar’s scrutiny of UK property firms has intensified over the past few weeks because of weakening share prices amid mounting concern about the short-term prospects for office and retail rents as the outlook for the UK economy weakens.

The market values of the UK property firms had halved between January 2007 and the start of 2008. Share prices of Hammerson, British Land and Land Securities had recovered by between 15 per cent and 20 per cent by mid-March but over the past three weeks they have fallen between five per cent and 10 per cent.