The Glasgow offices of the Student Loans Company have been sold by their now former owner McKay Securities, it has been revealed.
The Scotsman reports that the investment firm Splendor has acquired the relevant building although no mention of a buyer was made by McKay Securities in its statement on the subject.
McKay Securities did however make clear that it decided to sell the offices at 100 Bothwell Street in Glasgow to leverage their increased value after a long-term tenancy deal was agreed with the Student Loans Company last year.
The loans company is a non-profit-making government-owned organisation responsible for allocating finances to students at universities and colleges across the UK. It was announced in May 2012 that the company had committed to 10-year lease on the offices on Bothwell Street.
A figure of £16.79 million was agreed upon to see ownership of the offices change hands and McKay Securities has said it will use the proceeds to reduce its borrowings and to reinvest in commercial property in Central London and in the South-East of England.
“The significant lease extension agreed with the Student Loans Company last year generated an uplift in value, which we decided to realise through this disposal,” Simon Perkins, McKay Securities’ managing director.
“This asset has performed well for the group, and the time is now right to move on to new opportunities. The sale proceeds will be recycled into assets within our key office and industrial markets of London and the South East, where we can apply our management and development skills to generate income and capital gains,” Perkins said.
In addition to its official headquarters in Glasgow, the Student Loans Company also has offices in Darlington in the North-East of England and offices in the Welsh seaside town of Colwyn Bay.
Editor’s notes: In September 2021, it was announced that the Student Loans Company had committed to a 20-year lease on 75,000 square feet of space at Drum Property Group’s Buchanan Wharf Clydeside development in Glasgow.
The purpose-built head office will be home to 1100 staff when it completes. In October 2022, the six-storey office building topped out meaning that the structural works reached their highest point, thus making way for the final stage of development.
The Glasgow head office building, which the Student Loans Company will move into later in 2023, represents the final development at the award-winning Buchanan Wharf site which is also home to the Barclays Campus and an 18-storey residential complex for Legal & General.