British Land plans to raise £500 million by issuing as many as 89.7 million shares, equivalent to 10% of its existing share capital.

It will take in a further £461 million from the sale of Ropemaker Place, a 20-story office block in the City of London. The buyers are an unnamed consortium of two Asian investors and a French investor that are represented by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers.

British Land will use £213 million of the cash to pay for recent acquisitions and has earmarked a further £150 million for acquisitions already in advanced negotiations. The rest of its war chest will go on buying and developing offices, retail and mixed-use buildings in London and the South East.

"The company has seen a clear acceleration in the flow of opportunities in its core sectors," British Land said. "Vendors are showing an increasing realism around values, with access to finance continuing to constrain many buyers."

British Land bought £490 million of properties in the past 12 months, many of them from smaller, distressed rivals and banks and insurers, which are shuffling their investment portfolios to meet new liquidity rules. The REIT owns or manages about £16.3 billion of assets, making it the U.K.'s No. 2 behind listed rival Land Securities Group plc.

Ropemaker Place will change hands for a total £472 million, providing British Land with net proceeds of £461 million. The gross figure represents a 3.5% premium to the site's £455 million valuation at the end of September.

British Land built the office tower in 2009 and rents it for about £24 million a year to companies including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Macquarie Group Ltd. and Liberum Capital Ltd. AXA Real Estate said that the rent on the property will increase to £27.5 million a year by September 2015.

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. advised British Land, which took legal counsel from SJ Berwin LLP. AXA Real Estate was the lead adviser to the unnamed investment consortium. The investors also took advice from law firm Nabarro LLP, Deloitte LLP and real estate consultancy Strutt & Parker LLP.

British Land's new shares are scheduled to begin trading on Friday. Morgan Stanley, UBS and Goldman, Sachs & Co. have been appointed joint bookrunners for the sale.

Shares in British Land traded Tuesday morning at 557.5 pence, down 23 pence, or 4%, on their previous close. The company has a market capitalization of £4.96 billion.