AEW UK Long Lease REIT plans to raise a further £35m from a share placing to fund its acquisition pipeline as it closes in on full deployment of the £80.5m it raised at its IPO in June 2017.
It has also agreed a new £30m eight-year fixed loan (to 20 October 2025) with Canada Life Investments. The term facility is up to 35% loan-to-property value, provided on a portfolio basis.
The company plans to invest all the net proceeds of the IPO within nine months of listing in alternative and specialist real estate sectors in the UK to offer a secure, diversified and inflation-linked income return, while maintaining capital values in real terms.
Some £76m, which includes the acquisition costs, has now been deployed. A further pipeline of four properties totalling £16.3m have been placed under offer in the leisure, pub and hotel sectors. They are expected to complete in February and March.
The investment manager is also engaged in active due diligence on a pipeline of assets in excess of £50m.
The company expects to place further assets under offer over the coming weeks, with an expectation of fully investing the net proceeds of the issue by the end of April.
The company is targeting an annual dividend of 5.5p per share, paid quarterly, with effect from the financial year commencing 1 July, with an ambition to grow this in line with UK inflation.
New shares will not be eligible for the dividend payable in respect of the period from 1 October 2017 to 31 December 2017
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