Source : THE AGE NEWS
Australian property giant Lendlease is in the late stages of inking a 50/50 joint venture with King Charles’ property company, The Crown Estate, in the United Kingdom.
The $3.8 billion ASX-listed property developer responded to media speculation on Thursday saying it was in negotiations with the King’s company over six projects that are part of its UK development portfolio.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Royal Ascot last year. The racecourse is part of The Crown Estate.Credit: Getty
The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings belonging to the reigning British monarch that sit under a for-profit corporation managed by an independent board and chair.
They are neither government property nor part of the monarch’s private estate.
The estate is one of the UK’s largest property managers, controlling about £15.5 billion ($32 billion) of urban and agricultural land, properties in the City of London and other areas, forests and half of the UK’s coastline. It includes Ascot Racecourse and Windsor Great Park.
The corporation made £1.1 billion profit in 2024, of which 12 per cent went to the King and the rest to the British Treasury.
“Negotiations are in the late stages with The Crown Estate to enter a 50/50 joint venture,” Lendlease said.
The prospective deal will halve Lendlease’s future funding obligations, accelerate its master planning in the UK for government clients and generate future fee income, it said.
Lendlease said it would earn fees as the master developer of existing projects on behalf of the JV.
It expects to offset the cost of master planning and create further value by self-funding the venture through portfolio land sales.
“Lendlease’s immediate focus would be to continue to progress its master planning obligations, while retaining the rights for any vertical developments,” the statement said.
The Crown Estate is one of the UK’s largest property managers controlling about £15.5 billion ($32 billion) of land, including Windsor Great Park.Credit: Natalia Marshall
Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo has overseen a sweeping restructuring program, selling off $4.5 billion of overseas assets and funnelling the cash into developing the company’s Australian operations.
The change in direction was prompted by a long-running campaign from high-profile dissident investors led by John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital, which pressured the company’s managers to simplify its global business and focus instead on Australian.
The company announced in May last year that it would sell all of its overseas construction divisions, most of which were in the US and UK, over three years and end its decades-long quest to be a globally recognised property builder.
Lendlease followed up on its divestiture announcement with an agreement to sell its $480 million US military housing business to Omaha Beach Investment Holdings.
Early this year, it sold its UK construction business to Atlas Holdings for $70 million, marking the end of its international construction operations.
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