York asset picked up by LondonMetric
The investor has sold seven properties for £31.3m, and bought six urban warehousing developments for £45m in a raft of deals.
The sales reflect a blended net initial yield of 7% and a 3% profit over prevailing book values. They include £18.3m of non-core LXi REIT assets, which have been sold at 5% ahead of prevailing book values.
The sales comprise:
- A 106,000 sq ft Asda foodstore in Scotland (former LXi asset) sold for £10.5m
- A 41,000 sq ft retail park in Ipswich let to Wickes, Topps Tiles, McDonalds and Costa sold for £10.2m
- Two former Cazoo car showrooms in Edinburgh and Cardiff (former LXi assets) sold for £6.4m
- A B&M retail store in Stourbridge (former Mucklow asset) sold for £2.8m
- A Travelodge hotel and a pub (former LXi assets) sold for £1.4m.
Separately, LondonMetric has acquired six reversionary urban warehouse assets for £45m, reflecting a NIY of 6.1% and a reversionary yield of 6.6%.
The assets acquired have an average unexpired lease term of 7.6 years and comprise:
- A 106,000 sq ft warehouse in Cardiff let to Booker
- A 95,000 sq ft warehouse in Milton Keynes let to Ingram Content Group
- A 30,000 sq ft multi-let warehouse in York
- A 28,000 sq ft multi-let warehouse in Reading
- Two warehouses totalling 37,000 sq ft in Derby and Huntingdon, acquired through a 15-year sale and leaseback with Travis Perkins.
Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said: “We are delighted to have exited these non-core assets and reinvested the proceeds into much higher quality assets, which offer superior rental growth potential.
“We are continually looking to upgrade the quality of our portfolio and exit lower growth assets outside of our core sectors or those that do not meet our return criteria. As such, we expect to announce further disposals shortly.”
