Whitbread has exchanged contracts with LaSalle Investment Management for the sale-and-leaseback of seven Premier Inns.
LIM will pay £53.8m – a 5.5% yield – in cash for the properties, which will be let back to Premier Inn on 25-year leases.
The sale price represents a profit over book value, as at 3 March, of £28.1m.
Whitbread finance director Christopher Rogers said: “While Whitbread remains committed to having a substantial freehold asset base, it is our strategy to diversify our sources of funds. This sale-and-leaseback is another example of selectively using our property as an alternative method of funding future growth.
“In April of this year we announced new five-year growth milestones for the business, to increase Premier Inn rooms by 50% to at least 65,000 and to double the size of Costa.”
Savills acted for LIM; BNP Paribas Real Estate advised Whitbread.
samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
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