British Land : Affinity Shipping secures highest available floor at The Leadenhall Building

British Land and Oxford Properties announce today that independent shipping broker Affinity (Shipping) LLP ("Affinity") has signed an Agreement for Lease at The Leadenhall Building.

Affinity has agreed terms on Level 44, which provides 6,584 sq ft of office space. The company has signed a ten year lease with a five year break clause at £90.00 per sq ft.

The broker, which is based in London but also operates in Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Seoul and Houston, is relocating from its current premises in Tower 42.

The Leadenhall Building is already home to global served office provider Servcorp and specialist pensions insurer Rothesay Life. Leading insurers Aon, Amlin, and virtual IT system provider IPsoft are among those now undertaking their fit-outs and expected to move into the building this summer.

Richard Fulford-Smith, Managing Partner of Affinity (Shipping) LLP, said
"This iconic, contemporary, well-positioned and efficient building provides us with a special environment in the heart of the City . Our new office will provide inspiration to our teams, clients and friends. We are very fortunate, as a new shipping company, to find a space so perfectly matching our requirements, with the bonus of a special view of the London skyline."

Tim Roberts, Head of Offices at British Land, said:
"Affinity is a dynamic, international business with ambitious growth plans, and we are very pleased it has selected The Leadenhall Building for their global headquarters. The building continues to attract some very high-calibre occupiers from a range of sectors and geographies, and our strategy of focusing on the upper floors post completion is working well."

Mike Rayner, Head of Development, Oxford Properties, said:
"The Leadenhall Building offers world-class office space in a landmark building, and we are seeing strong demand for the remaining floors. We look forward to welcoming Affinity to the building later this year, alongside our other occupiers currently undertaking their fit-outs."

DTZ and JLL advised British Land and Oxford Properties. J Peiser Wainwright advised Affinity.

Notes to Editors

About British Land
We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.0 billion (British Land share of which is £12.8 billion), as valued at 30 September 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 340 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 54% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across retail parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 46% of our portfolio is focused on London. We have an attractive mix of high quality buildings in well managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.9 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier city office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

About Oxford Properties Group
Oxford Properties Group is a global platform for real estate investment, development and management, with over 1,750 employees and C$34bn of real assets that it manages for itself and on behalf of its co-owners and investment partners. Established in 1960, Oxford was acquired in 2001 by OMERS, one of Canada's largest pension funds with over C$72bn in assets. Oxford has regional offices in Toronto, London and New York, each with investment, development and management professionals who have deep real estate expertise and local market insight.

For more information about Oxford visit: www.oxfordproperties.com.

About Affinity (Shipping) LLP
Affinity (Shipping) LLP is a new, independent shipbroker with an approach focused on expertise rather than scale. Affinity currently employs over 70 people with offices in London, Singapore, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Seoul and Houston. Affinity has a unique platform which delivers an innovative and independent service to its clients in the sectors of Dry Cargo, LNG, Containers, Tankers, Research, Sale & Purchase and Newbuilding.

For more information about Affinity Shipping visit www.affinityship.com

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