THE Oxford Business Park in Cowley, formerly part of the old Rover works, may be up for sale along with other parks throughout Britain, writes Chris Koenig.

British Aerospace, which kept the Cowley land for development after it sold Rover to BMW, is planning to divest itself of its property arm Arlington Securities in order to concentrate on its core business of defence and aerospace.

BAe would like to float Arlington on the London Stock Exchange but management reckons that it may not produce enough cash income to make a flotation viable.

In 1997 Arlington, which has assets of £175.7m, made only £1.4m of its £54.2m turnover from rents and service charges on its parks. It made £4.5m from sales of properties.

Arlington tends to sell each new property as it is developed and then uses the cash to finance new development.

It is understood that if a flotation were not possible, a sale to a foreign company that left Arlington's well respected management team in place would be the preferred option.

However, the property group MEPC, which owns Milton Park, Abingdon, is understood to have signed a confidentiality agreement in order to inspect Arlington's books.

Other major UK property companies are also understood to have held talks with Arlington about a possible purchase.

Arlington is expected to announce next week that a major company is taking a 30,000 sq ft office at the Oxford Business Park.

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