The purpose of this paper is to review the context, rationale, execution strategies and results of the biggest property sale and leaseback programme Barclays has yet undertaken.
The paper is a review and analysis of Barclays' project documentation plus report and accounts, interviews with key decisionmakers, analysis of external economic and property market data in order to set the strategy choices and results achieved into context.
The sale and leaseback programme released capital and supported business objectives at a material level for Barclays; it achieved sales values that were at cyclical highs; flexibility in execution allowed additional value to be delivered across changing market conditions; a mixed skills team was critical for success.
The paper documents why the sale and leaseback programme made sense for the organisation and what elements were key to success both as a strategy and through execution. It provides a case study for how a large organisation approached a recent and large‐scale sale and leaseback opportunity across a portfolio of 900‐1,000 properties.
