By Joe Hoppe


Berkeley Group Holdings PLC said Tuesday it has acquired the outstanding 50% in its St William Homes LLP joint venture from National Grid PLC for 412.5 million pounds ($536.3 million) in cash, advancing its earnings forecasts.

The house builder said the acquisition represents full control over 20,000 future homes across 24 sites. St William formed in 2014 as an equal partnership to convert former gasworks sites in London, England that the National Grid no longer required, to create mixed-use residential developments.

National Grid said it and Berkeley have entered into a series of sale and purchase agreements for a number of additional sites owned by National Grid, expected to complete in the period to 2025 for a total of around GBP270 million.

The utilities company also said a deferred consideration of GBP230 million for sites previously sold to St. William is payable by Berkeley to National Grid over the period to 2031.

The company said the acquisition has helped it achieve its target of securing at least GBP7.5 billion of estimated future gross margin in its landholdings, well ahead of its targeted date of April 2025. The acquisition further underpins earnings for the next three years, and the company said it now expects to achieve existing pretax profit guidance for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 a year earlier in each case.

"The acquisition continues Berkeley's philosophy of investing at the right time in the cycle for the long-term, securing unrivalled land holdings in London and the south-east," Chief Executive Rob Perrins said.


Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-15-22 0726ET