Roadside property firm Barkby has said it will spend £200m on new developments as it looks to become a REIT.
The AIM-listed business currently owns a diverse range of assets, including a pubs portfolio, a coffee company and Cambridge Sleep Sciences. But it now wants to sell all “non-core” business to “focus on roadside property development and investment”.
Barkby said it met a number of prospective institutional investors in recent months and had “received positive feedback around scaling our roadside property investment and development business”.
It added it would look at a number of options “to maximise the opportunity this pureplay real estate strategy presents”, including both equity and debt raises and conversion to a REIT.
Executive chair Charles Dickson said: “We remain focused on scaling the real estate business, with a particular focus on high-quality, modern, sustainable roadside developments in the form of drive-thrus, trade counter, last-mile logistics, convenience food, EV charging hubs and light industrial commercial buildings.
“Our view is that this strategy, once scaled, has the ability to deliver double digit annualised total accounting returns.”
To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews
