Property Partnerships

In April, we commenced the establishment of a new joint venture fund, aimed at bringing in third party investors alongside our own long-term investment in the venture. Once established, this will be the largest venture of its kind in the marketplace. UBS have been appointed as our advisers on this initiative, which is intended to release in excess of £750m of capital and provide us with a further ongoing source of capital that will support our new business platform. Notwithstanding the turmoil prevailing within the credit markets, we have made good progress and expect to achieve a first closing this year with a final closing before our financial year end.

During the period we completed the disposal of Meterfit, one of the non-core utility businesses we acquired as part of the SMIF transaction generating a profit on sale of £10.0m.