AEW UK REIT has reported drops in its net asset value driven by a 6.31% dive in its retail valuation, in the three months to 31 December.
The company’s unaudited NAV was £147.m, or 94.24 pence per share, reflecting a quarterly drop of 0.12%.
It reported a like-for-like loss of £0.25m in its portfolio, down 0.13%, to £195.8m.
The REIT saw £1.75m shaved from its retail assets to £26m, making up less than a sixth of its portfolio. Marginal increases in industrial and offices failed to offset this.
AEW saw its industrial assets increase by 1.01% to $94.88m, and offices were up by 2.03% to £45.25m.
However, the firm’s interim dividend was two pence per share for the three months ended 31 December 2019, in line with the targeted annual dividend of eight pence per share, one of the highest dividend yields among UK listed REITs.
Portfolio manager Alex Short said: “While the headwinds experienced by the retail sector are well publicised, the portfolio has a low vacancy rate (at 3.9%) among its assets, and we have identified certain potential value creation opportunities which we are actively pursuing.
“We are actively working on an exciting pipeline of potential acquisitions with a particular focus on the industrial and office sectors, which we believe will be accretive to the strategy both in terms of income, but also in terms of long term value retention and creation opportunities.”
Short said the company will seek to raise additional capital under its existing placing programme in the near future.
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