British Land CEO Simon Carter plans to step down this year to join European logistics developer P3 Logistics Parks, the real estate group said in a statement on Monday.
During Carter‘s tenure, British Land has expanded its retail park portfolio to offset valuation pressures on its commercial assets resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
British Land shares were down by more than 2% in early trading, among the bottom performers on the FTSE 100 blue chip index, after it announced the impending exit of Carter, who has been CEO since 2020 and held various other roles since 2004.
“The news comes as a negative surprise to us,” JPMorgan said in a note, highlighting British Land‘s recent strong performance which it attributed partly to its clear strategy under Carter.
Carter briefly left British Land in 2015 and returned as chief financial officer in 2018 before becoming CEO in 2020.
After serving his 12-month notice period, Carter is set to succeed Frank Porschk as CEO of P3 Logistics Parks, which was bought by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC for $2.7 billion in 2016 from TPG Real Estate and Ivanhoe Cambridge.
It operates in 11 countries across Europe.
P3 Chair Tay Lim Hock said Carter had an “exemplary track record in strategic leadership”, while GIC‘s European real estate head Tracy Stroh said P3 was “ideally positioned to further deliver sustainable growth” under him.
