Before MIPIM, Savills’ affable boss Mark Ridley introduced LondonMetric’s chief executive Andrew Jones at an event held at the agent’s HQ north of Oxford Circus. ‘So, Andrew, how was Miami,’ smiled Ridley, referring to a trip Jones had made to drum up investor interest for the £6.2bn propco he set up in 2013. Jones looked rueful: “We are not big enough to bother with.” Indeed not: the top five US REITs have a combined market valuation of £340bn. The UK top five? £30bn. LondonMetric? £3.7bn. What’s a guy gotta do? What Jones told Estates Gazette in November: “Buy more companies.”
Last Friday, came the disclosure that the 56-year-old ex-British Land director has made a cash and shares offer to buy Urban Logistics REIT, which owns £1.14b of last-mile sheds. A move that may disjoint the bargain-sensitive noses of Robert Naylor and Christopher Mills, grandson of circus owner Bertram. The pair have corralled 8.8% of shareholders to demand the heads of chairman Nigel Rich, on £100,000 a year, and director, Richard Moffitt, paid £622,000 in fees in 2024.
Naylor and Mills set up the well-named Achilles fund in February to take control of firms with assets valued at more than the shares. Urban Logistics’ net assets are valued at £720m, the shares £600m. Their Achilles heel is the “EPRA ratio”. The percentage of net overheads and operating expenses against gross rental income is 18.8%, boosted by external management fees of £6.77m in 2024. LondonMetric’s ratio is 7.6%. Lowered by the “triple net” model. The occupier pays all taxes, insurances and maintenance costs.
