After suffering a blow to its stock price on Tuesday, investment fund Babcock and Brown (BNB) today recovered some lost ground rising 21.4% after announcing it has signed a contract to sell its European property portfolio.
The fund said it has signed an ‘unconditional contract for the sale of German retail property with an enterprise value of about £110 million to an AIM listed company.
Following the sale Babcock and Brown will have sold about 70% of the European retail portfolio on its balance sheet at the beginning of 2007.
"The retail portfolio divestments since 30 June 2007 in total represent £395 million of the £750 million in ‘real estate held for sale' earmarked for disposal in our interim result release in August 2007.," global head of real estate for Babcock and Brown, Eric Lucas said.
"The profit on these sales, the majority of which will be reflected in our 2008 results, has been in line with our original targets for these assets when acquired and illustrate the ongoing investor demand in Europe for well-priced, quality assets with stable rental income from creditworthy tenants," he added.
BNB share prices hit a 52-week low of $14.99 on Tuesday's collective sell-off.
Shares in BNB closed $3.46 or 21.4% up at $19.60.
