Land Securities, Crown Estate In JV On Oxford Shopping Center

Land Securities PLC (LAND.LN), the U.K.'s largest landlord, Tuesday said it bought a 50% stake in Westgate Center, Oxford, from the Crown Estate for just over GBP28 million.

The transaction follows an announcement Tuesday from the Crown Estate that it completed the purchase of Westgate for GBP56 million from Liberty International PLC's (LII.LN) Capital Shopping Centers as part of its strategy to diversify its urban portfolio and reduce its central London weighting by investing in key regional locations.

Westgate Center, whose tenants include supermarket J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN) and Primark, the discount clothing chain owned by Associated British Foods PLC (ABF.LN), as well as fashion retailers Next PLC (NXT.LN) and New Look Group PLC (NEW-LN), will be jointly held by Land Securities and the Crown Estate in a new limited partnership.

The center, encompassing 320,000 square feet, comes with two cleared sites at the rear, which had been acquired previously to facilitate development of a 750,000-square-feet shopping center anchored by the John Lewis Partnership.

The Crown Estate, which manages a GB6 billion property portfolio across the U.K., has completed close to GBP600 million of property transactions in the past 12 months as part of its strategy to reduce its London weighting.

-By Anita Likus, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]