In these troubled economic times, sale and leaseback transactions can provide companies with much-needed cash flow, writes Lara Williams.

While advising the chief financial officer of a major European retailer recently, Cushman & Wakefield’s head of occupier strategy for EMEA, Matthew Stone, discovered that 60% of the retailer’s capital was tied up in real estate that was generating only a 6% return, whereas the firm’s core business was delivering returns of up to 26%. “A company’s shareholder capital should be deployed in the most profitable part of that business, which is logical but rarely practiced,” says Mr Stone....