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UPDATE 3-Israel's Property, Harel seek toehold in London

Published 06/18/2009, 08:41 AM
Updated 06/18/2009, 08:50 AM
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* Mulls minority stake in British Land's Broadgate complex

* Would pay 100 mln stg ($164 mln) for stake

* Harel Insurance might acquire shares for 45 mln stg

* Broadgate firm holds 2.3 bln stg in assets

* Holds 2.0 bln stg in obligations

(Adds Harel Insurance might also buy stake)

By Tova Cohen

TEL AVIV, June 18 (Reuters) - Israel's Property and Building said on Thursday it was considering purchasing a stake in British Land's Broadgate office complex in London for 100 million pounds ($164 million).

British Land, the UK's second-largest property company by market value, said it has received preliminary approaches from potential buyers for a stake in Broadgate.

"The company declines to give further details about any of the parties but confirms that discussions are at very early stages," its spokesman said in a statement.

Property and Building, a subsidiary of holding company IDB Holding Corp, said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange it would buy shares in a real estate firm, which holds Broadgate, from an existing shareholder, which would give it a significant minority stake in the firm.

An industry source who asked not to be indentified told Reuters the firm was British Land's subsidiary through which it holds Broadgate.

Property and Building did not name the real estate firm, but said it had 4.4 million square feet of real estate assets valued at 2.3 billion pounds, while its obligations stood at 2 billion pounds.

Harel Insurance and Financial Services, Israel's third-largest insurance group, said in a separate statement it was examining an acquisition of 45 million pounds worth of shares in the Broadgate firm.

Property and Building said the examination of the deal was at an early stage and there was no certainty it would go ahead. It said this was part of its efforts to identify business opportunities in the real estate sector.

At 1204 GMT, its shares were up 1.9 percent to 223 shekels, having been up 5 percent earlier, while IDB's shares were 2 percent higher at 69.64 shekels, compared with declines in the broader Tel Aviv market. Harel was up 0.7 percent.

British Land's share price, which was flat in early trading, was up 0.4 percent to 387.5 pence, having earlier spiked 2.2 percent on the confirmation. The broader UK property stocks index was down 0.9 percent.

In a note to clients, JP Morgan analysts said a partial disposal of Broadgate would be positive for British Land.

"It would degear the company balance sheet twice as fast (100 percent of debt will go off balance sheet), the company may start to look at other opportunities and reduces its City office exposure (and future capex)," the analysts said.

Property and Building and its parent company are investors in Elad IDB Las Vegas LCC, which acquired a Las Vegas Strip site to build a $5 billion resort casino.

Indonesia's Sampoerna family, among the wealthiest in southeast Asia, owns 20 percent of Harel. (Additional reporting by Daryl Loo and Sinead Cruise in London; Editing by Andrew Macdonald) ($1 = 0.6149 pounds)

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