The Daily Telegraph reports that industrial warehouse company Hansteen is to return £145m to shareholders after selling a number of buildings to the Government to make way for a new high-speed rail line. The company, which buys and lets light industrial properties to tenants, sold a business park in Birmingham to the Government for £36.96m earlier this month as part of a number of compulsory purchase deals relating to the new HS2 route. This, along with the sale of a £116m property portfolio to peerWarehouse REIT, means the company can give shareholders an extra 35p per share in cash later this year. Hansteen said it had chosen to do this rather than reinvest the cash in more buildings because demand is so high for industrial property at the moment that “properties that fit the Hansteen business model are likely to be limited”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/03/20/hs2-land-sales-help-hansteen-return-145m-shareholders/