Royal Mail lines up next sell-off

Royal Mail is to sell off a second multi-million pound property port-folio of post offices and sorting depots just months after concluding its first GBP 70m deal.

The state-owned postal service has appointed property agents Atisreal to undertake the sell off, which property professionals predict will contain a significant number of retail post offices, as well as industrial and office buildings.

Although many of the transactions are likely to be sale-and-leasebacks, the move to cut liabilities and generate cash from its property portfolio is likely to anger campaigners trying save the post office network in the face of planned closures.

The sale in March of 300 properties was a mixture of freeholds and leaseholds, some occupied some vacant, and was bought by Land Securities Trillium, the outsourcing arm of the largest property company in the UK.

Although the make up and size of the portfolio now being put together has not been defined the sale price could top GBP 20m.

With a countrywide property portfolio estimated to exceed GBP 2 bn in value, Royal Mail is in a position to realize a lot of value from its assets, as it implements a rationalization programme aimed at cutting losses and helping it compete against the private sector.